With the announcement of Generation V of Pokemon on the way our forums are starting to once again break down into the standard groups of people as related to Pokemon. Following this entertaining comic is a breakdown of what these demographics are, to help you better understand where each of your fellow forum members falls during the coming months of numerous repeats of the same comments everytime Pokemon news shows up.
The Kids - You won't find many of these on the internet, but they are the majority of Pokemon players. Out of an estimated 16 million currently active players, the kids represent a good 10 million. They generally also watch the anime and usually have a team made up of some combination of Ash's Pokemon. If they find a Pikachu it will never leave their party.
The Softcore - These guys play all sorts of core games, and still pick up Pokemon. They are generally older players in their late teens to early 20s, and started with Pokemon as children. They don't really understand many if any of the changes that have been made to the formula over the generations, but they'll play it anyway and generally mildly enjoy it, but the game ends for them after the Elite 4.
The Nostalgist - This person truly believes Pokemon has never been better than 1st and/or 2nd generation. They think all Pokemon since then are ugly, the formula hasn't changed at all, and are completely unaware of any massive imabalances in the earlier generations. They've also put up massive mental blocks to prevent them from remembering some of the ass-ugly Pokemon designs of those generations, or the blandness of the Johto world's geography. Their actual functional knowledge of Pokemon doesn't even extend as far as the Softcore.
The Anti-Nintendo Fanboy - These guys aren't really Pokemon gamers at all, but seem to pop up anytime the game is in discussion. Comments are generally things like "Nintendo should just let this franchise die!" and "Maybe they shouldn't be using the same last-gen graphics." They have never played a Pokemon game, never will, and only comment because they are pissed that they sell so well.
The Anti-Pokemon Nintendo Fanboy - This is a Nintendo fanboy who shares similar beliefs to the Anti-Nintendo Fanboy above, but their hatred is generally more focused. They believe that everything Nintendo makes should be for their audience, and want Pokemon to either disappear or go to a home console and be completely changed. They consider themselves hardcore, but never actually took the time to learn about the intricacies of the currently existing Pokemon formula. Their actual knowledge of the franchise and its mechanics is generally around the same level as the Nostalgist.
The Faux Hardcore - This person believes that what makes a game "hardcore" is blood and guts, rather than actual challenging gameplay mechanics or strategy. He is generally requesting Pokemon move into a "more serious" generation and Nintendo stop catering to "the kiddies." This person often has some overlap between the Anti-Pokemon Nintendo Fanboy.
The MMO Requester - This person believes Pokemon should become an MMO, or at least have an MMO to go along with the handheld games. Many people fall into this group in addition to one of the others. They are not necesarily upset with any aspect of Pokemon as it is, but regardless of their opinion on the franchise they drool over the option of a massively multiplayer version.
The Hardcore- The Hardcore devotes many hours of his life to studying the intricacies of Pokemon and its strategies. STABs, EVs, IVs, OU or UU, Special/Physical splits, breeding, type combos, and masses of strategies swirl around in this person's mind as they play. They recognize the importance of every change made to the formula in each generation, and don't go back to the old, less-balanced games. Some of these people are also tourney gamers, but not all. Not everyone in this category will actually make valid in-game tourney teams, but they are constantly aware of the possibilities, and generally try to create creative teams to play through the games with. They almost never use legends or ubers.
The Mediumcore - This person has some of the functional knowledge of the Hardcore, if not all, and still puts many hours into the main game. The metagame is meaningless to them, however, and the extra formula knowledge they have is generally devoted to trying to make more creative teams. They will often still play the games some after they beat the Elite 4, and may be the people to actually "cath em all." These people will not necessarily be adverse to using Legends like the Hardcore.
There you have it. So which category do you fall in?
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