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Where Have All The Rumors Gone?

El Squibbonator

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If you're above a certain age, you'll be familiar with the many, many rumors that the Pokemon games have attracted over the years. Things like "Pikablu", and Mew being under the truck, and the PokéGods. You know, those sort of things. I seem to recall rumors like that being prevalent as up until the release of Diamond and Pearl, since one of the kids at my middle school kept telling anyone who'd listen that there was going to be a third version called Zircon.

My question is, what happened to all these rumors? We've been through eight generations, and all of the last four seem to have arrived without any major "schoolyard rumors" surrounding them. Did something in the fandom change?
 
I don't think it's a mostly Pokemon-specific fandom thing.

Use of the internet became a lot more common, so people can now look up any rumor to see if it's true or not. Stuff like datamining is also a lot more common, so it's also easier to flat-out debunk any kind of rumor that comes up. You can't create any believable rumor for a game when it has already been cracked and dumped before it was even officially released.

Also, as an adult, you also learn to become a bit more critical/skeptical of baseless rumors too, and that probably contributes a lot to the lack of 'schoolyard rumors' these days. Admittedly, I have no idea what actual kids talk about, so I can't say for sure whether or not these kinds of rumors are still discussed at all by them.

People still do like coming up with fake rumors and"leaks" before any new game in the series comes out, and they do make for some interesting discussion at times (as evidenced by the massive SwSh leak/rumor thread).
 
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If you're above a certain age, you'll be familiar with the many, many rumors that the Pokemon games have attracted over the years. Things like "Pikablu", and Mew being under the truck, and the PokéGods. You know, those sort of things. I seem to recall rumors like that being prevalent as up until the release of Diamond and Pearl, since one of the kids at my middle school kept telling anyone who'd listen that there was going to be a third version called Zircon.

My question is, what happened to all these rumors? We've been through eight generations, and all of the last four seem to have arrived without any major "schoolyard rumors" surrounding them. Did something in the fandom change?
Like Tood said, it is a mix between technology advancing and people being more critical when they grow up. The only way people can make credible rumors is during the pre-release period, and even then, most are easy to debunk thanks to using Google to fact-check (e.g.: most Gen VIII leaks failed for not paying attention to the trailers).
 
I kind of miss the days when the new generations were kept so secret up until the moment they were released, and there wasn't much to do besides speculate about them. Compare that to Generation VIII, where a lot of us correctly guessed the plot and the characters before the game came out.
 
I kind of miss the days when the new generations were kept so secret up until the moment they were released, and there wasn't much to do besides speculate about them. Compare that to Generation VIII, where a lot of us correctly guessed the plot and the characters before the game came out.
They weren't exactly kept secret before, since I recall they talked about Cyrus's motivation in DP pre-release materials (can't check Archie/Maxie since Serebii didn't include that info AFAIK). The only Gen that was more or less kept secret was Gen II, specially since there were various changes during development, so it was partially accidental.

We guessed a lot of things correctly not because they revealed too much, but because we were genre savvy (e.g.: we knew the Aether guys were evil because they released artwork of the generic employees, making it obvious you would face them).
 
The thing is, before X and Y, Pokemon games weren't worldwide releases, heck, it took about 3-4 months for Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 to come out in America after the Japanese versions did. With the internet already being readily available by the time Gen 5 was released, it was only a matter of time before rumors would disappear or most of them being immediately debunked.
 
RGBY had actual secrets in the form of Missingno., Mew glitch and Glitch City. GSC had the Celebi egg and Time Capsule exploit. DP had the Tweaking trick that could unlock the three event Pokemon.

Other glitches were never very exciting.
 
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I kind of miss the days when the new generations were kept so secret up until the moment they were released, and there wasn't much to do besides speculate about them. Compare that to Generation VIII, where a lot of us correctly guessed the plot and the characters before the game came out.
But gen 8 was kept pretty secretive though, especially compared to last gen. And I figure that it's less that we knew so much about this game that we could guess the plot, and more that, like @prog rocker said, we're genre savvy.

And, at any rate, I don't think anyone could have predicted the actual region design without seeing responses from people who got the game before release, for example.
 
Two main things have contributed to the demise of these "schoolyard legends" and an arguable third one.

1. The Internet. Yes, the Internet did exist when these schoolyard legends spread around but it was in its infancy and there was very little reliable information on Pokémon available.

2. Datamining. People have gotten more tech savvy and datamining has become more common. Couple that with the Internet and correct information is easily accessed.

Arguably, the increased quality of the games may have played a slight role too. There were an enormous amount of legitimate glitches in the Generation I games and it fueled speculation as to what else could be hiding in the then mysterious code.
 
Rumors aren't entirely gone. Back in elementary school before I discovered an internet I had a friend who always told me fake rumors. The most memorable one is that if I went from my house all the way to the elite four without moving diagonally or running into Pokemon I could catch Keldeo. I remember it because back then I was obsessed with Kedleo (I still think he's cool).
 
