Seeing as I was the one who originally triggered the Pokemon/Pocket
Monster name debate (with a private reply to a public FFML post, about
*another* dub-vs.-original name gripe) ... I guess I should weigh in with
my perspective on this.

I've been MUCKing - role-playing online - for several years now, primarily
on anime-oriented sites. I'm even working on opening my own MUCK in the
(hopefully near) future ... but that's so far off-topic I won't go into it
here.
In my years of MUCKing experience, I've observed that on most MUCKs,
players are supposed to take the original Japanese names of their 
characters - or they don't get the character. There *are* exceptions on
some MUCKs - including one MUCK I'm on where a player took the American
name of her (villain) character, and she's a *good* player - but for the
most part, the rule sticks for anime characters.

But not for RPGs such as Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy - and that's the
category which Pokemon falls into, since it started out as an RPG for Game
Boy. At least, that's how I usually look at it. Even on one MUCK where we
have a few Pocket Monsters anime characters (who are using the Japanese
names, more power to them! :), the Pokemon themselves are referred to by
their American names. (The other MUCK I'm on with Pokemon, we use American
names all around ... and it's still fun.)