>>56497469>The "virtual pet" aspects were tacked on in later generationsThat stopped being a thing with Gen 2, given the emphasis on having following Pokemon, and literally the entire Kanto league not just being about cockfighting. Even Gen 1 was built with collection first and foremost, cockfighting second, so it's not even like cockfighting was first at the start either.
>what benefit do people gain from transferring their old lvl 100 mons into newer gamesI mean the most immediate benefit that doesn't involve you building an emotional connection to digital code(which is something non-autists do too y'know) is that you can use these Pokemon competitively.
Pokemon competitions have always been a pretty integral part of the identity.
