Interview with Poliwager
An interview with Slix, who is behind the Pokémon adoptables and fan website since 2010
Poliwager is a Pokémon fan website that was created on November 27th 2008, and is still active at the time of interview. On May 29th 2010, the website launched on the domain Poliwager.net, describing itself as a “small, friendly, fun-loving community that centers around Pokémon”, with a focus on adoptables. I’m happy to be interviewing Slix, the owner of Poliwager, who has kindly offered to tell us more about his community.
Slix, it’s a pleasure to be interviewing you about your website Poliwager! Please introduce yourself to our readers, and tell us about how Poliwager came together.
Slix:
Hi! I’m Slix, and it’s a pleasure to be here! I’ve been a Pokémon fan since I was about 6 or 7, when my older cousin gave me his copies of Pokémon Blue, Pokémon Pinball, and the Trading Card Game for Game Boy. I actually got the games before a Game Boy, so I had to beg my parents to get me a used Game Boy Color (I wanted green, but I got yellow instead). I ended up collecting a lot of Pokémon cards from various people in those early years since the initial Pokémon hype was a little bit past it by that point. I didn’t mind; Pokémon was the first real video game I got to play and I loved it! I’ve been playing the games ever since, and started getting the games when they were actually new starting in 2006 with Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team, and then with Pokémon Diamond in 2007. My favorite generation at this point is definitely Gen 5, and I love picking up White 2 still, there’s just so much to do in those games!
I started exploring Pokémon websites around 2006, and back then, there were tons of different fan sites out there, specializing in all sorts of different things. I wanted to help other Pokémon fans too, so in November of 2008 I sat down and created a few small web pages using an old program called iWeb. My original goal was to help fans with some of the more in depth Pokémon mechanics. I also was excited to make something I could share with my friends and family, since a website is both interactive and visual.
When you first launched the website in 2008, you originally had helpful guides and information on Pokémon, but the vision seemed to change, focusing on adoptable Pokémon and an emphasis on community. How did you come to this decision?
Slix:
At first, I wanted to make guides and info on Pokémon game mechanics, like how the Pickup ability worked, or how to earn Points for your Trainer Card in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. Just a few months after starting the site, in April 2009, I found a free forum website, which allowed me to create my very own forum. I had been on Marriland Forums during this time, and I wanted a place of my own to let people chat about the site, but it ended up becoming a small community of people that liked Pokémon, hanging out, and just having fun together.
Later, in June of 2010, I found another website that allowed people to create their own Adoptables site too, and from there, Poliwager Adoptables was born. Over the years, the Adoptables and Forums remained active, and I stopped doing the guides as much. I found that by this time, there were other sites that did those simpler and better than I could, and I preferred having a community that could participate in site activities together and chat together on Poliwager. We just enjoy having fun together!
The adoptables side of Poliwager was introduced on June 1st 2010, and during our research, we discovered you were a member of Global PokédeX Plus, another community that focused on adopting Pokémon. How did this inspire you to create your own version, and for the benefit of our readers, how does it all work?
Slix:
I was a member of GPX+! I was actually one of the most active users for a couple [of] years at the start of the site, and after all these years of inactivity, my overall “total rank” is still 341, haha. But I enjoyed my time there, adopting and raising Pokémon! It did inspire me to create my own adoptable Pokémon site. As mentioned before, I found a starter script website for making my own adoptables site, so at the start it was very basic, and basically only allowed users to adopt a few Pokémon species. When I started learning how to code more, I worked on making the site stand out in different ways from similar adoptable Pokémon sites that already existed, and I was able to create my own ideas based on different video game ideas I had.
How Poliwager Adoptables all works is pretty simple: users can adopt Pokémon eggs, and together, users on the site help them hatch and level up by interacting with each other. At the core, that’s what most users do, adopt and raise Pokémon. Users can do other various site activities like collect berries, unlock achievements, aim to win Legendary Pokémon through events, and fill in their Pokédex too! I was able to expand on these ideas each year, and with each generation of video games that came out more ideas and features were added to the site. There’s a little bit for everyone on Poliwager Adoptables. Some like collecting and raising Pokémon, some like climbing the leaderboards, some like customizing their character’s room design, and some like shiny hunting Pokémon on the site.
The forum originally opened on April 10th 2009 and continues to be an active community over fourteen years later, with almost 1000 members! What has it been like building an audience for Poliwager, and how would you describe your community?
