TRAINER'S EYE #108 - "Poliwag Tales" ft. Slix from Poliwager.net

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by Slix, the webmaster for Poliwager.net, a small, friendly, fun-loving community centered around Pokemon!

Slix shares his initial experience with Pokemon starting with Pokemon Blue. He gives insight into playing different Pokemon games, but being specifically fond of Pokemon Blue, where he discovered his favorite Pokemon!

When Pokemon Diamond & Pearl was released, Slix started a website called Poliwager.net, which was originally designed for providing news for friends before growing into a small community! Slix gives insight into his experience maintaining an online community for the last 15 years!

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay

Connect with Slix: Website | Twitter

Transcript

TRAINER'S EYE #108 - Slix - Poliwager
===

[00:00:00] Slix - Poliwager: My name is Slicks from Polywager and this is my Pokemon story.

[00:00:03] 

[00:00:42] David Hernandez: Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns, where we interview people about their experience with Pokemon. My name is David Hernandez. Today, I'm joined by Slix, the webmaster from Poliwagr, a Pokemon community centered around having fun. And you can also adopt your own Pokemon eggs, which we'll talk about more later.

[00:01:01] Slix, welcome to the podcast.

[00:01:03] Slix - Poliwager: Hey, I'm happy to be here.

[00:01:05] David Hernandez: Absolutely. And, you know, for those who may be not familiar, we were talking about a bit before the show, your website is like retro forums of how we grew up around the internet, right? it just took me back to the days of the simpler times around the internet.

[00:01:18] You know, do you ever get that a lot?

[00:01:20] Slix - Poliwager: Yeah, I've heard that from a few people over the years. the design of my site has kind of remained unchanged for a while now. the site's 15 years old, so there's a lot of history there and it kind of grew up during that era of. Retro internet.

[00:01:34] David Hernandez: And, big congratulations. You actually just celebrated your 15th anniversary running Pollywagger, right? Yeah.

[00:01:40] Slix - Poliwager: Yeah, that's right. 

[00:01:41] David Hernandez: what is it like to kind of have a site for that long? Because 15 years, just to put in context with him, we'll do Pokemon years, right? I would say 15 years from now would have been, I think, gen two, right?

[00:01:52] Slix - Poliwager: it seems that way, but actually 15 years ago would have been around Diamond and Pearl.

[00:01:56] David Hernandez: Oh my God. Don't tell me that. Is it really 15 years from diamond and pearl?

[00:02:02] Slix - Poliwager: Yeah, those were the latest games when the site was started. So, Platinum came out in 2009 and, my site started in 2008.

[00:02:08] David Hernandez: Oh my gosh. I'm old as hell. Wow. You blew my mind just now. Oh my gosh.

[00:02:14] Slix - Poliwager: Uh,

[00:02:17] David Hernandez: your site starting in Pokemon diamond pearl, how much has like, the internet landscape, I guess, so if so, you will for Pokemon changed over the years,

[00:02:25] Slix - Poliwager: quite a bit. back in the early 2000s, uh, until like late 2000s, there was a lot of, personal websites that people were making, Pokemon websites, all sorts of other, you know, niches online and stuff. so that's where I got my start. I saw a lot of other websites as I was growing up, and I wanted to do my own spin on that and make something for myself.

[00:02:44] To share with my friends and stuff. I saw, you know, Pokemon's online presence changed from that where like Pokemon didn't have, social media. There was no Twitter at that point, really. There was no Facebook. That was a major thing yet. YouTube was just starting. So the online landscape of Pokemon sites have changed a lot in the last 15 years.

[00:03:06] There's a lot more. Bigger websites now like Twitter and. discord and stuff that kind of house a lot of the, the Pokemon fans together back then it was more split up, I guess. So there was a lot of more smaller websites that had different niches within themselves, some like battling, some like trading, you know, stuff like that.

[00:03:24] So seeing that kind of shift over time and think people start still are in their own little like pockets of. Pokemon land, you know, but it's interesting to see kind of how the, like online presence of all of that has changed over the years.

[00:03:36] David Hernandez: you know, it's interesting because you said you started for your friends, something kind of for yourself. And to me, I feel like that's maybe a bit ahead of your time a little bit, because nowadays you kind of get the whole cater your space, cater your circle kind of thing with it comes to social media. when it came to just Poliwag or what kind of design or what kind of, Initial philosophy, did you want the site to become?

