How has pokemon impacted you?

[ConkerConker]

We all have our reasons for getting into Pokemon. I want to know yours. How has Pokemon affected you and what is your favorite thing about Pokemon?

I like a lot of things about Pokemon. I'll tell you why I like it and how it has impacted me then you can respond below your answers. I like Pokemon not only because it's fun and it's a great game, but because it has so much depth to it. A lot more than most things out there. It is basically a separate world we are all learning about and its great. Everything about it. From the ever expanding Pokemon species to the characters and colorful personalities we all come to know. It's just so deep. It's a really well developed concept and idea. It's a great RPG and would make for one hell of a paradise to reincarnate too am i right? Lol.


Anyways Pokemon has made a big impact on me because of it's depth and how expansive and well put together it is. It's like it's another dimension and we just paint its picture in motion. It's awesome. And I've had many good experiences playing Pokemon. I remember a lot of things about playing Pokemon and I've been playing since I was 10 and I'm 21 now lol and I still admire and play the franchise.

So now that I've rambled on, How about you guys?

 

[33Whimsicott33]

Far greater than anything else in the entire world. It inspires and motivates a lot of things I do today.

 

[Zexy]

It started on a birthday of mine, when my parents bought me a GBA SP with a Pokemon Sapphire as gift.
First Pokemon: Blaziken... Now on my Black cartridge...
I stopped Pokemon for quite a time (the entirety of Gen 4, to be exact), and made it again in Gen 5. Hopefully I got Platinum/HeartGold in time.

I basically like the anime much more! It's a nice pastime, plus, everyone in school talks about it...

 

[Winterdaze]

I dropped my Game Boy on my toe while it had the Pokemon Silver cartridge in it when I was a kid. That was quite an impact.

Considering the attachment I have to the franchise even after all this time, I'd say quite a lot.

 

[KaiserLugia]

It's has gotten to the point of impacting me so much, that in my writing, I put very vague references to Pokemon that only other fans who carefully read it. The only characters I seem to only draw great are characters from Pokemon... Other characters, not so much.

 

[PikeQueenLucy]

It's like it's another dimension and we just paint its picture in motion.

I agree with this.

Even if this sounds a bit extreme, I feel like it's my alternative life or something. I feel so excited anytime I start a new game. It's like I really am about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. I've always felt as if I'm exploring the world when I play Pokemon.

I'm proud to call myself a fan of Pokemon and I'm not ashamed to talk about how much of a positive impact it has on my life.

 

[Jeef]

I have been playing Pokemon since it was released in North America, and I am still playing it almost 15 years later. It's just always been this world that I could escape into full of dreams and adventures with Pokemon!
It's just always been there when I needed it.

 

[Jenneta]

It's like it's another dimension and we just paint its picture in motion.

I agree with this.

Even if this sounds a bit extreme, I feel like it's my alternative life or something. I feel so excited anytime I start a new game. It's like I really am about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. I've always felt as if I'm exploring the world when I play Pokemon.

I'm proud to call myself a fan of Pokemon and I'm not ashamed to talk about how much of a positive impact it has on my life.

I think you literally got into my brain and spoke the words I was thinking for me. All of what you said is true for me. Every time I start a new game I seriously feel like I'm going on an adventure with my Pokemon and saving everybody from the terrors of the teams and such. <3
Pokemon is just amazing. It's all I think about, to be quite honest. I'm constantly thinking about my characters from the games. (Drake from Johto, Kaleb from Hoenn, Katy from Kanto, Hazel from Sinnoh, and Rose from Unova, so far. Possibly Cameron and Tanya for X and Y.) and their story that I put all together involving all of them. Nothing else enters my mind for most of the day. And whenever I feel down, mad, or just hateful at the world, I escape into Pokemon and instantly I calm down. NOTHING else has done this to me.
Pokemon has affected my life pretty bad, lol. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. ♥

 

[PrettyVenomoth]

why i like pokemon? mainly because i love making friends with new pokemon every game and going on my own unique adventure, i like the level of indivisualism the games provide.

why i got into pokemon? it was on tv ALOT like everday,kinda hard to avoid.

the impact on my life ? it gives me games to play !! apart from that none

 

[Pokémon Master Ash]

I have been playing Pokemon since it was released in North America, and I am still playing it almost 15 years later. It's just always been this world that I could escape into full of dreams and adventures with Pokemon!
It's just always been there when I needed it.

Same here (except I didn't start getting into the games until Gen II, but then went back to getting the Gen I games, and then Gen III onwards after that). It's always been that place where I feel like I can get away from my troubles and really have fun. The anime used to feel that way to me and I grew up with it from the very beginning of the English version in 1998...in recent generations, though, not really. The games, however, still give me that genuine feeling of enjoyment I even had as a kid when I picked up my Pokemon Gold version in 2000. XD.

 

[G50]

Pokemon in general has always been a stress reliever for me. The anime and games have been during stressful years in my life. Whenever I'm really stressed out and need to relax I would play a game or watch an episode or two.

