"Collecting and leveling up Gym Badges has given me a new end-game"

#PokemonGO: First off, I like the new gym system a hundred times better than what it was. I have way more coins now than I ever had, gyms don't take half an hour to bring down (I'm a solo player), the vast majority of players aren't beaten down into submission by the minority of top-tier players, and the gym line-ups and battles are way more interesting. Also, raids were a brilliant move.But the biggest reason I love the new gyms, is the incentive to collect badges and level them up. I'm big into traveling, and the gym map (which I'm sure will improve over time), has become a travelog of sorts. I love seeing where I've been and remembering the stories associated with each gym (like, "oh yeah, that's where I raided the Lapras with 15 strangers", or "that's where my Scizor somehow stayed in the gym for a week", etc).My new goal in the game is to get as many gold gym badges as I can, in as many different cities/states/countries that I can. And to build up my badges I'm incentivized to raid, fight at, and defend gyms as best as I can. I find myself excited to play again. I love going out and spending an evening building up my current badges and collecting new ones.If at some point I have a Gold badge in every gym within a 20 mile radius of my house, I'll then feel like I "beat" the game. But even then I'd still enjoy beefing up my "travelog" of gym badges every time I traveled.Level 40 has little appeal to me. Collecting all the mons is still a goal for me too, but it isn't one that you can actively do much about. I know that everyone plays the game for different reasons and enjoys different aspects of it, but collecting gold gym badges has finally given me the end game that I've been waiting for. via /r/pokemongo http://ift.tt/2u0c9vL