[00:03:56] Slix - Poliwager: So when the site first launched, I used an old application that Apple made called iWeb. And it was like a website builder that they had for a couple of years. So I was just kind of playing around in that and, you know, just like, what can I build with this? Right. I didn't know any coding yet. I didn't have a really good sense of design yet.

[00:04:13] You know, I was still learning all of that, but I just wanted to make some Pokemon, informational pages for like the Diamond and Pearl games. And things like how the pickup ability works, you know, for example. So I made those and I shared those with some of my friends who were playing the games with me at the time and they found it kind of useful.

[00:04:32] So I just thought it would be really cool to like continue making things for other people that they found cool and useful. and it allowed me to be creative too, which was nice. So yeah, I guess that's kind of where it started. And

[00:04:43] David Hernandez: you know,

[00:04:44] Slix - Poliwager: later, I'm still trying to be creative and, do things that other people will enjoy and stuff.

[00:04:49] David Hernandez: it takes me back to the early days of Pokemon because, you know, there wasn't internet wasn't as big as at the time rumors ran around a lot more and will they probably still run around a lot more to be honest, but they ran around a lot more like I remember me, my friend, you know, the big one for me was playing gen three, the rockets at Moss Deep.

[00:05:06] I always was a firm believer at the time that if you got the number 100 rocket that you would get an encounter with Deoxys or Jirachi and I can never really find proof otherwise because I would see a YouTube video and be like, Oh my gosh, it's actually legit. And kid you not every single day I would wait for that rocket to hit 100 and it never did because it just didn't work that way.

[00:05:26] And that's kind of what it reminds me of to where. That's how we found information. We would go to these forms. We would kind of exchange information by hand. Nowadays, you know, it's a little bit more, I guess, easier. Cause you know, you got YouTube, you've got a lot more websites. Information is more accessible than it was, I guess, me, us growing up, maybe.

[00:05:43] Slix - Poliwager: Yeah. I was actually thinking about this recently and how, playground rumors kind of started, you know, way before the internet was big. I remember finding out about like missing no which is kind of convoluted, right?

[00:05:53] David Hernandez: Right.

[00:05:54] Slix - Poliwager: Um, I found out about all that really before the internet and I guess before the internet got really big for a lot of that kind of stuff.

[00:06:00] so It's really fascinating to see like how that's changed. now I think there's a lot more pressure to be accurate because people will disregard you if you're saying things that are intentionally fake or whatever online. I don't know, it's different.

[00:06:15] David Hernandez: You know, even when you just mentioned missing though, right. It sounds like it would be something somebody would make up.

[00:06:22] Slix - Poliwager: Yeah, exactly.

[00:06:23] David Hernandez: you can't battle this youngster. You have to go these certain tiles. It just feels like it would just, it's a full gold kind of Aaron, but it's actually legit. It's wild.

[00:06:33] Slix - Poliwager: And there was a lot of other stuff that was fake, you know, during that time especially, if you battle the Elite Four twelve times and then you talk to Professor Oak, he'll give you a Mew, you know, like, that sort of stuff, and like, none of that was true. But then, stuff like MissingNo was, so it was really weird To find out that information.

[00:06:49] And that's kind of what, you know, when I started finding things online for Pokemon, when I was a kid and I was like, let loose on online a little bit, I tried to find a lot of this kind of stuff to see. If stuff was proven, because I liked knowing if it was true. I remember finding a lot of like really in depth websites that had like, you know, step by step guides for things.

[00:07:10] And so I tried out a few of them, of course. Right. And some of them worked and some of them didn't for whatever they were. And I don't know, a lot of that stuff feels like it's like lost a time a little bit because. there's so many, you know, you can find stuff like this on Bulbapedia now, right? Like, it's not hard to find glitches and whatever that are reported factual things, but seeing like people's first reactions online and them sharing it is.

[00:07:33] It was pretty cool.

[00:07:35] David Hernandez: it was. And, you know, we're going to dive into your experience with Gen 1 because it seems like that's where you started. But I remember one specifically was the PokéGods. To where beat the Elite Four a hundred times without healing, you get some kind of PokéGods. I'm like, what's a PokéGods? It just sounds pretty cool.

[00:07:50] So I tried that and of course I didn't get to it because PowerPoints exist. And you start using struggle at some point. And then the other one I remember just, you know, growing up as a kid, peek a blue, you people always said like, there's all this secret Pikachu or Pika black or whatever it was to where if you do some convoluted steps, you'll get some random Pikachu.

