Smogon: Why you came here and why you stayed

[reikon]

When I started Pokemon:

I first got into Pokemon when I saw the anime on TV and then begged my parents to buy me Blue which influenced my younger brother to get a Gameboy Pocket Color and Yellow. I lost interest before the release of the Gameboy Advance and the later generations games. It was not until I bought a DS that I wanted to try out Diamond due to its positive reviews (and was surprised and impressed with how much had changed).

How/When I found this site:

I found Smogon when I was trying to catch up with the three generation gap between Blue and Diamond. Though I was able to gain some understanding of the new pokemon and mechancis of the game I was even more overwhelmed with how indepth the game was analyzed. Rather than trying to catch up and try to play in the competitive enviornment, I used what I learned just to beat the game and play in the battle tower but never tried to explore other the aspects of the game inlcuding breeding. It was not until I recieved Platinum that I wanted to try and experience the competitive game, compelling me to play on shoddy (even though I lose twice as much as I win) by copying teams that I see in the RMT section. I've also become interested in learning how to breed within the game.

Why I stay:

The main reason why I stayed on Smogon is because it was one of the first in depth sites that caught my attention when I got into Diamond. The strategy pokedex is my favorite feature of the site but what compelled me to sign up was after reading the first entry of The Smog which showed me how active, creative, and informative members were in the Smogon community.

 

[Wrecky]

Well when I was first getting into Pokemon Diamond/Pearl (pretty much the only reason I wanted a DS), I was ecstatic , for the first time ever, I could battle/trade with people from all over the world!!!

It was only then that I discovered, what I thought were my best Pokemon, sucked royally, kept losing battles left and right. So one day I decided, enough is enough, I need to find some strategy if I'm ever gona win a battle again.

So one day on Google I typed in "Pokemon Breeding Walkthrough", and came across this one guy's in depth Walkthrough, that discussed IV breeding, EV training, Hidden Power, the works, and in this walkthrough, they several times credited Smogon for the information. I was like "What the heck is Smogon?"

So I googled Smogon, and poof there it was, the answer to any Pokemon question I could ever have. I still had crapola in the way of Pokemon for trading. Everyone and their mother on this site knows how to properly IV breed, and now with the introduction of RNG abuse, there are of course higher standards when trading Pokemon.

Why I stayed? Because instead of other forums I've been to with people who are just like "You suck, and your Pokemon suck", people here are willing to work with you, even help you breed better Pokemon, and all sorts of advice. Sure people on Smogon are brutally honest, but at the same time they give advice on how to make your team better.

Sure I don't have the best team yet, but one day at a time, one Pokemon at a time, I feel like I'm getting better. And Smogon made it all possible.

Thank you, Smogon!!!

 

[Asylum Evermore]

When Diamond and Pearl came out my girlfriend was excited about it and had played for a while. I told her I have a tendency to get a little excessive about the depth of things, but she wanted me to play anyway. I started playing and haven't really stopped... unfortunately, I think I burnt her out on the matter.

Why I Came Here: I've always loved playing video games but never felt I was any good at them. I can't quite pull off the moves in Street Fighter and I'm not into shooters, but I love monsters so Pokemon is a perfect fit. I knew that there was a competitive world of PokePlayers out there and it took just one google search to find them.

Why I Stayed: I'm new. I'm hoping people help introduce me to the underlying concepts because I can honestly say I'm lost right now. I guess I haven't stayed yet, but here's hoping. ^^

 

[kingdust]

Well I was into pokemon my whole life. I basically grew up with pokemon, there are videos of me singing the pokerap when I could barely even add or subtract yet. But things were different back when I was younger. I would never use moves that didn't give direct damage (protect, swords dance, etc.)

My friend challenged me to play and I lost by a lot. He asked me if I knew what EVs and IVs were. I looked at him like he was from a different planet.

Aparently, my quiet natured gyarados wasn't exactly fit to compete...lol

Anyhow, after learning how to EV train and what natures did, I found this website.

It gives great tips on how to outspeed things, how to survive a hit, and overall how to do well in my favorite game of all time.

Almost everyone is friendly and willing to help you suceed.

I love Smogon :D

 

[A.P.]

I remember watching the anime when I was younger...that was my first experience with Pokémon. At the time of the first few seasons, I was barely 4-5. I had no idea there were video games for Pokémon, let alone the fact that they came out before the anime.

As I grew older, I saw games, and others with games, but I was never really into Pokémon (except in Melee - I loved Mewtwo, even though he sucked). A year or two back, say...Thanksgiving 2007, my two cousins came, and brought there Pokémon Diamond with them. I didn't play much - I merely watched (I think the older one was looking for Gible, found two after like 50 tries, but had to release them both, because his younger brother didn't want females:naughty:). Anyways, my little sister wanted the game badly, and got it for Christmas. I was immediately hooked, and played most of the game for her. She lost interest, but I kept playing every now and then.

One day, I was searching Rampardos on Google. I saw the Smogon Dex Entry for it, and was interested before even going to the page, because it said something about a 'glass cannon'. I didn't really understand much of what it was saying. Later on, I saw several walkthroughs, which referred to stuff like EVs and IVs. Interested, I did further research, found Smogon, and became a member.

I stayed just because of the competitiveness here, and the relative lack of n00bs.

 

[odisseas]

My turn to speak or better write! I was just searching in google to find interesting pokemon websites and i just read it smogon! Competitive battling! Wow! At that time i wasnt much into competitive battling but then i started reading the smogon articles to find more! Thatts how i got connected to smogon! Now i decided it was about time to be an active member of the smogon community so i sighed up and here i am! This is one of the best websites and the best about competitive battling and im sure that i will learn more here!

 

[King Syn]

I was searching for a Metagross moveset and I ended up here. Thats the end of my interesting story.

