[quote=@CAS1006]
"Hey, you're ten. Go catch shit in tiny balls and make them fight things. Also Bidoof is just a gadget." 
[/quote]
You forget that once you've caught 'shit in tiny balls' you unlock special abilities which lead to new areas where you can catch other shit in tiny balls, which in turn unlocks newer areas and even more shit in even more tiny balls. XD

The biggest problem with Pokemon for me was the whole trading dynamic. Not so much that you could trade, which in my opinion is a good feature to have for such battling games, but because different versions of the games made it impossible for you to collect all the creatures unless you either knew someone else with the other version and who was willing to trade rare creatures with you, or had more than one device and a copy of each version so you could trade with yourself.

For me that was just blatant commercialism, a bit like the new wave of games where you buy figures in order to unlock sections of the game, new fighters and new features. More undisguised attempts to milk money out of people.