[00:08:11] And then even, especially when a Merrill made his debut in the first movie and people like Pika blue, cause I don't think we knew the name of Merrill at the time, but it's just a different time,

[00:08:19] Slix - Poliwager: yeah. It's uh, I really wonder like how it is for kids growing up now with Pokemon because so much stuff is different I've got younger cousins and younger brother and stuff, but you know, they know me. So I, so it's a little bit different for, for probably like what they've grown up like hearing and stuff.

[00:08:37] But I'm curious about that. I guess it's like What, what does their experience growing up look like compared to how, you know, you or I did?

[00:08:43] David Hernandez: Well, just real quick, let's start about when you first started experiencing Pokémon. So, it sounds like you started with Gen 1, is that fair to say?

[00:08:50] Slix - Poliwager: Yeah. So I didn't really know anything about Pokemon during like the height of Pokemania in the US. which is surprising, I think, because It was like on TV and like all this stuff. And I don't actually remember now, like looking back what year it was that I actually got into Pokemon, but it was definitely after Gen one was out for a while because my cousin and I, we were at his house for a birthday party when I was younger.

[00:09:13] And he showed me Pokemon blue and we played it on his N64 at his house and then he let me take blue Pokemon pinball and Pokemon trading card game for Game Boy. Now, this was exciting for me, a young child, right? But I did not have a Game Boy yet.

[00:09:30] David Hernandez: Makes a bit of a problem, yes?

[00:09:32] Slix - Poliwager: So I, so I begged my parents to try to get me a Game Boy for my birthday or Christmas or whatever.

[00:09:38] And I, I, I don't know how long it would have been that I waited, but it felt like an eternity because I had these games and they sat on my shelf and I couldn't play them for a while. so eventually, you know, I got a Game Boy Color for my birthday and I was able to play the three games and I just played them like Forever, you know, all day, every day for months. And later I got yellow version, after that I got silver and I bought these games, I got yellow from somebody for Christmas, and then silver, I got used at a game store and this might sound crazy now with the way that prices have been the last couple of years, but I'm pretty sure it was like 10.

[00:10:13] David Hernandez: All those days were So 

[00:10:15] Slix - Poliwager: the game was probably a few years old at that point. And, uh, of course, you know, money was different back then. so this would have probably been around 2000, 2002 or 3 maybe. I played those games for a while. I got Crystal at some point. I didn't end up getting Gen 3 until one of my friends in middle school gave it to me.

[00:10:34] So this would have been around like 2006. And so I was, she was getting out of Pokemon and decided to sell me all of her stuff

[00:10:40] so I got, Fire Red and Sapphire.

[00:10:43] I played those for a bit, but I actually didn't get into Sapphire really. And I don't know if it was because I had already played Gen 1, so I was, like, used to FireRed's region.

[00:10:52] but I just really couldn't get myself into Hoenn. And it took a long time for me to actually finish that game.

[00:10:57] Like, a few years later, I finally came back to it and finished it. but then, finally, the first games that I got when they were brand new was Diamond. So I, I played Diamond, in 2007, the year that it came out. And, uh, that's actually the game that I've played the most now. I've put more than a thousand hours into that copy.

[00:11:16] David Hernandez: Oh, wow.

[00:11:17] Slix - Poliwager: so I don't have any idea how many more hours than that, I suppose, because it doesn't keep track after that. But,

[00:11:22] David Hernandez: Caps out at 999.

[00:11:24] Slix - Poliwager: but yeah, after that, I started getting all the games when they were, the current generation. 

[00:11:28] David Hernandez: So you said you started with Pokemon Blue, Pinball, and Trading Card Game? And you finally get to play them, right?

[00:11:34] was it, like, what was your favorite out of the three that you started with?

[00:11:37] Slix - Poliwager: Oh gosh, they were all so good in different ways. I think probably blue because it was the first experience that I had with like an RPG of any sort. the trading card game was really cool because later after I got the games, I started getting Pokemon cards from family members that were getting rid of them and stuff, um, and people would be like.

[00:11:56] Oh, you know, he likes Pokemon. Let's give him my old cards. So I ended up getting just a whole bunch of random cards from people, common ones, mostly.

[00:12:06] Um, but

[00:12:07] David Hernandez: Charizard to come your,

[00:12:08] Slix - Poliwager: yeah, never, never happened. Cause I never got any of the packs new. But, the trading card game was really cool because I really enjoyed playing the card game.

