"I absolutely love this meta called gym stagnation"

#PokemonGO: From my experience, this is the best gym meta we've ever had in the game. Not talking about how there is always a Dragonite on top (that's actually a bad thing), but about the new training meta and the building of high level gyms.When we first started the game we witnessed every possible gym changing colors every 5 minutes as a result of many people playing to get those 10 coins. Now people seemed to be very happy with that, but I was not. A gym, in Pokémon games, is a place with strong trainers and a great leader that represents a high point of your adventure.When I first started playing the game and learnt that I, myself, could be a gym leader, I was extremely excited and started to play as much as possible to reach level 5 and look for my first gym. When I first did it, I walked home with the biggest smile possible. Less than an hour later, reading stories on the internet, I learned about the pokecoins and how to claim them. I checked the game aaaand my gym was gone. Little by little I learned that I could never be a gym leader, just leave a Pokemon in a random place for 5 minutes and claim 10 coins. That was a disappointment to my expectations of the game. But well, I moved on, and my daily routines of walking were just catching and hatching, and eventually take that one gym every day.Fast forward, 3 months later. I've completed my Pokédex (still no regionals and the lucky Lapras hatch though). The game has been great despite its problems, but I have now completed it. I no longer have the desire to play except for opening the app when I'm doing a walk. But don't get me wrong, the game is not dead, and I will jump back in whenever they announce cool updates, release the legendaries or a new generation. But hey, actually the last update got me back into the game. I'll explain how.Reading about the gym stagnation, I decided to check my city and see how is it going. I saw very strong gyms, some even more than level 7 that would hold for some days. Now that's a Pokémon gym like the ones I know, a place with strong beasts and trainers, very difficult to challenge. I got into my car and drove around the city looking for my team. There were really strong gyms and I went to them. After a difficuly training, I was able to join them. Now I'm part of a real Pokémon gym. This stronghold would be untouchable for days, but it got taken down. But no worries, I've been playing this game since the update so I noticed I was defeated and came back to reclaim the gym.For the first time ever, I've been able to get more than 50 coins every day. I can buy more incubators and now, which motivates me to walk. I'm casually watching the gym activity in my area, and I'm collecting coins easily for when the next generation comes.TLDR: Gym meta is not perfect, but the last update brought me back into the game. Gyms are actually the difficult challenge I was looking for, and holding a gym now means something more than "you have now 5 minutes to claim your 10 coins". Good job Niantic.Edit: minor text fixes via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2e2yFv9