With the games, I've always loved the variety of different ways Pokemon can be used and the adventures that can be played.

 

[Peachy]

It has given me some of the most amazing friends ever.

And the games allow so much use of your imagination, at least for me. It has impacted me in many great ways.

 

[Jyo]

Pokemon has changed my life in so many ways, I don't even know how to describe it. I have seen the anime since almost the beginning (and still watch it today). 90% of my room is Pokemon related (poster, plushies, how I hang up my t-shirts, my PC is full of Pokemon, my cell phone ringtone/text tones is Pokemon).

With the games I can always get creative. Every game I play always seems to have something different. - don't know why I lost interest in the majority of all other games.

Pokemon always brings me happiness, even in the worst of bad news, I just watch the anime, play the games, or listen to the music and those negative thoughts turn back into positive thinking. Probably my "weirdest" way that Pokemon changed my life is that it takes the nightmares away, every night I sleep with a random PokePlush near my pillow and I won't get any, as soon as the plush falls on the floor - I'm usually having the worst of nightmares.

 

[Dragonfyre]

The world of Pokémon is somewhere I could escape to when real life threatens to overwhelm me. There's never been a game series I loved half so well.

 

[spatterdock]

Pokemon has changed my life in so many ways, I don't even know how to describe it. I have seen the anime since almost the beginning (and still watch it today). 90% of my room is Pokemon related (poster, plushies, how I hang up my t-shirts, my PC is full of Pokemon, my cell phone ringtone/text tones is Pokemon).

With the games I can always get creative. Every game I play always seems to have something different. - don't know why I lost interest in the majority of all other games.

Pokemon always brings me happiness, even in the worst of bad news, I just watch the anime, play the games, or listen to the music and those negative thoughts turn back into positive thinking. Probably my "weirdest" way that Pokemon changed my life is that it takes the nightmares away, every night I sleep with a random PokePlush near my pillow and I won't get any, as soon as the plush falls on the floor - I'm usually having the worst of nightmares.

That...just says all about me. Ever since my friend introduced me to pokemon in 1st grade, it has impacted my life soooooooooo much. Best friends are made through pokemon, my room is just pokemon, pokemon everywhere, etc. Every doodle I draw in school are either turtles or pokemon, I make pokemon references, live by Prof. Birch's words ( there is a time and place for everything, but not now) which has literally saved me from every awkward situation, and heck it will influence what I will do with life! The world of pokemon deepend my appreciation for the natural world and respect for animals in general, contrary to what PETA says, lol. Everything about me now has been shaped by pokemon one way or another.

 

[Silverwynde]

If you want me to be honest here, Pokemon saved my sanity twice over.

When I got my first Pokemon game, it was the year 2000 and I was stuck in bed due to a back injury. I couldn't move and even breathing was difficult for me; if I expanded my lungs too much, it would cause my back muscles to spasm. Prime had bought a Game Boy Color for me along with a copy of Pokemon Red and Blue; he took Blue and I started on Red. Picking my starter, raising my team, searching for a Pikachu, all of that and more kept my mind off the pain and made my recuperation a lot easier. Being stuck in bed all day wasn't so awful when I had a team to train.

Fast forward eleven years later.

It's now March 2011 and it's been about four months since I've had a major incident in my life: in the prior November my mother tells me that I'm not an only child and that I have an older brother. I'm lost, confused and feel completely adrift. Then I get my copy of Pokemon Black. The story immediately draws me in and gets my mind off of some of the crap that's going on in my life. An hour spent playing the game is an hour I don't ponder why I was born, why in heaven's name my mother couldn't love me enough to tell me the truth, did I even have a place in this world, etc. The Pokemon on my team became a digital family to me and hanging out with them helped easy my worries. They didn't judge, they didn't laugh and they were always there.

Then, I caught my Golett Riser and everything changed.

Riser became the cornerstone of my team, the Pokemon I could rely upon when no one else could get the win. Once he evolved into a Golurk, he became a force to be reckoned with and a true terror in battle. But he was also my faithful companion, the one who carried me from town to town on his broad back without complaint, the one who pushed himself harder and harder in order to get that win, the one who stepped in to protect a fallen teammate. He was in other words, my stability. I'd been wanting a Golurk since the Gen V sprites were revealed and having one was better than a dream come true. Golett and Golurk became a bit more than simply Pokemon for me, they were mirror images of myself: as I was an odd, clumsy creation who had no idea why she had been formed but existed anyway. Golett became my spirit Pokemon and my Pokesona; Golurk became my ideal guardian angel. Both of them offered a strange sense of belonging; but then again, golems of a feather seem to flock together.

Pokemon is, in short, my sanity. It keeps things in focus for me, it keeps my mind off some of the dark thoughts that love to come up from time to time. It's been two years since my life changed and having those carts around keep me grounded. So yes, the franchise has had a major impact in my life and I'm glad it has.