[00:12:17] And I know a lot of people didn't end up really playing the card game when they were younger. I learned how to play it, from the game, but also my cousin showed me. And I just really liked how the game functioned and the music in that game was really good. I don't think it gets enough credit.

[00:12:31] It's so good.

[00:12:32] David Hernandez: So underrated how good that music is in that game.

[00:12:35] Slix - Poliwager: pinball, of course, is just a fun time waster. I wasn't very good at that one, but I enjoyed it. So yeah, definitely blew probably of, of the three, but I always have a soft spot for the other two also.

[00:12:45] David Hernandez: You said like, uh, you got into it after Pokimane or you didn't get into it right away. Well, what was it about Pokemon at that point that you really wanted to get into it? Cause you didn't have any experience with it.

[00:12:55] Slix - Poliwager: I think honestly some part of it was probably just that my cousin introduced it to me

[00:12:59] David Hernandez: Okay,

[00:13:00] Slix - Poliwager: and I just like looked up to him and, and, you know, I wanted to be like my older cousin and whatever. So I, think part of that was, was there, but I, I just really connected with being able to explore and, catch the Pokemon and raise different ones.

[00:13:13] What I ended up doing for those first couple of years was I played through Blue multiple times and I'd, you know, get almost to the end and then I'd restart it. So I didn't actually finish the Elite Four until like, I don't know, probably like six years later.

[00:13:25] David Hernandez: really? Why would you why restart it? Do you remember why you would restart it? Like would it be like the eighth badge seventh badge?

[00:13:31] Slix - Poliwager: don't know. I just, it's just a kid thing to do, I guess.

[00:13:36] David Hernandez: Oh my gosh, it's like i'm so close to being in let me just restart it.

[00:13:39] Slix - Poliwager: Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I think maybe part of it was just because I enjoyed going through the game and I wanted to get different Pokemon. So like, instead of just going and catching those, I would just play through it and catch different ones.

[00:13:50] David Hernandez: Oh, that makes sense.

[00:13:51] Slix - Poliwager: So I don't know, but eventually I did beat it. Yeah.

[00:13:58] David Hernandez: I mean, I did the same thing with uh, gen three, although I would beat the game I would just restart it. Cause I'm like, I don't want cause granny XP is difficult back in those days. And you know, unless you did like some game shark or a rare candy glitch or whatever, you have to basically battle wild Pokemon over and over.

[00:14:14] We don't have the way to where you can battle trainers nowadays. So I can kind of see where you're coming from. Although I just don't understand not being in the game. That's part that throws me off just a little bit.

[00:14:23] Slix - Poliwager: Yeah, I don't know. I don't really have an answer for that.

[00:14:27] David Hernandez: No, it's okay. It's okay. Out of all the generations you've played with Pokemon, you know, do you have a particular favorite one or one you kind of lean towards?

[00:14:36] Slix - Poliwager: Uh, so I did talk a lot about Gen 1, and I, I really love Gen 1, and I also talked about, uh, Diamond, which I played quite a bit.

[00:14:43] David Hernandez: Thousand hours.

[00:14:44] Slix - Poliwager: uh, yeah, you know, no big deal, right? Um, but actually now, like, looking back, um, and I, I think I thought this when the games were new, but Black and White 2 are my favorites. And I know that that's kind of come up more, uh, online in the last couple of years where people are like, this is my favorite game, it's the best game.

[00:15:05] but I actually was thinking this when the games were new. A lot of people didn't think that when the games were new.

[00:15:12] David Hernandez: hmm. It's like, I was here first. I was here first.

[00:15:14] Slix - Poliwager: I had a lot of friends who didn't even want to get Black and White 2 because they didn't like how Black and White didn't have the old Pokemon in it until you beat it. You know, all these different things.

[00:15:22] So,

[00:15:23] David Hernandez: Mm hmm.

[00:15:23] Slix - Poliwager: but Black and White 2's up until that point, it had the most Pokemon in the game that you could get between all the generations before it, there was the World Tournament. There was, FunFest Missions. There's the, Joint Avenue, all of the like local and online multiplayer was really good.

[00:15:41] I go back to those games a lot, still a lot with my, with my cousins and I've been trying to get all the medals in my copy of white 2. I met like 209 or something. So I'm like, I'm getting there, but taking a while.

[00:15:52] David Hernandez: Yeah. It's a grind.

