Question on Pokemon and Childhood

[carboncopy]

This question has been bugging me for sometime. It's kinda long so just stick with me.
Anyway, until I started using forums and stuff, I actually never thought people associated Pokémon with their childhood. Now don't get me wrong. I have fond memories of me playing r/s and fr/lg when I was small but, I have those same fond memories of me playing gen 4 and even bw ( not yet bw2, haven't finished it yet ). But, I was surprised when people would say stuff like 'O god pallet town *sniff* memories'. It was almost like they were sad that they lost their childhood or something. I never felt like that.

So, why do people associate Pokémon with their lost childhood ?
Do you think that I'm weird or something fr not feeling this way ? Or Maybe I'm just not the nostalgic type ?

This might be a weird question, but, it's been bugging me for sometime and I would like to hear your opinion on this.

[auteur]

Some people are more nostalgic than others, because of their personality or because of life circumstances. I don't see anything wrong with it, or without it. If you don't feel it, it's okay. Besides, according to your profile you're quite young. As life goes on, you might start to feel nostalgic.

[Raiin]

If R/S were your first games you may just not be old enough to really have those feelings yet. I never started getting them until I was about 20. I'm not really sure how old you are so I can't really say. I feel happy/sad when I hear the music from the routes from the first 3 gens or Pallet town and such. It's a good feeling.

It is also possible that you could just not be the nostalgic type.

[carboncopy]

Besides, according to your profile you're quite young. As life goes on, you might start to feel nostalgic.

Hey ! I'm 17, I thought I was pretty old :P. All you guys are in ur 20s so maybe I'm not old.
Maybe like you guys said, it needs more time.
I asked this coz sometimes feel left out when other people talking about old gens like that.

[auteur]

Hey ! I'm 17, I thought I was pretty old :P. All you guys are in ur 20s so maybe I'm not old.
Maybe like you guys said, it needs more time.
I asked this coz sometimes feel left out when other people talking about old gens like that.

Well, as I said before, it's not just about age or personality, but life circumstances as well. I was already nostalgic at your age, because I faced a lot of changes in my life a few years earlier, and I longed for the bygone days. So, as you can see, nostalgia is kind of sick in a way. You should actually be glad you don't have it; perhaps it means you're satisfied with your current life and you don't take shelter in an idealized past as I did (and maybe still do, sometimes).

[ForgottenPearl]

I'm 23, and the reason I remember the old Pokemon games so nostalgically is because, back in elementary school, everyone was talking about them. It was really an experience you could share with the people around you. Nowadays, though, I don't know anyone my age in real life who's into Pokemon, so now it's just a solo thing for me.

And besides, just discovering the vast world of Pokemon for the first time was mind-blowing. Most portable games didn't have nearly the same scope as Pokemon.

[Meowtastic]

Well if you started playing at r/s, you haven't been playing *too* long. Us oldies that started way back when pokemon was first aired, it's just been growing up with us. We started where Ash first started, back in pallet town, with only 151 pokemon. Then new pokemon kept being adding, the games have changed (not too much, really, but still have changed). Pokemon for me was pretty much my only good memories, as sappy as that sounds XD And yeah, pokemon was THE thing back in the day, now a lot of people have grown out of it, and I feel like it's just a little piece of childhood that I don't want to let go of. If that makes sense?

[Hilda]

I guess our generation is more emotional than the newer ones.

[Mystical Jackal]

People who was introduced to Pokemon in the 90's got a special feeling about Pokemon as that was the best time for the anime and series. People who were introduced by other generation may feel a special feeling for that specific generation, but in fact the most special feeling will be from the people who was introduced to Pokemon right in the first generation, the beginning of all its story. They have been watching all the changes and evolutions the Pokemon series has had all this time.

[Chaos Emperor]

as people get older, they tend to look at things through a nostalgia lens, which 99 times out of 100, is actually nothing like how they remember it.

personally for me, i see something as nostalgic when it crosses the 10 year mark. so technically, pokemon ruby and sapphire, i could now see as nostalgic as they are 10 years old, even though i played red/blue/yellow first.

