"I am taking my first break from the game since 2016, and I feel RELIEF."

#PokemonGO: I am not Catholic, but I do like to participate in Lent, and this year I have given up PoGo. It's my first break from the game since the release four years ago. I used to play the game casually for fun, but I have been a serious, legitimate addict of this game for over two years. I have not missed claiming a daily research task once since they were released. I've participated in every Community Day. At times, I've even prioritized this free mobile game over my wife and infant son.Today is my second day without the game, and it's honestly a relief. I haven't been obligated to complete my daily checklist of activities. I haven't spent annoying amounts of time deleting event hat Pokemon. I have more brain capacity to just think about other things rather than being glued to Discord to see if there's possibly a raid group forming for a clone Charizard. I would highly encourage others to think about whether they should take a significant break from the game as well.As I've been reflecting on the game and myself over the last two days, I wanted to share some thoughts that I think all players should consider moving forward.You don't own any of this data. Pokemon Go is unique to the traditional games because all of your data is owned by Niantic. That means if they accidentally delete your account (which has happened to some) or if they ever decide to shut down the game, you're years of collecting are completely gone. It's not like Let's Go where you have a local saved file on your personally owned device. Your time, effort, and money have all been sunk into something that you will, someday, never be able to see again.Niantic is playing to your addiction and FOMO. Niantic ensures you keep playing by creating nonstop events, limited-event windows, and other temporary endorphin highs that pull you back in the game. Please realize that every limited event or rare opportunity always comes back around (Lick/Psychic Gengar raid day is back this weekend for instance), and sometimes they come back even better (shiny versions or better movesets). Yes, you may have to wait a bit for the next opportunity, but don't run your life around this game. If you really can't live without something, you can trade for it until it comes back around.Niantic has a lot of issues, and you should not give them your trust and money blindly. The game has a ton of bugs that this community has reported countless times, but we have yet to see fixes. Support is terrible, which we have already documented often in this sub. On top of that, their communication and management around the game is so bad that it's arguably illegal - documentation of shiny/hatch rates in eggs, incorrect or altered shiny/spawn rates during events, etc.This was designed as a free. mobile. game. All three of those words should indicate that this game should just be played for fun. If it is a burden, if it makes you angry, if it makes you feel negatively at all, then it has too much power in your life. Something that's free, something that's designed to simply run on a mobile device, and something that's just a game should never be given the authority to make you feel obligated or trapped.I hope this helps others maintain a healthy relationship with this game. It has definitely helped me in the last two days. Right now, I don't actually know if I'll come back to the game after Lent. It seriously feels freeing to not have the app on my phone right now.TL;DR - I have played the game since release and was a legitimate addict. I deleted the game for the first time and feel palpably relieved. I've now had time to reflect on the game and shared some thoughts to hopefully help others find a healthy relationship with PoGo. via /r/TheSilphRoad https://ift.tt/2I51l5b