[00:15:53] Slix - Poliwager: Yeah. But yeah, there's just a lot of content in those games.

[00:15:56] And I just think the, the music is good. I don't honestly don't even remember much about the story because I don't typically play games more than once anymore. Um, I would just finish it and then just keep playing the game and doing the content that it gives you afterwards because, you know, playing through the game is over and over is fine, I suppose.

[00:16:15] But I'd rather build teams and, you know, complete the Pokédex and all these other things that the game provides once you beat it. So, I've been trying to get shiny Pokemon in that game. I've been trying to complete the medals. There's just still so much that I can play in there and I've already put tons of time into it.

[00:16:31] David Hernandez: Right. you know, like you said, black and white wasn't as popular because of the generation. You know, it was the first game to where first world rivalries, but then also didn't have any of the initial Pokemon that we knew pregen five. And, I remember a couple of years ago where Pokemon aside, not to include the entire Pokedex for the first time and how much outrage there was

[00:16:51] Slix - Poliwager: Yep.

[00:16:53] David Hernandez: Same thing for Black and White, to where that kind of outrage, maybe not as loud because, you know, Internet wasn't as mature, I suppose. But you still got the same kind of reaction, like, I want to kind of bring my, Bulbasaur, I want to bring my Pikachu or whatever you want to these games and I can't do it.

[00:17:06] And it forced you to kind of use Pokemon that you never experienced before because they were all brand new. 

[00:17:12] Slix - Poliwager: Right.

[00:17:12] I mean, this actually happened with the half Pokedex in Ruby and Sapphire too. Um, and I wasn't I played the games when they were new ish. At that point, but I had some friends that were annoyed with the fact that and myself that were annoyed with you had to beat the entirety of fire red and leaf green and then do all of the post game stuff in order to trade with Ruby and Sapphire.

[00:17:33] So I had I had friends that had Sapphire. And I had FireRed, and I was like, I'll just trade you a Bulbasaur. And they were like, you can't. So, you know, this isn't the first time that this kind of thing with Sword and Shield happened, right? This is like the third or fourth time, really. And I think people just forget about what's happened in the past a little bit, which is unfortunate, but, you

[00:17:56] David Hernandez: Yeah, unfortunately, we,

[00:17:57] Slix - Poliwager: it's been, you know, slightly different every time, but similar thing happened in, In Sun and Moon, actually.

[00:18:02] I don't know if you, have heard of this or realized this or whatever, but in Sun and Moon, and then in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, you can see the Pokédex That you have in the game, the Alola Pokédex. And those all have numbers, right? If you have Pokémon from the previous games that are not in those Pokédexes, it doesn't show you the Pokédex number.

[00:18:22] David Hernandez: no, I didn't know that actually,

[00:18:23] Slix - Poliwager: So, it makes sorting your PC really difficult. Because, where does everything go, right? Like, there's no way to sort that. But in addition to that, the game actually kept track of which Pokemon you had traded on the GTS, or like, caught or evolved or anything like that. So if you went to the GTS, you could see that you had like, a Cyndaquil, for example, and it would show that it was caught.

[00:18:45] But there's no other way in the game to see that. So that was, for me actually, that was the first time that I was like, this is really annoying. I can't believe they mess up the Pokedex. And then the next generation, it was like much worse, you know, or I guess people thought it was much worse. And I was like, this already happened, you guys.

[00:19:01] David Hernandez: where were y'all back in gen six? Yeah.

[00:19:03] Slix - Poliwager: Like I was complaining about four years ago. So,

[00:19:07] David Hernandez: Hey you! Yes, you with the ears! Don't go anywhere, just taking a quick ad break. We'll be right back.

[00:19:15] 

[00:19:51] David Hernandez: You said how you, got into the trading card game. So are you more of a collector? Do you like, play the trading card game? 

[00:19:56] Slix - Poliwager: I got a lot of cards when I was younger, like I said before, and so I still have all of those cards actually, but I haven't really bought very many packs until like the last couple of years. And that's mainly just to get some Pollywag cards. So, um, I don't really like typically buy too many cards. I do like opening the packs.

[00:20:15] I think that's fun to see what you get and stuff. and I've played the card game with a few of my, Family members and stuff, but I, I don't do any like actual collecting or actual, tournaments or anything like that. 

[00:20:27] David Hernandez: You know, I'm going on a limb to say that Polly Wags probably your favorite Pokemon.