Rumors aren't entirely gone. Back in elementary school before I discovered an internet I had a friend who always told me fake rumors. The most memorable one is that if I went from my house all the way to the elite four without moving diagonally or running into Pokemon I could catch Keldeo. I remember it because back then I was obsessed with Kedleo (I still think he's cool).
Any PokéGod-like rumors you can recall? I’m interested!
 
Any PokéGod-like rumors you can recall? I’m interested!
Not really. I do recall that he told me, like, eight million ways to get various pokemon creepypastas (mostly stuff like buried alive and a white hand or whatever) but I don't remember the specifics.
 
Not really. I do recall that he told me, like, eight million ways to get various pokemon creepypastas (mostly stuff like buried alive and a white hand or whatever) but I don't remember the specifics.
Oh, okay.

Actually, I have a friend who, back in middle school, thought that by training an Ursarang to level 100 and completing the National Dex in Emerald would give him some sort of rainbow dragon to catch in the route left of Lilycove City.
 
My question is, what happened to all these rumors? We've been through eight generations, and all of the last four seem to have arrived without any major "schoolyard rumors" surrounding them. Did something in the fandom change?

Did you miss the leaks and rumors thread that was open in the months prior to Shield and Sword's official release? Because people posted new game rumors there like every few hours and even though 99% of them were blatantly fake to the point where nobody should've even acknowledged them, most people still had the nerve to give said rumors the benefit of the doubt. Crazy times.
 
Given Game Freak's weird way of doing things recently, some of the crazier rumors (not the really crazy ones, though) seem a bit less crazy.
 
It's true that internet and datamines have debunked the game rumors. Specially those time-consuming things like "do something 100 times and somewhing great will happen". Although I still see some people throwing Poké Balls and pressing some button (or combination of buttons) as though this helps catching the Pokémon.

Some rumors I still hear people repeatedly saying about the history of Pokémon:

Ash is in a coma (the creepypasta thing).
Ditto is a "failed" clone of Mew.
Prof. Oak, or Giovanni, or whatever is Ash's father.
Red is 10 years old in the first games (in reality the manual says he is 11).
All Mimikyu dislike Pikachu (because of Jessie's Mimikyu in the anime).
 
It's true that internet and datamines have debunked the game rumors. Specially those time-consuming things like "do something 100 times and somewhing great will happen". Although I still see some people throwing Poké Balls and pressing some button (or combination of buttons) as though this helps catching the Pokémon.

Some rumors I still hear people repeatedly saying about the history of Pokémon:

Ash is in a coma (the creepypasta thing).
Ditto is a "failed" clone of Mew.
Prof. Oak, or Giovanni, or whatever is Ash's father.
Red is 10 years old in the first games (in reality the manual says he is 11).
All Mimikyu dislike Pikachu (because of Jessie's Mimikyu in the anime).
On the first point, I also think that a lot of people still do it out of tradition, or because they think/feel the games are like Super Mario RPG (where pressing buttons at certain times actually caused more damage).

On the other ones, well: I have not seen anyone that says Ash is in a coma unironically, specially considering that the original post was Game Theory-like (even though it was way before GT). Doesn't help that other franchises have similar myths (e.g.: Captain Tsubasa and El Chavo del Ocho).

"Pokémon Live" is partly responsible for the "Giovanni is Ash's father" part, but I don't know where people got Oak from, now that I think about it. At least, I don't see Oak acting like Joseph from JJBA.

The anime is to blame for the "10-year old" thing, since that's where most of the exposure the franchise is. Then again, they are partially right when they say Ash and Red are the same person.

The last one is pretty new, so I have not really seen that one (yet).
 
Ash is in a coma (the creepypasta thing).
People are still throwing that one around?
Ditto is a "failed" clone of Mew
Sure that's not canon, but there's nothing cintradicting it so... headcanon!
Prof. Oak, or Giovanni, or whatever is Ash's father.
Or Mr. Mime, or Cyrus, or The Doctor, or Dr. Doofenshmirtz, or Mario...
Red is 10 years old in the first games (in reality the manual says he is 11).
This isn't so much a rumor as a misconception.
All Mimikyu dislike Pikachu (because of Jessie's Mimikyu in the anime).
Never seen that one before but even without the anime I don't think it's all that hard to come to that (wrong) conclusion.
 
It's really hard to classify the "[blank] is Ash's father" and the creepypastas as "rumors". They're more personal canons.

On that note, it seems the most recent widespread pokémon rumor dates to Generation III where I recall being told that if the shuttle launch number reaches either 100 or 50, you'd be able to hitch a ride on it and catch Deoxys or Jirachi in space. Arguably, that could be end of the "Pokémon Rumor Era".
 
It's really hard to classify the "[blank] is Ash's father" and the creepypastas as "rumors". They're more personal canons.

On that note, it seems the most recent widespread pokémon rumor dates to Generation III where I recall being told that if the shuttle launch number reaches either 100 or 50, you'd be able to hitch a ride on it and catch Deoxys or Jirachi in space. Arguably, that could be end of the "Pokémon Rumor Era".
Well they weren't wrong per se. Just... off... by over 10 years and a whole bunch of details.
 
Please note: The thread is from 4 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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