I'm asking because these days it seems that most of the Pokemon players online have a carefully thought out set of Pokemon, moves, items, etc. and nobody plays like the old days anymore.

Which type of player are you?

I do! I really tried to play competitive at a time but I found it was a hassle. I have lots of games to play and I love Pokemon! But I can't spend so much time on Pokemon alone to build a team. So I just went with the classic route. I just get the Pokemons, level them up a bit maybe, get the moves I want and... done!

Yeah, I play for fun. I can't play Pokemon like I used too. I'm too old for that.

This. Back in the R/B/Y days, I dreamed of an online Pokemon competitive experience, but now that it is a reality, I see that it is not what I want. Kudos to those who are into it, but it's way too hardcore for me now. EV grind, breed, EV grind, breed, EV grind, breed, EV grind, breed....

I did till Heart Gold/Soul Silver and Platinum showed me the error of my ways. ;p

I pretty much just play it for fun. Whenever I want to play online I use Pokemon Online, which I actually haven't used in some time, you can create your own Pokemon - no nonsense RNG, EV training, etc. I think Game Freak should incorporate this feature into their games, it'd make the experience more enjoyable.

X and Y are the first pokemon games that I'm actually taking seriously. I've been lately focusing on building up my team, but I recently completed my pokedex 718/718=D

I don't do competitive, just battle against friends who also have the game.

Competitive Pokémon scares me...
I'm in the field of public health and have taken graduate level courses in biostatistics and epidemiology, but the Pokémon competitive jargon is more than I can comprehend...
And I've noticed all of the Pokémon I enjoy using are low tiered, so if tiers are as straight forward in Pokémon as I've been told they are, then I wouldn't succeed anyway...

Me! I mostly just catch my favorites and run with them... Probably why I die a lot online T_T