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At the heart of Pokemon is the idea of collecting. And 30 years after it began, perhaps the most interesting thing it has collected is, well, people.<\/span><\/p>\n Children. Parents. Competitive players. Casual players. Card collectors. Pokemon Go addicts. Cosplayers. Artists. Content creators. People who know the Pokedex by heart and people who simply think Psyduck is funny.\u00a0<\/span>Different countries. Different ages. Different languages.<\/span><\/p>\n And at Worlds, those differences weren\u2019t obstacles. You could approach somebody because of the plushie hanging from their bag. You could admire a pin and begin a conversation. You could be standing beside someone whose language you did not speak and still understand immediately why both of you had your phones out when a raid appeared. For once, staring at your phone while talking to somebody was practically a sign of friendship.<\/span><\/p>\n That may be the part I will remember longest: the strange ease of being surrounded by people who understood.<\/span><\/p>\n For five days in San Francisco, somebody built that world for real. It was crowded. It was exhausting. Everyone had come for slightly different reasons, but we all understood why everybody else was there.<\/span><\/p>\n