Pokemon Your real world experience of Pokemon with friends and family

[Red Monkeys In A Forest]

Hello once again, I've got another new question for all you crazy hipsters: In real life, how involved are the people around you in pokemon? Do all your friends play it? Some? None? Tell all about what you do or say that has to do with pokemon on an average day (Thanks to Celebi23 for helping me post this in the right board).

For me, I know a few pokemon players/lovers, like my best friend and a couple of my other friends and my cousins mostly, though honestly we dont talk about it that often. A couple of other people I'm close friends with don't play at all or even just dont like it (I know, right? ) Although my "pokemon activity," you could say, has gone down since when I was a kid, but its something that will never leave me.

How about you guys?

 

[Infinity]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

The only people I know that like pokemon are my cousin, and all the people at my league.
Usually I play-test on playtcg a few times a day if it's not league day. I get on here too.

 

[Zyflair]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

Two out of my three roommates play Pokemon.
Florida is awesome.

 

[Brave Vesperia]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

I play Pokemon, my brother plays Pokemon, my cousin plays Pokemon, my aunt plays Pokemon, my uncle somewhat used to play. Now why can't I get my mom and/or dad into the game? .>=(

EDIT: Wow, spambots sure do love this thread.

 

[le Roi-Soleil]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

Well, if this counts; my friend used to skip class, hide in the girl's bathroom, and play Pokemon.
(My friend is a girl. LOL!)

 

[Luckyfire]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

I get a bit embarrassed about playing and watching Pokemon. I have only one girl friend who plays Pokemon. Practically all the boys play TCG. -.-

 

[DNA]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

^That doesn't just happen to you. I know someone who has the same situation, and around here in tourneys, the m/f ratio is usually 90/10.

As for Pokemon myself, the only people I come into contact with the play it are people at PB and people who go to leagues and premier events - and I only meet those people on weekends. I know a few other people at church that I know like it as well, which is good - I had someone to give away all my spare cards to.

However, in the middle of the week, I just have to tough it out, no matter how strong the urge to play a children's card game may be.

 

[Trainerhan1]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

No one aroud here plays Pokemon that I know of, exept for my brothers who play very little. It gerts pretty boring since the only resources I have are PlayTCG and TCGO.

 

[dBlue]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

I'm the only one in my family, but I have a ton of friends who play, some at my school, some I've met at events.

 

[Mokoko]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

Me and my little brother play and my cousins are getting into it a little bit. Also, a few friends at school play (Eoneye99)

 

[Incinermyn]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

I actually keep anything Pokemon-related to myself a lot of time. Most people I know in real life don't play the videogames or TCG, or even want anything to do with them period (this includes my own family). Frankly, I'm happier involving myself in online Pokemon activities than actually trying to meet with others who might be into it. Suffice it to say, I'm not much of a people-person...

 

[mareepasheep]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

It's surprising to me how much of a little kid stigma is attached to Pokemon. I mentioned during a class (I'm in college) that I was excited because it was Thursday and that meant Pokégroup day... and everyone looked at me like I was a freak. I completely forgot that I wasn't around any of my friends that played Pokémon, and that it's considered "weird" for me to mention it to people I barely know. Just the other day in a class, I pulled out my Pikachu wallet and the middle-aged woman next to me said, "My five year-old child plays Pokémon." So what? I thought. Sometimes I get weird looks at Target when I buy cards, too.

I am trying to start a league in my area, as all of my close friends are involved in Pokémon. There are about eight of us that are really into it, including my boyfriend and myself, and we travel about two hours to go to pre-releases and tournaments. We're starting to attract younger kids, too.

 

[Blah]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

I unfortunately have to hide any interest in Pokemon from everyone I know except my family and people I meet on Pokebeach. I agree with mareepasheep, there is too much little kid stigma around it. It's really sad too, if only there was some way to show that Pokemon is not just a little kids game and has some serious competitive aspects. I have a friend who recently was hating on Pokemon, and I had a long argument with him with me trying to convince him that it's not just for little kids. I eventually managed to get him to see my point of view, but his main reason why it was stupid is "It's a little kids game." I wish Nintendo and Game Freak started advertising it more as a any-age-can-play game. I might actually have gotten into competitive TCG if I had someone to talk with about it. If I started collecting, trading, selling, and playing with them now, everyone would think I was a madman, including my family (Except for DV).

