Interview with Ray (Pokémon Elite 2000)
An interview with a classic Pokémon fan website that operated between 2000 - 2007, featuring news and information on various Pokémon products.
Back in the early 2000s I would frequent many Pokémon fan websites for the latest news and information on the series, but there were a handful that I would check more regularly due to their reliability as a good resource of information. One of those websites was Pokémon Elite 2000 (PE2K), a now defunct website which offered the very latest Pokémon news, information on each of the video games, anime, trading card game, and a sprite resource made up of assets from the games. The website opened on August 28th 2000, and was run by volunteers from around 2007, before finally closing for the final time in 2015.
PE2K was a personal favourite of mine, and a community I was sad to see disappear. Today, I am honoured to be interviewing its founder, Ray, to share his thoughts and memories about the community he created.
Firstly, can you please introduce yourself to our readers, and tell us a little bit about the origins of PE2K?
Ray:
Hi, my name is Ray. I created the Pokémon fan site PokemonElite2000.com or PE2K.com back in August 2000. But I didn't even have a domain back then when I started in the year 2000. The domain name came much later. It was just known as a website called "Pokémon Elite 2000" on Yahoo GeoCities initially. The name "Pokémon Elite" was already taken on GeoCities, so hence the 2000 (the year it was created and it sounded okay, glad it wasn't 1999 or 2001).
Many other hosting services came later, and many of them were free services because, well, I was a poor teenager. It wasn't until later that I integrated Google Adsense (something that didn't even exist when I created the website) that I was able to afford reliable paid hosting, and eventually a more robust dedicated server to host the website and forum. For many years, the website was able to generate enough money for me to pay for college, and running the website was my only job during my college years.
Back in the year 2000 when the site was launched, the internet was still relatively new and people were told to not use their real names (I was 14 when the site launched). Even though plenty of people used their real names, I decided to go with the name Ryan instead of my real name. It was the name of my childhood friend, and I always liked the name Ryan, and it is also close enough to my real name that I felt comfortable with people calling me that (as in there’s the letters R-A-Y in Ryan). I was actually very consistent about this and it wasn't until after the closure of the site that people knew my actual name was Ray.
How did you first get into Pokémon, and what were some of your memories of the series growing up?
Ray:
I started with playing Pokémon Red! I really wanted Pokémon Blue, but Pokémon Red was more available, so that was the one I played. Naturally, at that age, my parents didn't want me to spend too much time playing video games, but I did my best to hide and play the game as much as I could, including playing inside the bathroom and playing underneath my bedsheets after bedtime. I really enjoyed the show as well.
Bathroom gang! I caught many shiny Pokémon there when I was a kid! [Laughs.] Did your parents ever find out you were playing without their permission?
Ray:
Yes, I was caught a lot and the Game Boy was confiscated at times, lol. But nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? :)
What encouraged you to create a Pokémon fan website in the first place?
Ray:
I was 14 at the time and was a huge fan of Pokémon and visited a lot of Pokémon websites, but I felt like a lot of the websites at the time were missing something or could do something a little different that would make the whole experience better. There was a lot of Pokémon news at the time, and I had to go to many different places to get all the information I wanted. So one of the focuses I had was to cover news efficiently. The other focus was to provide helpful game information in an organized manner. And later on, the forum was a popular aspect of the website as well.
During your time running PE2K, what were some of your favourite announcements from Pokémon, and highlights from the community itself?
Ray:
There's too many to list! When Pokémon Gold/Silver was announced, that was a huge deal with new Pokémon being added to the mix. And then Pokémon Diamond and Pearl being the first Pokemon games on the DS was an exciting announcement as well. The first Pokémon movie was an amazing experience, to see so many Pokémon fans gathered in one place. And then later on I was fortunate to be able to attend even larger gatherings of Pokemon fans like the Pokémon World Championships and Party of the Decade (Pokémon's 10th anniversary event). Some of these events are still documented on my YouTube channel.
What was the reason for the closure of PE2K?
