Why doesn't attract work on genderless or same gender?

Probably because all Pokémon are set to be heterosexual, sexually attracted to the opposite gender. Genderless could represent nonbinary, maybe?
Either way, I suppose even magical pixel monsters are straight.
I don't mind, but I kind of do? It's not really meant to be a huge thing in the Pokémon world, but I guess someone's parent would inevitably go "What the- Why is that female Pokémon in love with another female??? That's not supposed to happen!!!111!1"

 

Yeah like Pari said, attract is based on heterosexuality and if you make it work on the same gender too, you'll get controversy... Looking in the game itself, if attract worked on genderless/same gender Pokémon, there would be no way around it and everyone would keep spamming it, because infatuation is so OP.

 

I don't really see a love story between a Magneton and a Klinklang happening anytime soon, but those are of course the most extreme cases of genderless Pokémon. For example, most legendary Pokémon are genderless as well, despite seeming to be intelligent enough to be able to fall in love. On the other hand, Cryogonal is capable of learning Attract, even though it's a genderless Pokémon, causing Attract to fail 100% of the time.

I think Attract shouldn't exist at all, I mean has it ever done anything but annoy people?

 

Attract doesn't work with the same gender, because if attract works in the same gender it will be a little disturbing for some players to see that happen... and the game only follows the logical things.

Well that's my opinion about this.

 

I believe the reason Attract only works on the opposite gender is because when the move was developed and genders were implemented in the Pokémon games, was because many people viewed homosexuality as taboo at the time. Even now, if they changed Attract so that it would also work on same-gender opponents, some people would still be offended.
Though I should say, they should at least update it so that genderless Pokémon could learn it and use it sucessfully IF the opponent is also genderless.

 

I've never seen Attract as related at all to Heterosexuality/Homosexuality. I've always seen it as just another game mechanic. If Attract worked on every Pokémon, it'd be a bit too overpowered I think (it is 100% accurate, after all). Gender was just convenient to choose as a "does it work or not" mechanic, to make it a bit more challenging to use, and easier to counter. Personally I doubt they'll change Attract at all, unless they're like heavily attacked over it and pressured to do so, but honestly I believe that'd be a little silly. They're Pokémon, anyway. Like animals, "infatuation" probably just means "a drive to breed". Or at least, that's what I think they had in mind when they integrated it, not anything about Homosexuality. o:

 

Attract not working on genderless Pokémon can be understandable since it has no gender, so how could it even work. Since Attract works on the opposite gender. And with what the above person said, having it work on any gender, would definitely be OP.

 

Attract probably only works on opposite gender because it'd be really difficult to fight against a Pokémon that can affect others with Attract. If your Pokémon gets Attracted, you can just switch out another one with the same gender as the attacker. But having all Pokémon attracted to eachother would be a disaster XD

 

Could be that Nintendo is against same sex couples and love for individuals that don't have a gender fir say. Idk just my little opinion. I mean no harm if people take offense to this somehow DX

 

I feel like GameFreak doesn't want people to take offense if it works on Pokémon of the same gender. They might not ever change this mechanic because it might offend some people.

 

...I had no reason to expect this to come up, but in hindsight I probably should have seen it coming.

Genderless Pokémon aren't affected by it, because... presumably they don't reproduce normally? I guess they can breed with Ditto, but... at the same time they can't breed with each other. The regular ones are typically inanimate objects and the legendaries are usually demigods.
As for working on the same gender... well, right now infatuation is basically a no-damage confusion with an amusing gimmick attached to it. If they were to remove the gender restriction, Attract would just be a worse (but 5% more accurate) Swagger. I don't think it would be as funny if it tried to be... progressive, I guess.

Doesn't the daycare prove that all Pokémon, at least as far as game mechanics are concerned, are necessarily hetero?

 

Attract only on Pokémon of the opposite because it probably works like some kind of hormone that awakens the affected Pokémon's will to mate and breed.
Genderless Pokémon, on the other hand, are mainly based on minerals and man made objects (Carbink and Electrode for example). As such, their bodies probably don't work the same way animal and plant based pokemons bodies work.

And saying thing like ''Nintendo/GF frowns upon homosexual couples'' because of this is the same as saying ''Nintendo/GF is down for some midnight action with other animal species'' because, last time I checked, two Pokémon don't have to be in the same egg group for attract to work.