[stylesbk]

Blue was my first game ever adn the one that'll always bring up the most good memories for me and when I started to get back into Pokemon when D/P came out that's when I had to go back and buy both FR/LG to relive those fun times playing the original. Everybody feels one way or another about their favorite memories of games.

[Hilda]

as people get older, they tend to look at things through a nostalgia lens, which 99 times out of 100, is actually nothing like how they remember it.

personally for me, i see something as nostalgic when it crosses the 10 year mark. so technically, pokemon ruby and sapphire, i could now see as nostalgic as they are 10 years old, even though i played red/blue/yellow first.

I'm sorry, but it's not nostalgia. I feel nostalgic to cow&chicken, kenan&kel, first season of digimon, the powerpuff girls...

Pokémon feels very different, as it is a very big part of me.I rewatch the older seasons and movies all the time, I even have them all on dvd. It is everything like I remember it. I don't care if many will point fingers at nostalgia and genwunning, it is enough for people like me to know that it is not those.

[Atratus]

Pokemon is a very good form of escapism for children, because it enables them to project themselves into a pre-built fantasy world that is more or less dedicated for their age group. Pallet town was the first one so it gets mentioned more often, but the first town you started in as a child will be the one who raises nostalgia in you.
Our generation is built on esapism, with the rise of technology and social decay. Pokemon was there when the kids needed it.

[Meowtastic]

as people get older, they tend to look at things through a nostalgia lens, which 99 times out of 100, is actually nothing like how they remember it.

pokemon is that 1% ^_^ i've gone back and played red version numerous times and it's always as good as i remembered.

[Endolise]

I don't associate my childhood with it, because to me, my childhood is meaningless.

Nostalgia is best described by a quote from Cyrus as "vacuous sentimentality."

I have a small amount of nostalgia for Generation II; not because those games "defined" my childhood or anything but rather because I enjoyed playing them, period.

[Excitable Boy]

I don't have too much nostalgia for the games I played when I was young, if only because I don't remember like anything ever, childhood included. I remember bits and pieces; chatting and battling with friends who've since either moved away or stopped playing the games, random accomplishments throughout the games, some of the teams I've made and in-game challenges I've been through.

While I would probably say that Pokemon and SSB did define my childhood, I wouldn't say that I'm nostalgic for that childhood, or that I'd like to relive it. I largely played clueless and frustrated, and I have trouble imagining playing through now in that same mindset, even if I could talk to friends about it or what to do. I like to think I know what I'm doing, and I despise getting stuck at certain obstacles. I think the fact that I had friends who also played through and helped me out and who I could talk to (because basically all my friends at the time I knew because I played Pokemon) was what kept me playing the games; were it not for them, I'd probably be doing something productive with my time right now, like studying for mid-terms.

I don't associate my childhood with it, because to me, my childhood is meaningless.

Nostalgia is best described by a quote from Cyrus as "vacuous sentimentality."

This comment made my soul feel fuzzy.

[Cutty]

I dont really associate any of my childhood memories w/ it either, mainly b/c I still play the older gens from time to time.

[Rakansen]

I'm only fourteen but I always get very nostalgic about Gen III since I've been playing Pokémon since I've been very young. I especially feel nostalgic about R/S/E because I was expecting Game Freak to make a remake for them in Gen V so I can "re-live" the experiences I had playing Emerald.

[ysmr97]

I get CHILLS when I hear the Littleroot theme music

[Bluelatios*]

Pokemon's just one of those things that was mean to tug at you and get you hooked. The adventure, the creatures, the emotion, everything. That's why it was so popular then and still is today. Those who feel that their childhood is "lost" probably do so because Pokemon is no longer hooking them as effectively. Who knows, maybe it isn't? Could be cause they are older and it no longer has that fresh new feeling, could be there's some aspect of charm or emotion that isn't there for them. For me, though the road may be bumpy at times, I know I'll always like Pokemon in some form, even when I'm a geezer .