[00:20:31] Slix - Poliwager: Yeah. Um,

[00:20:35] David Hernandez: What was it about Polly Wag that kind of solidified it as your favorite?

[00:20:39] Slix - Poliwager: so back in blue version, I remember catching, you know, like I said before, a whole bunch of Pokemon and every time I played through it, I got Poliwag and I, I don't remember honestly if I liked it first because of the game, because it's also in the trading card game and it's also in pinball, right?

[00:20:57] And I had some of the cards at the time, so I just saw a lot of Poliwag because it was a common Pokemon. So I think I was just like, oh, this, this one's really cute. He's cool. He evolves into Poliwrath, you know, I think that's neat. And the first time I ever actually did complete the, uh, Elite four in blue version.

[00:21:12] I used to polygraph,

[00:21:14] David Hernandez: Mm 

[00:21:14] Slix - Poliwager: it's, it's got some history there a little bit, but yeah, I don't know. I, I just think polyweg is cool.

[00:21:19] David Hernandez: And eventually it made your site, right? Or you kind of maimed your site after Poliwag, which is kind of cool as well.

[00:21:25] The one thing I remember about Poliwag, I remember reading a magazine and it's right when Gen 2 came out and this guy, they talked about like team building and moves and whatnot. And I remember it talked about how this guy decided to trade his Poliwag back to red, blue and yellow.

[00:21:41] To teach it fissure, then trade it to gold and silver and crystal and get to learn mind reader. And I was like, that's such a good idea. Obviously, it wouldn't work too well in regular battles, but it just seemed kind OP, you know, in my mind back in the day to think like, oh, a guaranteed one hit KO move.

[00:21:58] That's wild.

[00:21:59] Slix - Poliwager: yeah, there was a lot of really interesting move sets that got opened up when you traded between generations and in games and stuff like that.

[00:22:06] I trained a, I forget which, TMs it was, but I had a Bastiodon in Diamond and I needed to get a TM that was only available in FireRed, like, as a, you know, a repeatable one that you could get.

[00:22:19] So I had to get the TM. And then migrate it up, teach it. And then I had this pretty unique Bashiedon that could do, you know, I think it was Roar, maybe that was the move that I needed to do that for. But

[00:22:33] David Hernandez: Now, that's what it was with me. Like

[00:22:34] Slix - Poliwager: are pretty fun.

[00:22:35] David Hernandez: they were and especially I would use, I think Gen four was like my TM dump because I would transfer all my teams from my Gen three games. By having them held over to transfer over just so I could use them in gen four. Cause you know, we didn't have infinite teams.

[00:22:50] And I think that's how I kept repeating the games over and over. Cause I just needed a farm teams at

[00:22:53] Slix - Poliwager: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:22:55] David Hernandez: eventually, you know, you build Pollywagger to what it is now. And, you know, themed after Poliwag, you know, what is it like to kind of celebrate the 15 year anniversary? Like, do you think like, wow, it's still around? Like, wow, I've been doing this for so long.

[00:23:10] Slix - Poliwager: I. It's, it's really hard to like wrap my head around it sometimes because now that I'm a little older than I was when I started the website, I realized that the website is now more than half my age,

[00:23:23] years old, right? So I'm going to be 30 soon. And, the website is now going to be 16 in a few months.

[00:23:29] So. It's, it's catching up to me.

[00:23:35] David Hernandez: Slowly.

[00:23:36] Slix - Poliwager: So yeah, it's, it's pretty, it's pretty crazy. Like having that be a constant in my life over all of these years through middle school and high school and college and adult life and yeah, I don't know, it's, it's kind of comforting, I guess, to have something like that. That's constant.

[00:23:52] David Hernandez: I guess I should ask, like, you know, you've had a lot of experience, you know, building up this community. What have been some things you've kind of learned along the way when it comes to kind of building the community that lasts that long?

[00:24:02] Slix - Poliwager: So. Initially, the Polywager site was only for like information, game mechanics and stuff like that. A few months after the site launched, I opened a forum using a free forum website that existed at the time. And I kind of just shared it with some of my friends from school and a few people that I knew from another forum that I was on.

[00:24:25] And next thing I knew, there was like I don't know, maybe like a dozen people that were, would like check in every day and like, you know, they were posting and talking to each other and stuff. And it was just really, really cool to see people have these conversations in an area that I like created. I just loved being able to help facilitate that, especially, you know, as time went on and a lot of forums ended up, Going away and sites disappeared and people stopped managing things and, now with all these websites that are big, that are having problems like Twitter, um, you know, it's, it's, yeah, it's, uh, it's good to be able to have a place that people can be at.

