I disagree entirely. Back when I used to just play Pokemon casually, there was no effort put into training my pokemon, so their names were always just the stock pokemon names. My whole party would just be fully evolved, disorganized pokemon.


Then I started EV training, IV breeding and team building, and that's when I really started to create quality pokemon that worked as a team. I put so many hours into breeding the perfect lil' guys that once I had them (even though really, at the end, none of them were perfect, just very close), I named them all, and they all gained a special little place in my heart. No longer was it lvl. 100 skarmory, it was lvl. 100 WOMBOCOMBO. No longer was it lvl. 100 empoleon, it was lvl. 100 Good Sir. No longer was it lvl. 100 Tyranitar, it was lvl. 100 SPARTA!!!!, no longer was it lvl. 100 shuckle, it was lvl. 100 Lamp Oil.


You see, the one thing you might get out of playing Pokemon the pro way, is a little elbow grease. If you learned anything from the show as a kid, it was that putting in effort and trying your hardest was what really created bonds with your pokemon in the end. There's nothing personal about calling your pokemon their stock names, but because I never put any special effort into any single one of them, they were never special enough to be worth having any emotional ties to. Hardcore pokemon gave me that personal tie. I was like Ash Ketchum x 100, and boy was my team fucking killer.