Ray:
My involvement with the website and forum slowly diminished around 2007 as I got busy with college and other hobbies (mostly other video games). 2009 is when I started working my first job outside of my website, so that afforded me less time to work on the website. In 2015, the website was no longer accessible. In the later years, I had to battle a lot of server issues, as the website generated a lot of traffic and a lot of issues, causing the server to be slow, and had attacks by spam bots. I would spend countless hours trying to resolve server issues, looking through guides and talking to server techs, but I was not trained in this area, so it was definitely tough for me. In hindsight, I should have handed over the website to someone to take over the website completely and take care of all the issues. I knew there were plenty of people in the community [who were] willing and had expertise in that area, to tackle these issues. That is something I regret not doing.
You mentioned regretting the decision. What was the reason you felt you couldn't hand over PE2K to someone else at the time?
Ray:
I'm still trying to understand what I was thinking at the time. Perhaps I was just scared of letting it go? Having worked on the website for so many years, the thought of it was just tough in many ways, to give away the baby of a website to someone else. In the later years, I did open up a bit by having a staff produce news content for the website. But again, looking back at it, I should have taken steps further to have someone manage the entire thing and resolve all the server issues that were plaguing the website at the time.
Many Pokémon fan communities from that era have closed now, likely for various reasons. What’s your opinion on this?
Ray:
It's always sad to see communities that no longer exist, but I'm actually quite surprised to see so many that are still around and thriving! A lot of my moderators and staff created their own website after the closure of PE2K to form PokemonCrossroads.com. I was part of the effort of several Pokémon website creators that formed PokeCommunity.com. It was an effort to combine all our separated communities into one larger forum. I left that project later on, but I am glad to see it thriving to this day. I had no hand in creating the Pokémon URPG, but it called PE2K home for many years and I'm amazed at the things they are still doing today. And of course, many other websites like Serebii, Bulbagarden, Smogon, Pokebeach, Marriland, and many old and new fan sites are providing a great service to fans.
Do you think there is any possibility of PE2K ever returning?
Ray:
I had many moments when Pokémon Go was released that I really wanted an outlet to create Pokémon content again and engage with the community again. So, never say never. As tough as it was to manage a Pokémon website and forum, I do miss it. I actually do have old backups of the website and forum still. Though whether those backups work or not is another issue. Due to the sheer size of the backups, even backing up the stuff back then, specifically the forum, was quite the undertaking. Although I have played games like Pokémon Go and Pokémon Sword/Shield since the closure of my website, my Pokémon knowledge is nowhere near what it used to be, so it would probably be difficult for me to act as a source of Pokémon knowledge again.
Since the community shut down, the Pokémon franchise has continued to grow and evolve. At the time of writing, it spans nine generations with over 1000 Pokémon. What are some of your thoughts about the Pokémon franchise today?
Ray:
During my time working on my website, there was a lot of talk both within the Pokémon community and outside the community, that Pokémon is either dead or starting to die off like any other fad at the time. But look at Pokémon today! It was amazing to see the strength of Pokémon back then and amazing still to see it going strong today.
Thank you for taking part in this interview, Ray! Do you have any closing comments you would like to make?
Ray:
Thank you for reaching out for this interview! And thank you everyone that took the time to read through my mountain of text. :)
I wish to finish this interview on a personal note, with a message of thanks directly to Ray. Until this interview we hadn’t spoken for years, but I recall reaching out to you directly to talk about Pokémon way back in 2003 because I loved your website so much. I was no one special, yet you agreed that we could talk on MSN Messenger, and not once did you make me feel like a nuisance or a fanboy, despite me being both of those things. PE2K, and your kindness, was never forgotten. It has been a pleasure to put this interview together with you!
Interview conducted on March 7th 2023
Interview published on March 30th 2023
Reading this definitely brought back memories. I miss the days of PE2K. Reading the interview has certainly made me happy and remember the days of speaking with Ryan and becoming good friends. PE2K shutting down was definitely a sad day because it was then I lost a friend :(
Thank you so much for this interview.
I enjoyed reading this week's content a looooooooot. Thanks Ray, for taking your time to tell us all of the these things. These stories sometimes make me feel like what i was literally doing at those ages??! But everyone has a different story, yeah? İ wholeheartedly thank you guys for these incredible issues each week. İt is such a chance to be able to read them all. Well, you guys catch them all, and I will read them all, like no one ever was ;)