[00:25:05] That's no drama, I guess, because I try to, like, keep everything friendly and keep everybody, content with, what's going on between everybody and stuff as best I can. But Yeah, it's, been, there's been a lot of up and downs for, um, because it's been 15 years now for the, forums, that been seasons where there's basically been nobody checking in, and sometimes people would, like, join and then post once and then not come back, and that's really disheartening, you know, to see.

[00:25:34] but it's something that I just believe in as a concept that places like that should exist where people can gather over a shared, you know, interest like Pokemon and have a place that is safe and friendly and timeless, I guess, because if you have something like Discord or Twitter, you don't have long lasting interactions.

[00:25:57] It's a lot more fleeting, so something like a forum is, more, permanent, I guess, in some ways, and I think they both have their, you know, all of those things have their, their advantages, but yeah, like having the opportunity to help facilitate that for people.

[00:26:13] David Hernandez: that's why I said, like, I felt like you're maybe a little bit ahead of your time when you started Pollywhacker because, you know, you mentioned Twitter, you mentioned discord, and it's so easy for like the Pokemon, the kind of, I guess, mixed up with, you know, current issues or political nonsense or whatever, have, you know, whatever, tickles your fancy is what I'm talking about.

[00:26:32] And. You know, for me, I've always seen it, even for myself, it should be kind of an escape when it comes to Pokemon to where you can kind of put the real world down. And kind of go explore this imaginary, area, meeting other people who love Pokemon just as much as you do, without having to worry about anything else derailing that, if that makes sense.

[00:26:51] Slix - Poliwager: Yeah, for sure. Um, it's kind of funny that you say that, actually, though, because, you know, A lot of the conversation that people had on Polyvagor forums for the first couple years was not even about Pokemon. I think a lot of people ended up joining because of Pokemon and they wanted to have a place where they could talk about Pokemon or whatever.

[00:27:10] But it turned out that a lot of people just wanted to talk to each other. And they found that having A place that people could just hang out and, like, be friendly and, like, play, you know, forum games together and, and talk about, you know, whatever's happening at school or whatever, was just a nice thing that they enjoyed doing and, and wanted to have that space for that.

[00:27:30] So. It's been interesting seeing the, like, shift a little bit of like, yeah, it's a Pokemon site, but it's also like, we're not just talking about Pokemon here.

[00:27:40] David Hernandez: We're talking about which is the better evolution, Poliwrath or Politoed.

[00:27:45] Slix - Poliwager: Yep.

[00:27:46] David Hernandez: The last thing that I want to talk about when it comes to the polywag or site is you actually have something very unique that You don't see too often anymore. I think the closest would be maybe discord bots. You actually have some kind of like hatching and collecting kind of component to your site. what made you want to implement that? And like, what is it about for those who may not be familiar?

[00:28:06] Slix - Poliwager: so the Polyweger Adoptables is a section of Polyweger that was started in 2010, and it's been going since then and expanding and improving over over the years, It's pretty simple. You, you adopt some Pokemon eggs and other people help you, warm them up. And once they've warmed up enough, they'll hatch.

[00:28:25] And then you can have other people help you interact with them and help them grow so that they can evolve and stuff. there's more to do. There's monthly events for getting like legendary Pokemon and stuff. There's other little mini games where you can go fishing and collect berries and do a bunch of different tasks like that.

[00:28:44] But yeah, there's, there used to be a lot more of these types of sites. And a lot of them have gone away over the years, which is sad, but I've always tried when I started doing this that I wanted it to be unique. And I was on a bunch of those other sites for a while and having my own twist on, like how it could be done.

[00:29:03] And the focus that I like to do with everything that I build for it is just to have it be community based. So you, it's basically required that other people will help you hatch your Pokemon. It's required that some of the mechanics require other people. So you can't just go on there and just plow through it and do it all yourself.

[00:29:20] You have to work together.

[00:29:22] David Hernandez: And I guess that makes sense based on the forms, you know, the internet interconnectivity of the kind of thing to where you can't do without one another. And it kind of encourages people to kind of communicate and bring people together.

