Pokemon Player Profile

It has been three years since Pokémon Diamond was released in the States, and in those three years, we have seen a wide variety of players. Now, generalization is bad, but out of those wide varieties of players, all of them fit either of these three categories: overly competitive, overly aggressive players, lax players that played for social interaction, and players that played to catch them all, or players that played just because they like the game. However, calling, say, the first type, “overly competitive player” is too tiring and boring, is it not?

Therefore, we will name the three stereotypes. We will name the first stereotype, competitive battler, Gary. We will name Mr. Social interaction Brock, and Mr. Catch ‘em all Ash. This article will talk extensively about those three characters, give some examples, and maybe see what makes them tick.

Up first is Gary. Possibly the most common on the forum. These guys play only to battle people on Wi-Fi. Their greatest joy is seeing their perfect IV Scizor sweep a team. They scoff at Ash and Brock, and cannot understand the concept of casual game play. Not that this means these users are mean or anything: they just think the game is made for competition. In fact, these users can be some of the nicest guys on the forum. They can be found hatching million eggs, or resetting for that perfect IV against a legendary Pokémon, or if they are not doing that, they can be seen EV training that one Pokémon they like.

A few examples of these guys on our forum are Starship Pain, Deztroya, and Picklesword. Smogon perhaps is the best example of a Gary-nest out of countless other sites out there.

Then we have Brock, who is somewhere in the middle. These guys battle to find interactions between Pokémon. They like to see that NU team win against an OU team. Their greatest joy is seeing that one team win after countless losses. Even if they lose 300 out of 340 times, the 40 times their team won makes all the loses worth it. These guys are engineers, always looking to progress the game. They don’t battle to win. Rather, they battle to have fun. These guys can be seen making up new movesets, catching new Pokémon, and talking about their new team with their friends.

A few examples of Brocks on our forum are (but not limited to) MeowthMix, Mister Mauer, and MCPuppeteer. Serebii is the best place to find Brocks, out of countless other sites out there.

Ash is the guy who bought the game to beat the storyline, to beat the contests, then to catch them all! They play because Pokémon is fun, not because they want to battle competitively. They like to use their favorite Pokémon, no matter how “stupid” it is to use them competitively. Seeing their Kecleon beat Cynthia’s Milotic fills them with joy only rivaled by that same Kecleon beating a contest or two.

A few examples of Ashes on our forum are HighMadameShmoo, Mira, and Reigning Dragoness. The Pallet Tribune, to some degrees, contains a large number of Ashes, but to this day there has not been a Pokémon community solely dedicated to noncompetitive playing.

And the categorization ends here. All three player profiles are unique in their own merit, and none can be ranked higher than others. What about you, TPT? Are you Ash? Gray? Brock? Maybe you are all three at the same time! No matter what you are, don’t forget to have fun playing the game, and moreover, know that there’s always room for more diversity!