Coming Out of the Pokémon Closet
Scott Charboneau January 8, 2013Coming Out of the Pokémon Closet,
We all have something we don’t want anyone else to ever find out about us. It may be unimportant, and it may be trivial, but either way, we don’t want people knowing about it. And, more than likely, at some point in our lives, we all held the same secret: the fact that we play Pokémon.
I was 14 years old when the game launched in North America, and needless to say, some people thought I was a little old to be playing. It was a kiddie game. It was for little babies. It was for wimps. If you weren’t playing something involving guns or sports, you weren’t cool. It’s enough pressure to make you hide it, because in 8th grade, there’s nothing more important than being cool.
I used to battle my friend in Composition class, and I remember he kicked my butt with Mewtwo. I hadn’t gotten that far in my Blue version yet, so I was totally stunned at what I saw before me. He swept the floor with me – every time.
Playing the game openly in public like that attracted ridicule. The overall “vibe” about Pokémon going around the school was enough to transform us into closeted Pokénerds. No more battles in Gym class. No more trading cards at the lunch table. No more discussing the latest episode of the anime on the bus. These all became “secret” activities.
The reason for the ridicule stemmed mostly from ignorance and the preconceived notion that this was a child’s game. If the other kids had played the game, then maybe they’d realize it was a fantastically designed adventure, with more depth than the Mariana Trench.
Sadly, this mindset isn’t exclusive to 8th graders, and people in all walks of life feel the game is only for children. Most of these opinions are based solely on ignorance and misunderstanding, and people often reject what they don’t know or understand. To change their perception, they need to be informed. They should ask someone why they like that game, instead of dismissing their enjoyment as childish or out of character. Unfortunately, most people don’t want to hear the other side of the argument.
If it wasn’t for this highly misguided perception of Pokémon, my friends and I would have continued outwardly expressing our love for Pokémon. Unfortunately, we shelled up.
It wasn’t until I got Sapphire version that I started to ease out of my shell. In 3rd Gen, I got really into the mechanics of the game. How abilities worked, EV and IV training, Double Battle strategies. It was a brand new frontier, and I dove in head first.
Most of my friends at the time were also playing the game, and the majority of them weren’t ashamed of it. This, along with the awesome game mechanics I had discovered, helped me come out. I now had a good explanation for why I loved the game, and I also had a network of friends, who weren’t ashamed of playing the game, to help back me up.
But it wasn’t until Gen 5 that I fully came out.
Because of my excitement for Black and White, I started looking for Pokémon podcasts on iTunes. I stumbled upon It’s Super Effective. I believe Steve had just either written an article about not being ashamed of playing the game, or he was talking about it on the podcast, and it really hit home.
With my reinvigorated passion, and a more mature view of the world, I began to embrace my fanaticism. I was no longer ashamed of playing in public. Before, if someone asked me what I was playing, I would become defensive and reluctantly tell them. But now, I just tell them it’s Pokémon, as if it doesn’t matter. It could be New Super Mario Bros. or Resident Evil. It’s just a game I’m playing, and it’s awesome. If you don’t like it, cool, and if you don’t like me because of it, that’s cool, too. It doesn’t bother me, because I know that you’re missing out on something special.
And it’s because of my self-actualization that you’re reading this article today.
So, I encourage each and every one of you to think about why you love this game. If you hide it from people, like many people do, then try to determine why. It may take time, just like it did for me, but maybe one day you’ll be free of this stigma created by an uninformed society.
Leave a comment below to help start the process, and for those who are well known Pokénerds, leave some thoughts of your own on the subject.
Who knows; maybe you’ll start your own podcast one day.
Written by Scott
@scottcharboneau
Proofed by Greg
@gdavidson79
Comments (4)
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“It’s just a game I’m playing, and it’s awesome. If you don’t like it, cool, and if you don’t like me because of it, that’s cool, too. It doesn’t bother me” – this is the best line of the article. Be who you want to be and don’t be ashamed of it. If people don’t like you for being that person, then you probably don’t want to be friends with them. Great article!
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I was a sophomore in college when Red and Blue came out so there wasn’t any way I was playing those titles. I was in college so it’s also fair to say I wasn’t really playing that many video games besides the occasional PS game or PC title. By that point I never gave Pokemon that much thought besides that its a kids game and I know literally no one who plays it. It wasn’t until I went to PAX East when Pokemon White and Black came out and I saw almost half the people playing this game. I even had a very attractive woman come up to me in line because she saw me with my DS Lite and ask if I wanted to play or trade Pokemon. My only response was sorry but I don’t play that. When I got home after the convention I decided to try this whole Pokemon thing by picking up White and that was all I needed. I was completely hooked.
So now I’m addicted but I have literally no one to play with. None of my friends play it (that I know of) and since I’m 33 I don’t really feel comfortable looking for people to play with since most that I see are most definitely younger than I am. At this point the only thing I can look forward to is PAX again and this time try to find people there who are a little closer to my age. I wish I could go back in time and tell my cooler-than-cool college self to give this game a try and to hell with what people think.
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As a member of the 30+ crowd (33 myself), I can understand your sense of isolation as a Pokémon fan. Will (not the artist lol) is also over 30 and is an awesome fan of Pokémon so you’ve at least got a few PKMNcast fellows to talk about Pokémon with.
I, too, was in college (second year) when the first games dropped and I was rooming with many older friends who owned a PlayStation. Most of the gaming done between us was Madden or whatever the latest NHL game was out. I myself had an N64 and binged on Ocarina of Time, 1080 Snowboarding, and Goldeneye when I could convince them to break from sports games. Needless to say, I was a little outside of Pokémon’s target audience.
But when the Game Boy Advance was released and the FireRed and LeafGreen remakes of Kanto dropped, I was well aware of the series and being a fan of traditional RPGs since the SNES and Final Fantasy IV and VI, I thought I’d give it a fair shake. I’ve been hooked ever since.
Big conventions like PAX or Phoenix Comicon (where I live) are great for meeting other fans of things you like without the normal threat of ridicule is always a great thrill, but as you know, the day-to-day drag of trying to rub elbows with like-minded folks is sometimes a grueling ordeal for the other 362 days of the year. So a big thanks to SBJ for creating this community for people to hang out (at least virtually) with other fans of Pokémon.
Which reminds me, I had to restart my Black 2 game so I have new friend codes which I need to post in the forums. Add me!
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I’m a Primary School Teacher and I still love playing the game. It’s so silly how people can re act so negatively to something as innocent as playing pokémon. I talk about pokémon and catching pokémon to the kids I teach who are into it. Anyways very good article, well done.