The big question: casual or competitive? Do you play the games casually or competitively? Do you judge Pokémon based on competitive value? Spoiler: My answer I’m gonna make a safe guess that almost all of us started playing Pokémon casually. I did too. Then recently (around last year), I wanted to try to play competitively and understand the competitive scene of Pokémon. So I’m mostly a casual player but partly a competitive player. I generally play the games casually. Completing the Pokédex, occasionally shiny hunting, etc. Since I can’t breed to save my life, I generally go on Pokémon Showdown if I want to battle competitively. (Rant incoming) However, I never judge Pokémon based on their competitive value. Example: I’ve always loved Sunflora. It’s one of my favorite gen 2 Pokémon. It’s really cute and severely underrated. I love it because other people don’t. Competitive players would look at its stats and immediately call it garbage. Smogon (a competitive batting website, if you’re unfamiliar) says absolutely nothing positive about it: I believe there is so much more to Pokémon than their competitive value. You could like a Pokémon because of its design, lore and backstory, cool typing, nostalgic value, you get the idea. Not all Pokémon have to be ultra-powerful beasts in battle. And it’s not fair to base an opinion on only one component of it. Another example? Regigigas. People hate it just because of one thing about it: Slow Start. I do agree, it’s not a good ability, but again, that’s not really fair to completely hate it just because of one small aspect of it. just like Karen of the Johto E4 says: “Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled Trainers should try to win with the Pokémon they love best.” And that is my rant as to why I don’t judge Pokémon completitively.
I'm a filthy casual that just like to breed competitively viable pokémon, I've never been into competitive stuff much I just like breeding good mons. Due to me often playing nuzlocke I sometimes have to judge a mon on whenever or not it'll help me in the long run. If is just a good old fashion run I use whatever I want and don't usually pay much heed to how good the mon actually is. Pretty much all mons can be use with no issues in regular run anyways so is not like it matter as much.
Story mode, casual. I don't stress much at all about what Pokémon I use to get through most of the content since it's easy enough. Post game I enjoy breeding Pokémon with optimal natures, IVs, and movesets, though that doesn't extend to actual competitive play against others -- mostly for my own enjoyment. I breed whatever mons I like regardless of how unpopular they are in the competitive scene, since I like having and feeling proud of them. So post-game, I guess semi-competitive?
Casual. Never been interested in competitive battling, especially having to use Pokémon based on strength rather than using ones I like. I prefer using my favorites even if they might be weaker than some other mons.
Casual all the way--Karen said it beautifully in GSC: "Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled Trainers should try to win with the Pokémon they love best.” Myself, I just want to enjoy the main story and any cool sounding postgame stuff.
I love breeding whatever I like too, bred some mons I'm most certainly sure will not get picked for competitive use like Raticate, Aurorus and Mightyena but I like these mons so of course I'll breed up some better ones I can use for fun against friends and post-game battle facilities.
Casual. I know all of the competitive mechanics as well as team building, but I just don’t enjoy playing it. The constant meta game shifts make staying up to date aggravating and it relies way too much on prediction. I also don’t find breeding very entertaining or interesting. For that reason, I usually just play through the game with a new team and mess around with the postgame.
Casual of the way xD Competitive is way too much trouble imo especially considering I don't like battling other players at all.
I have to agree with @Gwoomy it is alot of trouble to get into competitive. I'll occasionally play Pokémon showdown, but have no idea what I'm doing lol. It all seems pretty convoluted.
As some of you may know by now, I'm generally a competitive player. I greatly enjoy the games themselves, but competitive play is what gave Pokémon that extra "oomf" to set fire to over a decade worth of playing. I've since lost a lot of my previous interest in competitive play for various reasons, but it's definitely a big part of my young-adulthood.
Honestly, I play competively most of the time, but if I'm just replaying a Pokémon game then I'm playing casually. However, I don't judge Pokémon based of competitive value. I have a few singles teams with a few Pokémon I like in general (Like Mega Audino) and I managed to make them work, though it wasn't easy to make it work.
Well-said there. It's always more fun to make a Pokémon you like a force to be reckoned with, and it makes the competitive scene more interesting, too!
I'm definitely into competitive battling, but tbh I just like breeding perfect Pokémon and trading them for other good stuff XD The Pokémon I battle with though are usually ones I just like, not ones that are necessarily "top tier".
I just like going through the story, occasionally I'll battle with friends or decide I want like a gengar and ask someone to help. I also like seeing how my teams change with diff starters.
Casual. Definitely casual. I just can't get into competitive stuff in general, and Pokémon is no exception. I tried entering a WiFi tournament back in Gen 5, and was completely wiped out in every battle I tried. I don't really have an interest int trying to get into the competitive scene and it's just not really for me. I choose my Pokémon primarily off of how much I like them and well they end up working for me. Sometimes I try to use a Pokémon only to find out they're not as good as I had hoped, but for the most part I pay no attention to their "competitive value". Instead, I prefer philosophy of Karen, from the Johto Elite Four:
I'm just another filthy casual who just really likes Pokémon by their design, story and other things not really related to the competitive scene. I play for fun not for glory
I play casually with a slight competitive edge. I say it that way because I play the games with the Pokémon I want, and go somewhat competitive based on that. Will I look at stats and abilities and what not when I'm building a team? Absolutely! But at the same time If I really want to use a Pokémon, I will find a way to make it work. For example, sableye isn't the best Pokémon to use in gen 3 because it is kinda frail, that didn't stop me from taking it to stomp the elite four in emerald. At the time it had a unique typing and to be honest I still think it looks cool. I knew competitively it wasn't the best idea to use it, but I took it in because darn it I was dead set on it. It ended up doing better than I could've hoped and I enjoyed the run. Yes Pokémon is a competitive game, but it is also a fun one. Karen of the elite 4 once told me that a real trainer used the Pokémon they want to use, and I took that lesson to heart (see the first post for the full qoute). I play Pokémon for fun, not to be a bad winner who will cut down and trash talk a Pokémon to justify using or not using it in battle. And for those of you who say sunflora is horrilbe, you've never seen it at the pokeathelon!
I haven't played competitive seriously since gen 6, but I still enjoy breeding competitively viable Pokémon. Like some other folks here, keeping up to date with the competitive scene is just too time consuming for me and the min/maxing involved can be a roadblock. I like to spice up my casual play with nuzlockes, though. It's nice for using play styles I wouldn't really consider otherwise.
I don’t have the time or patience to breed for competitive Pokémon but I love battling on Showdown and such. So I’m like 50/50.