In case you somehow can't tell from the title of this thread, this is my three-thousandth post on this website (inb4 “3000 too many” xD). I decided that I wanted to do something a little different from a generic xK RMT, and considering that Pokémon has probably had the biggest, most positive impact on my general life than any of my interests ever have had, I have finally decided that I am ready to share my experiences and the many ways in which this game has changed my life for the better. Before I start I'm just going to put out a disclaimer saying that this post is going to be very long and most likely very sappy, and I honestly have no idea just how this post will be received by the wider community. As such I'm going to make this post but I do not expect everyone to read and/or digest this post.
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For different people, Pokémon means different things. For some people it is a way to pass the time, for others it is a fandom. Some people see it as a competitive experience, others squeeze every ounce out of what the game provides them with, and for some it is an obsession. To me, however, Pokémon isn’t in any of these wide-spread generalisations. In fact, I’d say that what the game means to me is highly abnormal, straight up weird, and kinda sad if I’m completely honest. The only way I can describe my relationship with the series is if I personify it. The best way for me to describe it would be to say something along the lines of it being my “saviour.” Before you click off of this thread after cringing at my choice of words, please hear me out. What I mean by that is that being introduced to the series led to a chain reaction which pulled me from the brink of depression and saved me from a mental state, which made socialising and meeting new people physically impossible for me to do. The series has indirectly saved me, my family and everyone who I hold dear a lot of grief. Here is my experience with this series.
I started playing the games very late. Specifically, the games were introduced to me by a friend called Michael when I was thirteen. We were the only two boys in school who still played Nintendo as opposed to games like CoD, Halo, GTA etc., and at the time Michael was the only person my age in the entire world outside of my family who I was physically able to start an active conversation with due to him having been a friend of mine from nursery school (the British equivalent of pre-school). While I could talk to other kids, any conversations I had with children other than him had to be initiated by him or I wouldn’t be able to talk. I had developed selective mutism part way through junior school (I was able to open my mouth, but no matter how hard I tried there were very few people of similar ages to me who I was able to get more than a squeak out to) and I was very shy in general, meaning that I had lots of difficulties when it came to relating to and interacting with other people my age in general; as such I was an outcast. He was the one person who was keeping me from falling into depression at the time, and with the way things were going I wouldn’t have been able to sustain a healthy mental state for more than a year or two if he was the only thing holding me in the balance. Anyway, until he asked me if I played Pokémon, I had only been vaguely aware of its existence due to having seen the odd episode of the anime (which I thought was a western cartoon at the time) on TV. When I responded "no," he leant me a copy of Pokémon Heart Gold which he had borrowed from one of his friends, and I gave it back over six months later (having squeezed absolutely everything I could out of the game and having it physically prized from my fingers) and I was hooked. I bought every generation four game and purchased Pokémon White 2 on launch day, and it gave me an interest in finding out about competitive play. This is where tides began to turn for me for reasons I will explain in a minute.
I started watching Pokétubers and discovered Pokémon Showdown and Smogon due to those videos. Joining Smogon and PS! was honestly one of the best things that could have possibly happened to me from a social standpoint, because it gave me a medium in which I could talk without having to look people in the face, and after around six months of using the latter I realised that I could use these media to experiment and develop basic social skills. A year and a half after being leant that copy of HG, I was able to talk to someone other than Michael on my own for the first time since developing selective mutism, and the increased confidence that I gained from having this newfound testing ground meant that started to overcome the condition which I had developed six years prior to that point. This was huge for me and it allowed me to interact with people and start making friends, and this was pulled me from the brink of depression. From here, my life only started to get better all thanks to a chain reaction started by one DS cartridge.
