What initially drew you into pokemon?

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>1998 or 1999
>kindergarten
>thought animals were the coolest thing ever
>see a commercial for the Pokemon anime
>"whoa, it's animals with super powers!"
>watch it
>love the shit out of it
>see commercials for red and blue
>don't care about them
>see a commercial for Stadium
>"HOLY COW THEY'RE IN 3D"
>rent it at bockbluster
>it bore the shit the out of me because it was turn based and not like the anime
>rent Gold a year later
>mom buys it for me a week after renting it

I always see Stadium as my first game, but if someone asks, I say Gold. I also remember choosing Lickitung as my first Pokemon to battle in Stadium, so it holds a special place in my heart.

>>32099189
>kindergraden 1998

too young

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>>32099468
I went to kindergarten when I was 5 years old. You can't even spell it right.

>>32099101
that card looks rad.

>>32099101
>1998
>Neighbour teaches me how to play the TCG
>Using ductape to make the layout mat thingy in the carpet
>forget about it for like a year
>pick up the games when moving across country
>finally watch the show

I had so many misconceptions about the series. At first, I thought the games would have you somehow equipping energy and evolving mid battle. Then, I thought the anime would have the characters doing he A+B thing while trying to catch a Pokemon.

Kids in the neighborhood had some cards and Red/Blue, I initially got into it thanks to them.

But my dad thought it was Satanic or some bullshit so he forbade me from playing. (Mom enjoyed playing the card game with me.)

Eventually my parents got me a GBA, and I got a copy of Pokemon Crystal. This was my first game that I owned. I played it secretly unbeknownst to my dad who would have thrown a shitfit had he found out.

I basically continued to play Pokemon games like this throughout my teenage years and sporadically collected some cards that I kept at my best friend's house. I brought the cards and games to school to play with friends. I even got a few of them back into Pokemon.

I never stopped playing; I am now 28. I even played some competitive TCG in grad school and won a few local tournaments, something I had wanted to do my entire life. What was forbidden to me as a kid basically became my lifelong obsession.

In retrospect, it was better to channel my rebellion into Pokemon rather than drugs or something like that. I'd like to believe that Dad intentionally took something benign away from me so I would choose to defy him by playing a stupid game, but I think that it probably had more to do with his acute depression at the time.

I wonder what he would think if he knew the magnitude of the impact the franchise has had on my life. Maybe someday I'll finally admit to it.

>>32099582
religious dad?
WTF?
religion is for women.

>>32099582
Actually, what sort of impact did it have on your life, in total? Curious.

>>32099101
The games.

Before the cartoon came over to my country me and my younger bro found Pokemon Red/Blue on a display in a duty-free shop while we were fucking around on an airport. We begged our mother to get us one, and the rest is history. Never really lost interest in the series either.

>>32099101
I think you were slightly too old when it first came out, OP. But hey, you're probably better off for it.

As for me, it was the biggest craze when it first came out and of course everyone was playing it. I was just one of the guys that never actually grew out of it.

>>32099582
You write pretty well, anon.

>>32102026
It's weird, because today he is hardly religious at all. I think in those days he believed religion would be a way to cope with his depression. Eventually he got on a prescription that worked for him.

But, specifically, I think he once saw a letter to the editor or some nonsense clipping in the newspaper about how some parents are concerned about their children playing the game for some irrational reason or another.

>>32102190
In short, many of my longtime best friends are those who played Pokemon. Like I said, I even got a few of them back into the game. In many of those cases, I wouldn't be friends with them if it hadn't been for our common interest. I met some of the coolest people during my year plus playing the Pokemon TCG seriously.

What I eventually found was that there are more fans of the franchise out there than you even realize. I overcame the whole fear of publicizing that you play the game, because there are loads of others just like that. They are waiting for someone else to publicize it so that they can talk about it too.

>>32102343
Wasn't a bad effort for a late evening on an anonymous message board, but I could have done better. At any rate, thanks.

bottom of the catalog bump