 

[Umbreon Dan]

Seriously, guys, this is not a "welcome to Smogon, introduce yourself here" thread. Half of the title is why you stayed. It's five days into June and there are already June '09 posters popping up?

Maybe it would be good to actually stay for a while before posting in this thread.

 

[Wobby]

Well, CAP is really what made me want to join here. I was really kind of shy at first and decided that I would wait for the next CAP to start getting into the process. Now, I see myself drawn to just socializing in these forums because, after all, pokemon isn't the ONLY reason people came here. The fact is that Smogon provides a sense of community that is not easily found in other places. That is why I stayed and will continue to stay.

 

[Flurospar]

Been back and forth between different places but staying here since this area has some decent folk about. Came here on a friends advice a year ago in search of a board with more mature people.

 

[giga]

i've kind of disappeared... broke my heart when netbattle died, never got into the new pokemon really. :( i think i'll always be a rse era player, and shit mekkah you have MILLIONS of posts.

 

[Jackman10k]

When I Started Pokemon:

I guess it was around the time the 1st Generation games came out (I'd be six, sounds right to me). I got the Red Version because the two options were an awesome dragon or a giant turtle, the dragon won. I would play that game for hours on end with my only sleeping time being the period when your Pokemon are the machine in the Pokemon Center. I would eventually end up getting both Blue and Yellow though for the whole set of three. Then came the 2nd Generation, I chose Silver through a coin toss. I always had difficulty keeping up with Silver though, I went through 3 before I just gave up and got Crystal instead (And I know where that one is). My Pokemon time were largely a blur after then, so I guess I was playing other games for most of the time until Ruby and Sapphire came out, I picked Ruby and, like Gold, never had Sapphire and had a ball with it until Emerald came out and had a ball with THAT straight up until D/P came out. I got Pearl 'cause they were sold out of Diamond. I have both now and I might get Platinum soon, who knows?

How/When I Found Smogon

I'm not entirely sure how I found Smogon, I do know that I saw the name and looked it up, I just don't remember where. The furthest back I can remember is on Serebii on one of their Pokemon of the Week pages. I decided to look it up I think and fell in love with the Strategy Pokedex. This was around early 2008, it wasn't until mid 2008 that I branched further out into the place called the "Forums" and "Shoddy."

Why I Stay

Though I've been around almost a year, I've only recently made my profile (Earlier today). Due to all the awesome people and the hilarity I find frequently, I know I'll be staying around for a long time.

 

[forlaski]

Fate brought me here.

 

[COKTAL]

Friend told me about RNG abuse and gave me a link here. I thought these forums were very well maintained, compared to ones I've been on before.

 

[XxAnTxX]

First used this place for Ev sets now i decided to register because the forums looks really good and its really active

 

[~roaming mesprit~]

I came to know about tiers a couple months ago, and some good strategies for competitive battle, and I stayed because I wanted how are the forums in smogon.

 

[Thorns]

Actually, Umbreon, maybe people can write why they came here and edit in why they stayed later?

 

[supermarth64]

I came here... I forget why.

I stayed here because I love Pokemon and random trolls.

 

[Topspin]

Hmm, well I can't really say why I stayed because I just recently came here, but as Thorns said I can always come back and edit if I were to end up staying.

I was first exposed to competitive battling at GameFAQs years ago when I was looking at walkthroughs for Gold, I believe. As I read more about it, I became much more interested in the massive amount of underlying strategy the Pokemon games have. I didn't actually get around to building teams for competitive play until R/S. Serebii was my main source of info, and I participated on the discussion boards on GameFAQs.

I first heard about Smogon around four or five years ago, but I didn't bother joining the community because I felt content with GameFAQs and whatever other sites I was a member of at the time (mostly a bunch of random ones, like GameTalk and the forums of my university's gaming club). When D/P were released I was so excited about the Wifi mode and finally getting to challenge other players on GameFAQs, but I never felt a real sense of community there. I also joined gaymer.org in hopes of finding a competitive battling community in addition to the comfort of a site free from uneducated homophobic remarks (ie, "gay" = "stupid"). Unfortunately, there are very few Pokemon fans there to begin with, so my next stop is Smogon. I don't consider myself to be a great battler and I tend to make the wrong predictions, but in the end it's still an enjoyable game to play in my spare time.

 

[Umbreon Dan]

Actually, Umbreon, maybe people can write why they came here and edit in why they stayed later?

Yeah, but I doubt anyone is going to come back and read through this thread again in six months to see if anyone's edited their original post.

Anyway, I'm unsubscribing from this thread now, so contact me in pm if you have anything else to say.

 

[Lexay]

i've kind of disappeared... broke my heart when netbattle died, never got into the new pokemon really. :( i think i'll always be a rse era player, and shit mekkah you have MILLIONS of posts.

same story as giga's basically.

whats up man by the way, haven't talked in ages!

 

[Altmer]

wait what lexay, I didn't know you still posted

 

[Doomsday]

i've kind of disappeared... broke my heart when netbattle died, never got into the new pokemon really. :( i think i'll always be a rse era player, and shit mekkah you have MILLIONS of posts.

(FART)

fuck pokemon guys, stay for firebot we kinda need good posters atm :(

 

[Azure Demon]

I came here because when I was a new guy I beat somone from smogon on serebii and they said I was good and if I wanted to get even better while enjoying battles with the best around come here so i did.

I stayed because what he said was true i always find a great battle somewhere, the breeding is the best here, plus I have made many friends.

 

[Felix-]

Stumbled upon the site 2 months ago while looking for more detailed strategy information on a bunch of D/P Pokés and almost immediately recognised the quality of the site.

Been reading every page I can on here ever since, found the joy of Shoddy and am planning to jump into the tutoring and such-like eventually.