What is your Longest Drought?

[Patrick Haines]

After taking off two entire weeks from Pokémon, because I have been addicted to FE: The Binding Blade, I got to thinking: what is the longest amount of time that I have gone without playing Pokémon?

The answer....almost two years. When Gen 3 started in 2002, I quickly attained Ruby and over the next 8 yrs acquired Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen, and Coliseum, creating my own little network of games with access to all of the Pokémon at the time, a breeding factory, an EV factory, and a leveling factory. Because of my obsession with the generation (and lack of funding as a college student), I completely skipped Gen 4 when it came out, but played Gen 3 until I graduated college in 2010. Boredom+Grad School+Disappointment in Gen 5 led to the start of the hiatus in June of 2010 and it wasn't until Jan 2012, when I was gifted a copy of HeartGold, that I started playing again. Since then, I have had a few lengthy drought (mostly due to the release of other games), but nothing close to two years.

How about you? What is your longest drought? Why?

Also, since I am an addict, what is your longest drought of video games in general?

My answer...three months. When I was a kid, I missed some time being grounded, but usually not more than a week or two. The same happened a few times when I was really absorbed in a book, but my longest drought was actually self-imposed. When I moved to Spain a few years ago, I had a set of goals I HAD to accomplish and I knew that if I was constantly playing video games, then they would never get done. I succeeded in abstaining for three months after arriving (and accomplishing most of my goals), but the release of GSC for the virtual console broke my will.

 

[Aulos]

It's really hard to say exactly. I'd imagine it was in the time between 2003 and 2008. I know I played no Pokemon games for the first time in between Ruby in 2003 and Diamond in 2008. I recall replaying Crystal in the summer of 2006, so there is that if we count that. If we do, then it would probably be the around three year gap between playing Ruby and replaying Crystal.

Oops, no... This is more complicated than that. My DS broke in 2009, meaning the last Pokemon game I played before getting HG with my 3DS in 2011 was Diamond in 2008. So that's another three year gap. Lol.

Those are the two big gaps I can think of.

I don't think there has ever been a significant gap for me with video games in general, despite having really low interest at times.

 

[Fairy Type Arceus]

I started pokemom with gen 3, fire red, in 2004 and played until just before heart gold came out (ironically I had just gotten done playing gold for the first time when I saw the commercial) I had quit because I was going through the too old for pokemon phase. Around the beginning of freshmen year I found super skarmory play through of black and liked it decently and staryed his black 2 play though and saw you could get rilou early in game so I decided to grab it that Christmas.

So somewhere 2009 to late 2012 (literal weeks before xy were annouced)

 

[colours]

Six months, give or take. u.u

I'll always have the itch to play Pokemon even if I go long periods of time without doing so, which makes any sort of super long term hiatus really unlikely.

 

[Gengarzilla]

My longest drought? About seven years, which stretched from Pokémon Blue in my youth all the way to my return with Blue Rescue Team when I was just entering my teen years. I got Pokémon Diamond after that and the rest is history.

Less notably, there was the year in which I passed on Sun and Moon and turned entirely to Super Mystery Dungeon as my main output instead. This was a great time for me since I got to enjoy an actual challenge after such an easy generation of main series entries in X and Omega Ruby, and this break left me refreshed and ready to tackle Ultra Moon. The PMD sub-series is still what I would call my true home.

 

[Silktree]

I've been a member of BMGf since 2005 and probably haven't taken a break longer than a week, which is something that should change. Until 2014 I would rarely replay the games between main series releases, but then I discovered hacks and that changed only to come to a crawl recently. A drought might do me some good.

 

[Gligarman]

I basically ignored Gen 2 and 3. I never got into Gen 2 upon it's initial release. The thought of having to catch another 100 Pokemon, which I had to cheat to do in the previous game, and pay attention to real time was just too daunting. Plus I had lost interest in the anime at that point which I later learned was attributed to the head writer quitting. I didn't pay attention to Gen 3 either until LeafGreen and FireRed though admittedly I was mildly curious about Ruby and Sapphire. But once Diamond and Pearl came out I dove right back in and haven't stopped since! I even completed the Pokedex without cheating this time!

 

[Almonds]

I'd have to say maybe 5 years or so. I stopped playing pokemon after Ruby version, and after 5 years of not playing pokemon I came back to the games when my friend introduced me to Pearl version.

 

[Boss1708]

I have been a Pokémon fan since 2000 or 2001. I became a fan by collecting stickers for an official Pokémon album of the original 151 Pokémon. I collected them all But I only learned about the Pokémon main series videogames around 2003, because I didn't know Pokémon was a videogame series until then. Shocking, yes.

My first game was Silver, then I played Blue. I actually played them almost simultaneously.

My first draught was between 2008 and 2011. The reason was that I didn't have a Nintendo DS, and I was tired of playing Emerald on my GBA, because of the terrible lightless screen. I played Diamond on an emluator but got tired of it too. The other reason for the draught was that one of my other passions, soccer, had (temporarily) surpassed Pokémon as my bigger interest. I was too absorbed by soccer for a while and didn't have much interest in Pokémon again until 2011.

I think I did try HGSS on an emluator around 2010, but I have no clear memory of it. I then played Pokémon White in 2011. I reached Victory Road, and then I learned about IVs and EVs. I realized my team members had shitty stats, and lost motivation to play...

Because of this, my second draught started. It lasted until 2014, when I got a 2DS together with Pokémon X. Then Pokémon surpassed soccer as my bigger interest once again, and it has stayed that way ever since. I haven't stopped playing Pokémon for more than a few weeks since then.