Slix:
At first, Poliwager Forums was actually pretty active, and it took me off guard a bit! I had to learn how to manage users, ensure we don’t get spam bots, and figure out who would be good at moderating the site, quite quickly. Originally, many users came from other forums and sites I visited, but over the years more people have come from the Adoptables part of the site. It’s great seeing people join in and have fun together and chat about life, Pokémon games, the Adoptables, and whatever else is on their minds, and that’s why I continue doing it. I’d describe Poliwager’s community as fun-loving and pretty casual. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, and you can often find people chit-chatting with silly banter on the site.
Poliwag and its evolutions are clearly favourites of yours. What’s the story behind how they became your favourite Pokémon?
Slix:
I actually can’t remember the first time I really started to love Poliwag, but it was definitely pretty early on. Early merch and promotional materials of Pokémon featured Poliwhirl a lot more than nowadays, so I was exposed to it right away. I remember training a Poliwrath in Blue early on, and being excited I could catch one in the early routes of Crystal as well. I had a couple Poliwag cards from the Base Set TCG and they were among my favorites back then too. Poliwag’s line is just so cute! It seems there aren’t a ton of extreme Poliwag fans out there, so I’m grateful I can help give it some recognition through my site too.
You were also a member of the Marriland website, which started in the year 2000 and is still around to this day! What was your time there like, and what other fan websites did you used to visit back then?
Slix:
I joined Marriland Forums in November of 2007. A friend from school told me about it because he knew I liked Pokémon, but he ended up not sticking around. I was around during the Diamond and Pearl rush, the server upgrade to phpBB3, the switch to Curse with Azurilland Forums, and back to Marriland Forums before closing the forums for good in 2021. I spent a lot of time chatting on Marriland Forums while I was in high school, and being able to make friends there was great. It was a long, fun journey, and I still keep in touch with a few people on their Discord server in recent years.
I was on TPPC, an online Pokémon RPG for a bit, I was on Pokémon Crater before it was nuked, I was on GPX+ as I mentioned before, I visited PokémonElite2000 for their sprite archive, and I joined a few dozen random small Pokémon forums in those years too. It seemed that everyone wanted to make their own Pokémon forum or site for a few years! Being a part of various Pokémon fan sites in the years before social media and YouTube took off was really something special. Everyone had a place to hang out, it felt like.
Only a handful of Pokémon fan websites have been around for as long as Poliwager. What is the secret to retaining an active following and personal motivation to keep your community and website alive?
Slix:
I love what I am able to do with the website! I love being able to make fun new events, add cool new features, make friends, and explore the site myself. I’ve been motivated by the people who ask me to expand features of the site, or by random ideas I’ve had that at first I think I can’t tackle. We’ve had ups and downs in terms of activity over the years, as some users went away to school, or grew out of Pokémon, but there are always people looking for an online community that’s welcoming and friendly, and I strive to make Poliwager those things for people. The moderator team really helps keep everyone engaged and having a good time together too.
The secret to retaining an active following, I’d say, is to listen carefully to feedback and expand on things in a way that works for the site’s vision as well as what people want. Sometimes I need to sit on an idea for a bit before coming up with a proper solution. It can take time to get things right, but people luckily seem to respect and understand that. Every year I look back on what we’ve been able to accomplish together on the site, and I’m grateful I’ve been able to keep it going this long!
On the very earliest version of your website, you wrote that the goal of Poliwager was to help people with Pokémon. Do you believe that you have been able to achieve that, and do you still believe that statement to be true to this day?
Slix:
I think so! While the way that has been done has shifted from creating guides to helping people enjoy hanging out together while interacting with Pokémon, I think I’ve been able to play a small part in helping people with Pokémon over the years. I have a lot of random Pokémon game knowledge that comes in handy occasionally in conversations I’ve had with people too. I think one of the main goals I have today is to help people have a good time together with Pokémon as the focal point. I think I’ve been able to achieve that, thanks to the awesome community I get to be a part of.
Slix, it has been fantastic to speak to you about Poliwager, its community, and how it came to be. Do you have any comments you would like to share before we wrap this up?
Slix:
It’s been really great chatting with you! Thanks for letting me talk about my Pokémon passion and my site! See you around!
We are very thankful to Slix for taking the time to speak with us! Be sure to check out Poliwager on the links below:
Poliwager: https://poliwager.net/
Social media: Twitter, Facebook
Interview conducted on April 27th 2023
Interview published on June 8th 2023