"Scanners - From Hate and Reject to Love and Fun"

#PokemonGO: To all the Go players and any Niantic employees reading. (I can wish) This is my plea for Niantic to do something with scanners other than just sending a Cease and Desist. I still don't like them only because of the loads the put on the servers. I am not saying they are good for everyone, or even good for the game. Even if they made one themselves just for Ultra Rares or Pokemon that do not have nests. I was vehemently against all and any scanners. I started July 7th, 2016 in Ohio and it is now six months and nineteen days later, January 26th, 2017. Any time someone would mention using a scanner, I would call them a cheat and tell them it was overloading the Niantic servers and they are the ones ruining the game. When the game started, my wife and I were going out almost every night to find pokemon. Taking our dogs to the park, Sharon Woods (Ohio), and going to meet up with everyone at Jungle Jims on weekends. We even paid to get a Season pass with Sharon Woods and Pyramid Hill so we could get out, get exercise, and catch Pokemon while getting Pokestops and take the dogs with us. We went to the Reds games to watch the game and then hunt downtown after. It was something we enjoyed that we could do together. Three months or so go by and my wife has lost interest. I end up taking the dogs to Sharon Woods, or another local park myself on my days off while she is a work to get out, get the dogs out, and catch Pokemon. During this time I keep asking her to get back into it because it was something we enjoyed doing together. Then the cold starts coming in. I don't go out anymore. Its too cold / raining too much to take the dogs to the park. I end up playing the game only at work occasionally when the event was going on, or to get one or two Pokestops on the way home or to work. As it does in Ohio the temperature fluctuates, so I take the dogs to the dog park, but couldn't care less about if there are Pokemon there or not, I am there for the dogs. Then my wife gets a scanner. I ask why, I say that's cheating. She replies that there are groups that go out on weekends and do Ultra Rare hunts. Catching Pokemon I have never even seen anywhere but Gyms. Pokemon such as Snorlax, Lapras, Chansey, Tangela, Hitmonlee, Hitmonchan, Lickitung, and Dratini. In over six months, many of those going out almost nightly, these are pokemon I had never seen in the wild. Suddenly, we are going out on weekends again. Spending time together, walking around Jungle Jims on the warmer nights. Then when her or someones scanner finds something, we hop in our cars and go get it! I drive. No, I don't speed, I stop at lights and stop signs. If it makes us miss the Pokmeon, so be it. I have now found at least one of all those Pokemon listed. All of the Ultra Rare Pokemon found have been in areas of town I would Never travel to because I do not live there, and have no reason to go down the roads they spawn on, or even close to there. They are usually not even near parks or anything, just in some random neighborhood. My wife ended up buying and maxing out slots for her Pokemon storage and her bag (I maxed mine out early on) and spent money on buying a bunch of incubators to hatch when walking around. I bought a Go+. It has gotten us out and about again. It has given us something to do with each other more than the weekly Sunday night board games, or sitting at home playing Civ V together. Or her playing Sims 4 and I playing NMS. We have started spending money on the game again. We even started taking the dogs with us on car rides even if its too cold out to go to the park.The scanner has gotten us back into the game. TL:DR I was against scanners completely. Went from wife and I playing to neither of us playing. She started using a scanner, and we are playing and spending time together again. Spending money on the game because we are having fun. via /r/pokemongo http://ift.tt/2jzCN6q