(NOT A STORY)Chars31 Info
Yep.
Things were going great. I became addicted. For almost two years, this would become a second home, a sanctuary, basically a Matrix style hangout where I could literally escape reality, and go to a different world.
This continued until the beginning of the new millennium, when something happened in North America. That thing was Pokémania. Pokémon was literally EVERYWHERE, including in the slot on YTV previously reserved for DBZ. I jumped right on the bandwagon, having just turned 11. It was pure insanity how much Pokémon exploded, and I loved every minute of it. Had the games, cards, watched the TV show, watched the movies, everything.
And of course, because we in North America were confined to translation timeframes, I had to wait to see what the next big thing was in the Pokémon world, so naturally, I asked Jeeves to point me to the nearest chat or forum.
This is most likely how 90-95% of you got started, as one of the first 5 results was Charmander 31's Pokémon Chat. A geocities site using multicity chat form, similar to the DBZ page. The generic, licensed, copywritten image of Charmander greeted you against a black background with bright green writing. Only this one had some differences, the main one being it had TWO chat rooms, almost double the patrons of the DBZ in each, there was a higher population of females, and as opposed to the majority being DBZ characters, people did something they very seldom did in the other room...They made their OWN character, unique with their own traits, abilities and features. Another thing that majorly stood out about this place was what would be a key feature to the evolution(pun intended) of this chat, which was PM(Private Messaging).
After frequenting this chat for a while, it became very clear that it was a younger user base, ranging from 8-15 usually. And the ability to PM was integral for social expansion. You could literally fight with someone for 2 hours using your online character personas, WHILST PM'ing them talking about school, music, friends, whatever. You could combine what was happening in this fake realm with IRL.
This ultimately would put Chars31 at it's peak users, but also become part of it's downfall.
Things were going great. I became addicted. For almost two years, this would become a second home, a sanctuary, basically a Matrix style hangout where I could literally escape reality, and go to a different world.
This continued until the beginning of the new millennium, when something happened in North America. That thing was Pokémania. Pokémon was literally EVERYWHERE, including in the slot on YTV previously reserved for DBZ. I jumped right on the bandwagon, having just turned 11. It was pure insanity how much Pokémon exploded, and I loved every minute of it. Had the games, cards, watched the TV show, watched the movies, everything.
And of course, because we in North America were confined to translation timeframes, I had to wait to see what the next big thing was in the Pokémon world, so naturally, I asked Jeeves to point me to the nearest chat or forum.
This is most likely how 90-95% of you got started, as one of the first 5 results was Charmander 31's Pokémon Chat. A geocities site using multicity chat form, similar to the DBZ page. The generic, licensed, copywritten image of Charmander greeted you against a black background with bright green writing. Only this one had some differences, the main one being it had TWO chat rooms, almost double the patrons of the DBZ in each, there was a higher population of females, and as opposed to the majority being DBZ characters, people did something they very seldom did in the other room...They made their OWN character, unique with their own traits, abilities and features. Another thing that majorly stood out about this place was what would be a key feature to the evolution(pun intended) of this chat, which was PM(Private Messaging).
After frequenting this chat for a while, it became very clear that it was a younger user base, ranging from 8-15 usually. And the ability to PM was integral for social expansion. You could literally fight with someone for 2 hours using your online character personas, WHILST PM'ing them talking about school, music, friends, whatever. You could combine what was happening in this fake realm with IRL.
This ultimately would put Chars31 at it's peak users, but also become part of it's downfall.