[THREAD REMAKE] What gender do you think Pokemon is targeted towards?

[PageEmp]

Right here is a reboot of this thread:
https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?p=10564218

And before we start, some disclaimers:

- Any answer like 'Options to play as both genders are available so it's for both genders' are not allowed. The reason there are options to play as either gender is because it is very unrealistic to assume only a certain group or gender of people are going to play the game, and that has always been the reason why any video game would have an option to play as either gender no matter what genre or theme of game it is.
So tl;dr, options to play as both genders are there to not only add variety but because even if video games are targetted towards males, there could be some females who want to play as well.

- I remember an even older thread with many answers being 'children'. For what I know, 'children' is not a gender even if the franchise is targetted towards such. I also do not wish to make another lengthy explanation about Pokemon Adventures, so I highly reccomend you guys don't answer 'children' or 'kids'.

And most importantly to keep things simple, this is only regarding the games. Which is why this thread is in the forum for the games.

As for my thoughts, I think it's for both genders, and only leans just, very slightly towards males. And i mean very very slightly. But in general I see that over time the franchise is comming up with ways to appeal to everyone, possibly by being more inclusive with various stuff, which is excellent.

 

[CoolKid575]

I can't find statistics about which gender likes Pokemon more (except that women like GO more then men; but that's not really a mainline game). I agree that the franchise slightly leans towards men. You couldn't even play as a women until Crystal and I'd say there are more "cool" Pokemon then "cute" ones, especially at the final stage. They've gotten a lot better at appealing to both in recent years though.

 

[Palamon]

Why does it matter? Pokemon is targeted at everyone. There's Pokemon that were made with female and male fans in mind. Pikachu, for example. It's neither more targeted towards boys nor girls more so. The games are made with children in mind. I suppose in the earlier generations, it was more geared towards boys, but that's hardly the case anymore. As a kid, I hated when people claimed "Pokemon is for boys" when I feel like at least, after generation I anyway, that wasn't the case.

They haven't even been asking you whether you're a boy or girl since gen 5 btw just what do you look like...but whatever.

 

[Harmonie]

When it was started, Pokemon was made for boys, as many video game franchises were. Us girls/women have always been playing video games, but frustratingly the stereotype has always been that video games are for boys/men and video game developers have mostly gone along with that, especially back in the 90s when Pokemon was created.

Of course, Pokemon has universal appeal, we all know that. And I feel like TPC has, over time, had to acknowledge that the Pokemon franchise has also appealed to many girls/women. It took some time, though. Like only getting our first option to play as a female protagonist in Crystal. And now the newest anime series are finally having female protagonists as the primary protagonist and not just a partner to the main male protagonist.

All in all, the franchise has evolved. But it is just a fact that when it was first created, it was aimed at boys. It was created back in the 90s, and we all know (or at least those of us who grew up back then, like me) how divided by gender franchises were made to be back then.

I do not know even the rough statistics of the gender of the base now. I just know that I do not feel like it is a boy's series anymore. I do not feel like I'll be seen as a tomboy for saying I like it... Granted, I am more taken to the cuter Pokemon. lol

 

[Devalue]

Neither. Depicts male and female characters as rivals, champions, and villains. Created plenty of Pokemon to appeal to various tastes.

Might say a slight male bias. Evened out trainer customization in Scarlet/Violet. Came at the cost of removing several traditionally female options (like dresses). Also centers less on the caring aspect of Pokemon (a stereotypical female focus) and more on the battle element (a stereotypical male focus). Feels pretty close, regardless.

 

[miragespot]

Originally boys, and I think more boys watch the anime nowadays.

 

[Corveone]

Both. Although clearly male-biased in the early years like pretty much every game back then, it's a genderless franchise nowadays.

In fact I get the impression that the recent games are trying to be as neutral and widespread as possible. Funny that the same doesn't apply to the Pokémon, I'm surprised that the Infatuation mechanic still exists.

 

[Sheep]

Yeah, both at this point. If anything I feel like it may work well for females because female clothing tends to look a lot better than male outfits in games - especially in XY (imo). I've seen some people play as females because they really preferred the clothing options.

I would like to see Attract and the like work on both genders, that is a mostly harmless change to make to me, but I've kind of accepted the fact that it may never happen. It seems like Pokémon is moving in the direction towards that maybe happening though, as much as I am unsure!

 

[Zeostar]

I've felt the scope and sheer size of the franchise has exceeded targeting a specific gender. Pokemon is a giant media franchise.

Attract is an annoying mechanic. If it's going to ever be changed to work on both genders, I hope that it no longer lasts for an unlimited amount of turns.

