#so therefore its a failure and is bad and should've emulated pokemon more like actually shut up and stop sucking off capitalism

[athene-owl]

Seriously - as a Pokemon fanatic myself, wtf is with Pokemon fans insisting that:

1. Pokemon's success is solely due to it being perfectly designed game and character-wise

2. Every other monster taming series that doesn't blow up to the degree that Pokemon did is a fucking failure because it doesn't follow what Pokemon does????

I don't know how the fuck to explain this to some of y'all, but Pokemon's success was in large part due to pure luck. It came out at the optimal time, it was brought overseas and it struck gold. Of course it has a lot of great elements that helped it be so popular, but to act like it's success was due to it being so uniquely genius and perfect is a slap in the face to its predecessors. Pokemon had a capitalist juggernaut behind it that had the means to pump money into it and if you seriously think that it won by its own merits purely then I think you are very naive.

If it came out today, do I think it would be popular? Sure, I can see that. But it would not be guaranteed to blow up the way that it did in the 90's. Again, this is coming from a diehard, lifelong Pokemon fan.

And the absolutely bullshit idea that every series remotely comparable to Pokemon is a failure for not being Pokemon 2.0 is worse. OF FUCKING COURSE NOTHING ELSE COMPARES TO POKEMON'S SUCCESS. Pokemon is an established, centralizing, multimedia powerhouse which makes more money than any other franchise on Earth. We don't say that indie animation is lesser than Disney for not getting the same box office sales, but Pokemon fans LOVE throwing this idea around. To insist that capital success = artistic merit and flawless design philosophy is honestly just disgusting.

It's easy for Pokemon to dominate other franchises when it was one of the first to blow up on an international scale. Of course, when you can buy Pokemon merch of anything, it's gonna gather more focus and money than an indie game. When you have a prestablished fanbase of over 20 years, yeah you're gonna sell better than new franchises. So what - no other monster taming series should even bother? Because nothing will ever dethrone Pokemon, it can't.

I am so sick of watching unique and creative works with a ton of passion behind them get shit on for daring to not follow the Pokemon formula and their inability to outsell it being used as proof of their deficiencies. God forbid a piece of art have its own goals, intentions and meaning behind it.

And how hypocritical too, to ignore the serious design flaws in early Pokemon generations. Pokemon's first gen had a lot of weak designs and major flaws BUT it had the financial backing to continue on and define it's own style and formula over time. Watching Pokemon fans lambast new franchises for not having everything perfectly worked out in their first entries is laughable.

And can I just say how depressing this shit is? I am not a game designer, I will never make a monster taming series, but watching indie creators' works get disregarded for not being Pokemon is so disheartening. 99.99999% of artists will never make anything comparable to these giant media franchises. Our works will never gain even a fraction of these series' fanbases and success and enthusiasm. In my experience, this is something a lot of creatives struggle with - if I'll never be as successful as this huge thing that inspires me, if no one will ever see my work, if I can't create the single most original thing, why bother creating?

That doesn't mean our work is intrinsically worse or useless, its just the cold hard reality of living in a capitalist hellworld. Mega franchises established 35 years ago dominate the media landscape. They make money on brand recognition alone, they set the industry standards and if you equate that with them intrinsically being better, more worthy of success and shit on indie creators for not reaching those impossible standards then you're a piece of shit. And this attitude is so rampant in the Pokemon fandom, so unquestioningly pushed, that it drives me up the wall.