 

[Ophie]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

Everyone I've known who played Pokémon has stopped playing it or are too busy to play it. The local Pokémon League has also disbanded, and any remaining ones I can feasibly drive to charge admission, which I'm not going to do just to play the Pokémon TCG with people. The TCG is expensive enough on its own. I don't need the help of the local hobby shop owners trying to wring more dollars out of me.

I unfortunately have to hide any interest in Pokemon from everyone I know except my family and people I meet on Pokebeach. I agree with mareepasheep, there is too much little kid stigma around it. It's really sad too, if only there was some way to show that Pokemon is not just a little kids game and has some serious competitive aspects.

Three words: Animation Age Ghetto. Pokémon is known in the west primarily for being a cartoon show first and foremost, and if it's animation, it MUST be for kids. (It was alarming how many parents brought their kids in to see South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut, for instance.)

The other thing is that if the competitive aspect of Pokémon DID become well-known in the mainstream, it'll now become a nerd thing, like with chess. That's how it is with anything competitive that isn't mostly physical (such as most sports) or gambling (such as Texas Hold'em).

 

[Ice Arceus]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

My friends and I used to discuss and play Pokemon almost everyday, but sadly that was many years ago. Now, I don't even try to talk about Pokemon to my friends; I just keep anything Pokemon related to myself.

 

[mareepasheep]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

See, I got back into the TCG when I was in high school, and took a lot of smack talk from both my parents and friends for it. But I got my brother and his wife back into it, then my (at that time) boyfriend, and slowly taught my other friends about it and eased them into the idea of it. Now ALL of my friends play it. It's almost like, "You're not cool unless you play Pokemon." And I take pride in knowing without my passion for it, no one around me would be playing it. Pokemon started spreading to the underclassmen at my high school, and now (I'm graduated now, in my second year of college) I hear there are kids battling at lunch. At my senior prom, I remember battling with my date at post prom while the underclassmen looked on. I'm sure a lot of people talked down to us for it, but honestly, none of us cared. And this may sound lame, but I think there's a life lesson in doing what you're passionate about, regardless of what others think. I think people who talk down to those who play the TCG are mostly just jealous that we can be open about playing Pokemon- and liking it! Believe it or not, it takes guts to be in your twenties and wear a Pikachu backpack to go play Pokemon cards with your friends.

 

[Red Monkeys In A Forest]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

I agree with the idea that Pokemon is seen as for little kids, same goes with Nintendo products, whenever I'm playing my 3DS with my friends theres always this guy (who thinks he's super cool haha) ands he's like "wow you guys are cool" but were just like ferdang right dude and keep playing Mariokart, it is sad how some things are seen as targetted to only a specific audience when in fact they are not (though I will say, my little pony, is for little girls). And kinda what mareepasheepa said, it just takes time and you just don't care about people's opinions of you with stuff like this.

 

[Incinermyn]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

The notion that Pokemon is for kids is the exact reason I got into the series in the first place. I've been a cartoon aficionado since I was a kid and I'll be danged if I give up watching them on account of how someone else thinks it's weird or immature of me. Likewise, this is why I stick mostly with Nintendo's videogames in general (because they're ones I'm familiar with and came to like because they weren't as high-end as a lot of the ones for XBox and Playstation are).

 

[Ophie]

RE: Your real world experiences of pokemon with friends and family

I think I mentioned this in another topic, but I'm 25 and I work in the Hollywood movie business. You can likely guess how much into Pokémon other people I know are. The last time I got to talk Pokémon without it being related to some event, like local TCG pre-releases, was at university, where there was a brief burst of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl by a handful of people, then it went back to how it was before: Halo junkies who wouldn't even touch shooters of other series (including Call of Duty) and retro gamers who reel back in disgust at anything made after the 16-bit era.

I think people who talk down to those who play the TCG are mostly just jealous that we can be open about playing Pokemon- and liking it! Believe it or not, it takes guts to be in your twenties and wear a Pikachu backpack to go play Pokemon cards with your friends.

Indeed, the most common reason people give on why kids insult other kids on the playground--or equivalents in any age, including high schoolers--is because they're insecure about what others think of them, and they feel more confident in confirming that there are people worse than they are.

 

[MtheW]

I am not allowed to even show interest in Pokemon without getting disgusted looks from my family members, especially my parents. Also, no one my age at school would ever even mention Pokemon, because its nerdy and childish to them.
I'm an under cover Pokemon lover.