>>39934520Pokémon, being a large reaching franchise, is designed to cater to the lowest common denominator. These are people who exclusively play through the main story, who ignore optional content, who don't backtrack, who stop the moment the credits begin. They are playing for Pikachu and Charizard, not for video games.
When I was a kid, I looked for and read up on every last hidden location and secret in games I played. But I'm 25 now, and we'll be approaching the point where the majority of people on /vp/ started with the 3DS and never touched the older games. I was 10 and had just started the fifth grade when FRLG came out in North America. That was 8.5 years after Red and Green had come out in Japan. If we assume that 11 year old Japanese boys were the target demographic of Red and Green going by the protagonist's age, those kids would have been born in 1984/1985. The original target demographic would be 33-35 years old right now, and they are absolutely a minority of the active fandom at this point. They were in their second or third years of university when I reached the age that they started at, though I had technically been playing since I was 6 and watching the anime probably since I was 4 or 5. But my memories are vaguer than theirs would be of when they first started. Now it's kids a decade removed from me. They're coming. Children born in 2004 are turning 15 this year. I was 13 when I started on 4chan and 15 when /vp/ was made and BW were coming out in Japan. Let that sink in.