[00:29:31] Slix - Poliwager: Yeah. And we do a thing called Community Weekend, which is kind of similar to Pokemon GO's Community Day, where we have a weekend set aside every month where there's a type that's promoted. So each month has like a different type. So for example, grass So grass Pokemon eggs will be more common. Grass Pokemon can be shiny more often. and they'll grow faster for the grass types and stuff like that. So people love to gather for that and just like talk about the site and, and just encourage each other to get their Pokemon medals for the event and stuff like that.

[00:30:06] So it's pretty fun.

[00:30:08] David Hernandez: If there's anything us Pokemon fans like to do, we like to collect.

[00:30:11] Slix - Poliwager: Yeah. Yep. There's lots to do. Lots to collect. I'm

[00:30:16] David Hernandez: Well, Pollywagger, thank you for coming on the show before we do close this podcast interview. I do have to ask my last question. If you were to bring a team of six Pokemon battle and somebody was going to challenge you, what six Pokemon would you bring?

[00:30:29] Slix - Poliwager: tempted to just say the one that I trained in Diamond that I liked so much. but for this, if it's, if it's only six and I only get six, I'm going to have to probably choose Poliwrath for the first one.

[00:30:42] David Hernandez: Of course. Gotta go Pollywag.

[00:30:43] Slix - Poliwager: go Poliwrath. Yeah. I like Politoed too, but Poliwrath is, uh, is the original, so he's a little bit cooler, you know.

[00:30:50] David Hernandez: Ooh, okay.

[00:30:53] Slix - Poliwager: They're both cool. Um, I really like Furret.

[00:30:57] David Hernandez: Ooh, I like that one.

[00:30:59] Slix - Poliwager: I know that's kind of unique. I got a, I have a Furret plushie that's sitting right next to me. He's very long. But, uh, yeah, Furret's cool. Probably Gardevoir. Because Gardevoir was one of the first Pokémon that I ended up training like, to do semi competitive stuff in Gen 4.

[00:31:16] I'm gonna have to say Golem for one of those.

[00:31:18] David Hernandez: uh, regular or Alolan?

[00:31:20] Slix - Poliwager: Uh, regular. Yeah, I trained a lot of, Gravelers when I was playing Gen 1, so,

[00:31:26] David Hernandez: I think we all did a Golem back in Gen 1. I feel like that was kind of the default.

[00:31:31] Slix - Poliwager: But then nobody liked Geodude after that. It was like, he just lost all of his popularity.

[00:31:35] David Hernandez: Yeah, that's true. Four Geodude.

[00:31:39] Slix - Poliwager: Gosh. I'm probably gonna go with Hawlucha.

[00:31:42] Hawlucha's pretty neat. I liked, that was one of my favorite ones from Gen 6. Probably pick Toxicroak for the last guy.

[00:31:51] David Hernandez: Interesting. Why Toxicroak? Any particular reason?

[00:31:54] Slix - Poliwager: I like frogs. That's like, that's the, that's the short answer. All the frog Pokemon are really cool to me. Um, but yeah, I just think Toxicroak's design is really neat. And, I don't know. It's, it's cool.

[00:32:08] David Hernandez: That's fair, that's fair. Well, Slicks, thank you for coming on to the podcast. 

[00:32:13] before you do go, if people want to connect with you, if they want to check out your website, where can they go? By all means, please plug away.

[00:32:21] Slix - Poliwager: So, polywagger. net is the website. It's just the word polywag with an er at the end, dot net. Um, and then all of the other things that I talked about for the site are listed on there. So you can get to all of those through there. Um, I am currently on Twitter, Polly Weger's on Twitter. Um, my Twitter username is Polly Slix, P O L L I S L I X.

[00:32:49] Who knows if Twitter will be around for a long time, but I'm also on BlueSky now. And that's, I believe, I, the usernames are weird there, but I believe it's Slicks. polywager. net is my ad name for that.

[00:33:01] David Hernandez: Oh, wow. That's,

[00:33:03] Slix - Poliwager: Yeah. Cause you can, you can make custom names with domains on BlueSky, which is pretty cool.

[00:33:07] David Hernandez: oh,

[00:33:08] Slix - Poliwager: So I set that up, but I got to make one for, for PolyWager soon, but yeah, main place is PolyWager.

[00:33:14] We've got a discord server. If that's more your jam, um, we've got the forums, the adoptables, I'm elsewhere on the internet if you come and find me. So.

[00:33:28] David Hernandez: Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns. Follow all my socials and join our Discord community to stay connected by clicking any of the links in the description of this episode. Tune in next time for more episodes featuring more people, more stories, and more Pokemon. Until next time.