In early XY I was invited into a social convo on here where I made a large number of friends who I still hold dear to this day. I’ll give some of the more major ones S/Os later on, but what is important at the moment is that this friend circle was the key driving force in me developing the ability to communicate with other people. It was the first place I was able to talk shit to people and just generally have group banter, as this was when I was still selectively mute and unable to start an IRL conversation myself. I’m sure that these people will remember how literally I took everything people said at the time and how I would get upset over the smallest things, and that is evidence of how poor my social skills were as a result of my condition. These conversations were probably the most important experiences for me and it is a big part as to why these friendships are dear despite the group having mostly disbanded at this point (we’ve tried reviving the convo multiple times, but it always seems to die again due to the more talkative members having gone and due to us no longer having enough spam in our inboxes to keep conversation alive)
I later attended the UK nationals for VGC’14, where I managed to finish 57th due to my second round opponent scoring at least one crit every turn (if I ignore that game my final record was 6:2, and if not for that I would have made it into day two due to me having basically won on team preview provided that I predicted the four he’d bring correctly (which I succeeded in) outside of extreme hax)—but that’s not the thing I want to focus on here. When I was there, I met my good friend Matt (who I still speak with now), and a few months later he introduced me to another website where I have made even more friends. Since then I have expanded onto around ten different forums due to me enjoying being able to meet different people. It was my first taste of my now-globalised friend circle (across around ten different websites I have made good friends who live in the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Spain, the US, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Japan, Australia… the list goes on) although very few of said friends actually have Smogon accounts (two off of the top of my head, of which one is Matt), and it has been a massive help for me both developing my social skills, and it has also been really interesting to learn about various cultures around the world through these. It sparked my interest in the world beyond the British isles, and I doubt it’ll be something I will lose my lust for in the foreseeable future.
Because of the friends that I made on Smogon and other sites, I have reached a point where I am generally very chatty. I’m not shy or reserved like I was this time three/four years ago, with me actually being irritatingly talkative. I can talk endlessly about my interests, and I have to be actively told to stop talking to prevent a five minute conversation from lasting for twenty minutes due to me getting onto the topic of Pokémon, Nintendo or anime. I think this is a good thing, because it means that I no longer feel like I’m going to tip into depression (hell, I so close to depression that I reached a point of near-complete apathy (only broken by me getting upset at dumb shit) which hung over after moving away from the borderline and has only begun to properly dissipate in the past three months or so) and I think that I’m finally in a position where I can function fully in a school and work environment for the first time in around ten years (as much as I hate the education system—although I have a big hunch that I’ll end up back in it again later in life).
Back on Smogon, my current friendships now mostly originate from the OU sub-forum as opposed to the C&C section like my older friend circles tend to. It is also a much smaller circle (consisting of two major friends and a lot of people who I have exchanges with every so often but don’t interact with enough to call major friendships). I have friends from other parts of the site too, but they are much sparser and mainly (not entirely) consist of acquaintances. However, these interactions are all very important to me and continue to help me.
All in all, Pokémon has been the catalyst for the most positive changes in my life. I am really grateful to every single person who has helped make this experience as amazing as it has been, and I will try and remember as many people as I can who have made my experience of life or my experience of this site thoroughly amazing.
Shoutouts
-Magic- Bendiving – You two are my best friends on the site atm. I can always rely on you two for help or conversation, and I hope we can remain friends for the forseeable future.
Ununhexium cacturne RotomPoison Flygon Astara Ranger Mike Typhlito Captain Skywalker Leer regirock Air Shaymin :D – Without these people my social life would have never reached a point where I could actively talk to people, so I thank you dearly. You are all friendships who I hold dear to this day.
HypnoEmpire LightningLuxray boltsandbombers fleurdyleurse Sapphire. – This lot are my friends from C&C. We don’t talk much anymore but I do still enjoy talking to you when I do.
