>>45028430Pokemon's issue with fostering a community is that it developed in a developmental era for video dangers during which its gameplay was still effectively testing some boundary of what games could bring to players (many of which were still children at the times). Nowadays, Pokemon's core mechanics and gameplay, the crux upon which discussion, experience and personal investment all hinge, comprise a claustrophobic ceiling that often presses down on people's imaginations of what the franchise could be. This disconnect between a desire for a closer personal tether to the content and the content's generally cold, stagnant facade drives people who find themselves invested in Pokemon "the videogame" to draw lines and make arbitrary definitions about what separates good players from bad ones; true fans from posers; refined taste from the plebs. However, Pokemon's formula sells, therefore until someone steals its crown or Pokemon decides to drastically innovate, you will continue to see the fight between people watching other IPs emerge or develop while Pokemon's gameplay skeleton remains much the same as it was in the 1990s.
