>>44409970Multiplayer is integral, but the community really has throttled it beyond belief. What used to be an another way to play and experience the thrill of competitiveness without the preluding shame and stress of losing, it now became an outlet for tryhards that miss the point that Pokémon battles are supposed to be FUN.
To me, there’s a pleasure in optimizing your pokemon’s stats and natures, I see it as a way to train them to their best potential if I actually lived in the Pokémon world. I then take them out to casual matches, y’know, spar with other players so we can enjoy ourselves and learn from each other, and the thrill of challenge is still there. The advocates of stall, and the dolts at Smogon and in this subreddit, are truly lost in their deluded ways, and will get extremely defensive and call you names because you aren’t as obsessed as they are with “winning” in what’s supposed to be a casual and easily-accessible hobby.