Skarmx2 BlazeLatias Sonired – These three are key friends I made through the OU room. Keep being awesome you three ;P
SlaySlenderDragon XD Hulavuta Kurona GatoDelFuego Cresselia~~ GotR brightobject jumpluff ksr15 Jebus McAzn Icing On Da Cake Bro Kappa and a bunch of other people who I can’t remember off of the top of my head – You’re all cool people who I’ve gotten to know and have had nice conversations with on the site. Particularly Hula, but all of you are definitely good people. I hope to be able to continue interacting with you all :)
mac1275 Matt_192 – friends on other sites. Stay cool you two ;P
DragonRatchet dragongeorge Matt_192 – irl friends
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For different people, Pokémon means different things. For some people it is a way to pass the time, for others it is a fandom. Some people see it as a competitive experience, others squeeze every ounce out of what the game provides them with, and for some it is an obsession. To me, however, Pokémon isn’t in any of these wide-spread generalisations. In fact, I’d say that what the game means to me is highly abnormal, straight up weird, and kinda sad if I’m completely honest. The only way I can describe my relationship with the series is if I personify it. The best way for me to describe it would be to say something along the lines of it being my “saviour.” Before you click off of this thread after cringing at my choice of words, please hear me out. What I mean by that is that being introduced to the series led to a chain reaction which pulled me from the brink of depression and saved me from a mental state, which made socialising and meeting new people physically impossible for me to do. The series has indirectly saved me, my family and everyone who I hold dear a lot of grief. Here is my experience with this series.
I started playing the games very late. Specifically, the games were introduced to me by a friend called Michael when I was thirteen. We were the only two boys in school who still played Nintendo as opposed to games like CoD, Halo, GTA etc., and at the time Michael was the only person my age in the entire world outside of my family who I was physically able to start an active conversation with due to him having been a friend of mine from nursery school (the British equivalent of pre-school). While I could talk to other kids, any conversations I had with children other than him had to be initiated by him or I wouldn’t be able to talk. I had developed selective mutism part way through junior school (I was able to open my mouth, but no matter how hard I tried there were very few people of similar ages to me who I was able to get more than a squeak out to) and I was very shy in general, meaning that I had lots of difficulties when it came to relating to and interacting with other people my age in general; as such I was an outcast. He was the one person who was keeping me from falling into depression at the time, and with the way things were going I wouldn’t have been able to sustain a healthy mental state for more than a year or two if he was the only thing holding me in the balance. Anyway, until he asked me if I played Pokémon, I had only been vaguely aware of its existence due to having seen the odd episode of the anime (which I thought was a western cartoon at the time) on TV. When I responded "no," he leant me a copy of Pokémon Heart Gold which he had borrowed from one of his friends, and I gave it back over six months later (having squeezed absolutely everything I could out of the game and having it physically prized from my fingers) and I was hooked. I bought every generation four game and purchased Pokémon White 2 on launch day, and it gave me an interest in finding out about competitive play. This is where tides began to turn for me for reasons I will explain in a minute.
I started watching Pokétubers and discovered Pokémon Showdown and Smogon due to those videos. Joining Smogon and PS! was honestly one of the best things that could have possibly happened to me from a social standpoint, because it gave me a medium in which I could talk without having to look people in the face, and after around six months of using the latter I realised that I could use these media to experiment and develop basic social skills. A year and a half after being leant that copy of HG, I was able to talk to someone other than Michael on my own for the first time since developing selective mutism, and the increased confidence that I gained from having this newfound testing ground meant that started to overcome the condition which I had developed six years prior to that point. This was huge for me and it allowed me to interact with people and start making friends, and this was pulled me from the brink of depression. From here, my life only started to get better all thanks to a chain reaction started by one DS cartridge.