 

[Charcadet121]

I feel the same for sure. Like, maybe Attract can't be reworked. In that case I would just make a new move that does the same, but only works on pokemon that are the same gender, rather than the opposite gender. I would also like to see an ability that allows any gender-based move (like Attract and Captivate) to work on all genders, to increase its viability.

As for what gender Pokémon is geared towards, I honestly don't think it's either or, but more like it's geared to cis-gendered straight individuals. Like, no one so far in the anime (as far as I am aware of) goes against the social norm. Further proof is that there are only three options for gender: male, female, and unknown. This goes for people in the games as well--no characters so far are lesbian, or gay, or bi, or even Trans. This includes pokemon as well, with pokemon being unable to have multiple options for gender. I know that in a game, programming such diversity would be hard, so I have four ideas to make Pokémon more LGBTQ friendly:

1. Create a move that works like Attract, except it only works on Pokémon that are the same gender/both Unknown gender, instead of it only working on pokemon of opposite genders.

2. Create an ability that allows certain pokemon to use any gender-based move on any gender (including the above) Sure, this won't be found on the majority of pokemon, but online ability randomizer can solve that.

3. Create a special type of salon that allows you to (for a big price) to change your Pokémon's gender from male to female, or from female to male, in a certain main city.

4. Have about 33% of main characters be canonically LGBTQ, and show this distinction in a semi-obvious way.

I'm sure that if Pokémon makes these suble changes for future games, then the entire franchise will be generally more popular and inclusive, allowing for more profits to be made with minimal effort.

 

[Sweet Serenity]

I see it this way: Pokémon appeals to every gender mainly because of how popular it is and contains a good balance of both feminine and masculine characteristics, but is mostly played by males, mainly because males just seem to play video games more. Also, I always viewed the franchise, especially the games, as somewhat sexist too. I could make a thread about it if anybody else wants me to explain my reasoning further.

 

[Alex_Among_Foxes]

I see it this way: Pokémon appeals to every gender mainly because of how popular it is and contains a good balance of both feminine and masculine characteristics, but is mostly played by males, mainly because males just seem to play video games more. Also, I always viewed the franchise, especially the games, as somewhat sexist too. I could make a thread about it if anybody else wants me to explain my reasoning further.

I personally would be very interested to hear your thoughts on that.

 

[Jack117]

Right here is a reboot of this thread:
https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?p=10564218

And before we start, some disclaimers:

- Any answer like 'Options to play as both genders are available so it's for both genders' are not allowed. The reason there are options to play as either gender is because it is very unrealistic to assume only a certain group or gender of people are going to play the game, and that has always been the reason why any video game would have an option to play as either gender no matter what genre or theme of game it is.
So tl;dr, options to play as both genders are there to not only add variety but because even if video games are targetted towards males, there could be some females who want to play as well.

- I remember an even older thread with many answers being 'children'. For what I know, 'children' is not a gender even if the franchise is targetted towards such. I also do not wish to make another lengthy explanation about Pokemon Adventures, so I highly reccomend you guys don't answer 'children' or 'kids'.

And most importantly to keep things simple, this is only regarding the games. Which is why this thread is in the forum for the games.

As for my thoughts, I think it's for both genders, and only leans just, very slightly towards males. And i mean very very slightly. But in general I see that over time the franchise is comming up with ways to appeal to everyone, possibly by being more inclusive with various stuff, which is excellent.

Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pokemon, is a Male, if that matters (which I believe it does).
The vast majority of the original character designers with the lone exception of Atsuko Nishida were male, not to mention the engineers which were exclusively male for the first two generations.
So the question: "Was pokemon designed SPECIFICALLY with boys in mind?" - no I don't think so. But at the same time Satoshi did heavily draw upon his experience of growing up as a nerdy boy in Japan, and its worth noting that his interests and hobbies were not commonly shared by typical girls at the time (bug collecting, coding, and arcade game score chasing are still not typical hobbies of girls to this day).

But all of that is not to say that girls were unable to enjoy Pokemon because it was created by a male using his male perspective- sales and history would indicate the opposite.
The pre-supposition that a game must feature or offer a protagonist of a certain gender in order for members of that gender to enjoy the game is absurd in my opinion.
If you are the type of person that requires a main character to reflect your own personal attributes, then I would humbly suggest that you likely playing the game for the wrong reasons.
I wouldn't mind if some generations of Pokemon games featured a female protagonist, but I think the choice dilutes the world and character building of the games.
When the Pokemon Company was created to manage the IP following Gen 2, they made a lot of decisions that were purely money driven. Adding gender choice for the protagonist was one of those "creative' decisions it made to artificially expand its consumer base.