My interest in Pokémon is currently at its all time highest (ever since 2014). Not so much for the newer games, but mainly for replaying the classics (Emerald, HGSS, BW2, etc.). They are just better games with more content, imo.

 

[techitisJ]

I took a break from Pokemon as a series (except for the movies) from about 2004-2012 and then I got back into it with the Pokemon anime. I had never really played the games before so I when I started playing the games in late 2012-early 2013, it was the first time I had actually played the games. I basically stopped playing for about 8 months from like, January to September last year, then I picked up Ultra Moon again to get more done before Let's Go came out. But that's the only notable breaks I took from the series.

 

[prog rocker]

Can't remember exactly, but I know it was after X/Y. I felt underwhelmed by that game after spending months on B2W2. I guess those games left my expectations a little bit too high.

 

[Isaac the Investigator]

I don't really know, I don't think I've taken any breaks longer than a year.

 

[Insanish Danish]

I want to say maybe six years or so? I got into Pokemon as a kid back in 1999 and lost interest sometime during gen 2 (I'm guessing around 2001), then got back into it in March 2007 and really haven't taken any breaks from it since.

 

[Ebail]

Like two and a half years. I used to get all 3 versions of the games and be super hooked when I was younger but then after playing Emerald I felt myself losing my motivation to keep playing Pokemon. Not sure if I was just disinterested, if it was those awkward teen years and I felt Pokemon wasn't cool, if no one else was playing it but I'd just outright stopped.

Seeing the commercials for DP coming out made me pause and think "wow these games look really freaking awesome" and I was back into the franchise though now I only get one game or the other instead of all like I'd use to.

 

[Patrick Haines]

I have been a Pokémon fan since 2000 or 2001, but I only started playing the Pokémon videogames around 2003. I didn't know Pokémon was a videogame series until then.

My first draught was between 2008 and 2011. The reason was that I didn't have a DS, and I was tired of playing Emerald on my GBA. I played Diamond on an emluator but got tired of it too. The other reason was that my other passion, soccer, had temporarily surpassed Pokémon as my bigger interest. I was too absorbed by soccer and didn't have much interest in Pokémon until 2011.

I think I did try HGSS on an emluator around 2010, but I have no clear memory of it. I then played Pokémon White in 2011. I reached Victory Road, and then I learned about IVs and EVs. I realized my team members had shitty stats, and lost motivation to play...

Then my second draught started. It lasted until 2014, when I got a 2DS together with Pokémon X. Then Pokémon surpassed soccer as my bigger interest, and it has stayed that way since then. I haven't stopped playing for more than a few weeks since then.

My interest in Pokémon is currently at its all time highest. But not so much for the newer games, but mainly in the classics (Emerald, HGSS, BW2, etc)

I started a little earlier than you (pretty much as soon as Yellow came out in 1998, I borrowed a copy from a friend and played), but I understand the soccer thing. Since all Pokémon games are on hand-helds, I used to play them when my mom drove me to games or practice. I did the same in college on long road trips for soccer and 10-12 other guys on the team started doing the same thing. EVs and IVs actually motivated me to try harder because it finally explained why I always lost at Battle Frontier and I poured hours into training. I don't do emulators/hacks/ect because I try to keep my Pokédex up-to-date and want to be able to trade between the games. I understand the attraction to the older games though. I played RBY and GSC on virtual console more than the newer games (though I am currenly on my third playthrough of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade in two weeks because I prefer 'vintage' games to newer ones).

 

[Jammy2A]

hmm well I started when the games first came out in France back '99. Played up until Gen III in '05 (for Emerald)... then nothing for years until '07 when I started university. From there I only occasionally replayed Gen I and II on emulators, but no new games and nothing legit.
Not until 2010 when I bought Diamond and got hooked into Pokemon all over again

So really it was more like 5 years.

From video games in general? No idea.. I always play something at some point or other. Maybe a few months here and there lately when life gets a bit too busy, but thats it. Certainly never longer than 5 or 6 months.

 

[Cookies and Creme]

Been a fan of Pokémon since the DP anime and started playing the games in 2013. My longest drought had to be 3 years, from the summer of 2nd to the summer 5th I really wasn't interested in Pokémon and instead focused on some more, really "cringe-worthy" things.
For video games, it's 5 years, from birth to when I first touched Mario Bros 2 Advance on someone's DS.

 

[ocelotlrama jaguar]

I've never had a drought period as I've stayed with the series since the beginning and have purchased the core games on release date since the Gen II era. Pokemon Red is the only game I had that was not purchased on release day. I got Red in Christmas of 1998 at age eleven. As my all-time favorite video game series, it isn't something I'm inclined to take a break from.

 

[Tactician Karina]

I've never had a drought period where I skipped a generation since, like ocelotlrama, I've stuck with the games ever since my father gave me Red version when I was younger; I'm pretty much hooked to the games. Now I have periods where after I play the newest Pokémon gen (both versions to be exact) I'll take at most maybe close to a month of not playing them, though that's because I have a lot of games with some I haven't gotten around to at the time, so it sets up a perfect opportunity to either finally finish/start a game. So yeah I'd say a month long drought after I play the new gens, then go on to other games at the time, then go back to Pokémon and start a new game on the second version. (this is similar with my other games as well)

 

[Aozora]

I didn't play any of the new games after Black until moon which I played in 2017. I was just really busy with real life and I guess other games at that time, and wasn't too enthusiastic about getting a 3DS when it was new. I still played some of the older games during that time, and am now going back and playing some of the newer ones I missed. I pretty much always have fun playing these games, I'm just really slow