In early XY I was invited into a social convo on here where I made a large number of friends who I still hold dear to this day. I’ll give some of the more major ones S/Os later on, but what is important at the moment is that this friend circle was the key driving force in me developing the ability to communicate with other people. It was the first place I was able to talk shit to people and just generally have group banter, as this was when I was still selectively mute and unable to start an IRL conversation myself. I’m sure that these people will remember how literally I took everything people said at the time and how I would get upset over the smallest things, and that is evidence of how poor my social skills were as a result of my condition. These conversations were probably the most important experiences for me and it is a big part as to why these friendships are dear despite the group having mostly disbanded at this point (we’ve tried reviving the convo multiple times, but it always seems to die again due to the more talkative members having gone and due to us no longer having enough spam in our inboxes to keep conversation alive)
I later attended the UK nationals for VGC’14, where I managed to finish 57th due to my second round opponent scoring at least one crit every turn (if I ignore that game my final record was 6:2, and if not for that I would have made it into day two due to me having basically won on team preview provided that I predicted the four he’d bring correctly (which I succeeded in) outside of extreme hax)—but that’s not the thing I want to focus on here. When I was there, I met my good friend Matt (who I still speak with now), and a few months later he introduced me to another website where I have made even more friends. Since then I have expanded onto around ten different forums due to me enjoying being able to meet different people. It was my first taste of my now-globalised friend circle (across around ten different websites I have made good friends who live in the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Spain, the US, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Japan, Australia… the list goes on) although very few of said friends actually have Smogon accounts (two off of the top of my head, of which one is Matt), and it has been a massive help for me both developing my social skills, and it has also been really interesting to learn about various cultures around the world through these. It sparked my interest in the world beyond the British isles, and I doubt it’ll be something I will lose my lust for in the foreseeable future.
Because of the friends that I made on Smogon and other sites, I have reached a point where I am generally very chatty. I’m not shy or reserved like I was this time three/four years ago, with me actually being irritatingly talkative. I can talk endlessly about my interests, and I have to be actively told to stop talking to prevent a five minute conversation from lasting for twenty minutes due to me getting onto the topic of Pokémon, Nintendo or anime. I think this is a good thing, because it means that I no longer feel like I’m going to tip into depression (hell, I so close to depression that I reached a point of near-complete apathy (only broken by me getting upset at dumb shit) which hung over after moving away from the borderline and has only begun to properly dissipate in the past three months or so) and I think that I’m finally in a position where I can function fully in a school and work environment for the first time in around ten years (as much as I hate the education system—although I have a big hunch that I’ll end up back in it again later in life).
Back on Smogon, my current friendships now mostly originate from the OU sub-forum as opposed to the C&C section like my older friend circles tend to. It is also a much smaller circle (consisting of two major friends and a lot of people who I have exchanges with every so often but don’t interact with enough to call major friendships). I have friends from other parts of the site too, but they are much sparser and mainly (not entirely) consist of acquaintances. However, these interactions are all very important to me and continue to help me.
All in all, Pokémon has been the catalyst for the most positive changes in my life. I am really grateful to every single person who has helped make this experience as amazing as it has been, and I will try and remember as many people as I can who have made my experience of life or my experience of this site thoroughly amazing.
Shoutouts
-Magic- Bendiving – You two are my best friends on the site atm. I can always rely on you two for help or conversation, and I hope we can remain friends for the forseeable future.
Ununhexium cacturne RotomPoison Flygon Astara Ranger Mike Typhlito Captain Skywalker Leer regirock Air Shaymin :D – Without these people my social life would have never reached a point where I could actively talk to people, so I thank you dearly. You are all friendships who I hold dear to this day.
HypnoEmpire LightningLuxray boltsandbombers fleurdyleurse Sapphire. – This lot are my friends from C&C. We don’t talk much anymore but I do still enjoy talking to you when I do.
Skarmx2 BlazeLatias Sonired – These three are key friends I made through the OU room. Keep being awesome you three ;P
SlaySlenderDragon XD Hulavuta Kurona GatoDelFuego Cresselia~~ GotR brightobject jumpluff ksr15 Jebus McAzn Icing On Da Cake Bro Kappa and a bunch of other people who I can’t remember off of the top of my head – You’re all cool people who I’ve gotten to know and have had nice conversations with on the site. Particularly Hula, but all of you are definitely good people. I hope to be able to continue interacting with you all :)
mac1275 Matt_192 – friends on other sites. Stay cool you two ;P
DragonRatchet dragongeorge Matt_192 – irl friends
