More Positive Thoughts on the Pokémon Community
Scott Charboneau January 29, 2013More Positive Thoughts on the Pokémon Community,
Last week, I wrote an article about my first competitive experience, and how amazingly friendly the Pokémon community is, as a whole. This week, I’d like to expand on that. Not the competition part, but the friendship part.
I’ve been involved in a wide range of communities over the years. For a while, I spent most of my nights posting on The Office message board over at NBC.com. I also belonged to a backyard wrestling group for many many years, known as the A.W.F. – Anarchy Wrestling Federation. I was even a trader of bootleg live Dream Theater performances. In each of these groups, I met and befriended some amazing people, whom I’m still friends with to this day; but, in all honesty, I can say none of these groups holds a candle to the friendliness of the Pokémon community.
Sure, there are the occasional jerks who call you offensive names; who rage quit when they’re losing a battle, and give a bad name to the term “Pokémon Trainer”; but they are few and far between. The vast majority are kind and friendly. If they’re losing the battle, they won’t quit: they’ll congratulate you. If they know you’re looking for a rare Pokémon , they’ll trade you one. If you’re missing a card for your deck, they’ll lend it to you. The generosity is rampant.
Take this for example.
Before I had a copy of Black or White, I would chat with @obsidianchao on Facebook about the Pokemon Bug Cup. My most current game was Diamond, and I lacked the funds to buy the newest versions, which meant I couldn’t compete. Knowing how badly I wanted to join the fun, he straight up offered to send me a copy of White. He said he would buy his brother’s White (because he never played it), and then send it to me. For free. I respectfully declined his offer, however, the gesture alone was enough to brighten my day.
A similar thing happened when Black 2 was released. I was waiting to get the game as a birthday present, a couple weeks after the release of the game, because I didn’t have the money to buy the game myself. After a few weeks of “complaining” on twitter, my buddy @TysonChiggin offered to give me the last 20 bucks in his Paypal so I could buy it. Again, I declined, but I could not believe that multiple people had basically offered to give me a free copy of the game.
I have never witnessed this kind of awesomeness in any other community.
I can’t speak for the “Call of Duty” or “Magic: The Gathering” communities, but I do not see either of them having the same kind of bigheartedness I just described about the Pokémon community. I’m sure there are players with the same kind of generosity, but I feel it isn’t the same. Pokémon seems to be where it’s most prominent. But, then again, I’m probably just ignorant.
Either way, the Pokémon community is fantastic, and I am truly amazed at the compassion and consideration the players have for each other.
Now, tell me your stories of generosity. Have you ever made someone’s day by giving them a much needed card? Has a stranger helped you complete your National Dex, asking for nothing in return? Comment below!
Written by Scott
@scottcharboneau
Proofed by Jared
@jaredtheunseen
Comments (6)
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I’ve only been to my local league a handful of times but the people there have been extremely helpful and generous. One nice girl even freely gave my boys several cards to help make them a deck from the cards that they had on them. Another girl who I played a match with donked me on turn two and was almost apologetic about it. I was playing some crappy theme deck and she was running Blastoise/Keldeo so it was going to be a massacre anyway, so the donk was probably a blessing in disguise. Either way, she felt bad about the match being over so quickly and immediately asked for a rematch.
I agree with you Scott, the Pokémon community, both at local leagues, large competitions, and online as well seems to generally be full of people who are involved because they love the games and want to help other people love them and be better at it.
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Absolutely. Like I said in the article, there are some sour grapes (what did I just say??), but the vast majority is extremely friendly.
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