"A (subjective?) opinion: The Pokemon Go Community is at it's strongest point now and why..."

#PokemonGO: Hello guys,I'm a occasional casual and occasional fanatical player. It took me one and almost a half year to get to level 35. I play for team Valor. Here is my observations about the community. You can stop reading if you think this is one of countless fan service, but I feel the community needs one big thumbs up. This is going to be about experience than details of the game itself.Players: It's a known fact that Pokemon Go players numbers isn't at the peak anymore. However I do believe that this weeds out the casual players. What it's left over, those are the diehards. I applaud you all for sticking throughout the labyrinth that Niantic sprung for us. I feel we are getting out of the labyrinth because of our resourcefulness (hello TSR). There is a solution or at least temporary solution for everything. We are quick to help each other.Raids (and the effect thereof): We had the gyms, the "normal" gyms before the raids started. If you had one person or two person with you, you could possibly take down a few gyms. However it's a common knowledge if you aren't team Mystic or together with a big group, you would get kicked out of a gym pretty soon. Most players quit over this fact saying it's not fair and that stuff. Then there came the Raids. Whether the Raids are fair or not, I felt this got the intended results of the pure Pokemon motto. Make friends, catch em together, battle the Gym for your own color when the Raid starts. However this got the fatique very fast. Not so many Trainers got as active as during the Legendaries. More on that later.Safari Zone: One event might be a disaster whereas the other is not I'm looking at you, Chicago Fest, but this brought the community together for real. Everywhere you could see a Pokemon player. No more awkwardly asking:*"Ehm, are you playing PoGo for instance?" or accidentally asking an innocent bystander "Are you joining us?" before making an awkward sheepishly face and saying: oh no nevermind. While not everyone could join the Safari Zone experience, I'm sorry, but the people there enjoyed their camaraderie feeling. Quick to help the other out with the power bank when their phone almost goes out, high fiving the other when the other does find a Shiny. Walking countless metres, catching countless Pokemon while bragging or discussing about a certain mon for IV or prowess, this made up for a fun day with the fellow Trainers, regardless of color.Legendary Pokemon: This is still not fixed in the entirity. But when Lugia and Articuno got released and it was confirmed that it was available for not a long time, this sent the community in a frenzy. Hurry! Catch! Valor? Whatever, come join us! This was the point that I started to see 40+ people showing up. It almost had the same feeling where the best trainers were invited to battle Mewtwo in the first movie. But then it was announced that every legendary would be available for a few weeks. After the first week of every new Legendary Pokemon, the group does thin out and what's left is still a considerable amount of Trainers. Mostly it's between 14 - 18 people. Those people show up 3 or 4 times a week at the Gym where the Raid starts. This has already gotten to a point where people were asking: How's your day so far? Did you catch a 100 IV already? Those people that still show up for the 30th Raikou, does this purely for the XP OR hunting for the 100% IV Legendary. One of them is purely for bragging rights. But it does give us excitement during the battle. Oh jeez, I have a 1609! Oh crap, I have a 1649, next time better" are the reactions. We are (at the moment) almost at the end of the whole legendary raids. We are on our last Legendary Dog. The next would be Regi Trio but when? That's not known.Events: One of the most significant events since Water Festival is Halloween. The feeling of catching a possible shiny was insane. First we got a Sableye. We focused on that while catching Duskull and Shuppet as a waiting game. Then there came a Shiny Duskull. People who already caught a Shiny Sableye had luck because people who didn't, was now focusing on TWO possible shiny. And there came Shiny Shuppet. You could almost hear us sighting in defeat. But no, we still banded together. Never saw I so many lured Pokestops in a while. And there came Pokemon Go Travel Catch Challenge. It almost felt New Year's Eve. So many projections, theories, discussions in a short timespan on TSR of how we're going 3 billion Pokemon in a week or more. So many screenshots of the whole city being lured. Double XP, Double Stardust! More Spawns! Regardless whether the numbers that Niantic told us are true or not, we f#cking did it!!! I believe that we did it!! It brought us the precious Farfetch'd of which I'm sure you all are busy catching 20+ of them to make sure you have it ;).Niantic: Oh dear, never have we had so much love-hate relationship with a company. I'm not going to point out what Niantic did wrong, that would be a long list. But I feel Niantic is steering the ship more clearly. Game wise, I think they're close to a sense of final game. Make the EX-raids available, release the regionals with another Travel Catch Challenge, release the missing Pokemon and there might be a point in a few months where there is only the next generation left to release. But for now I'm hopeful because of their communication during TCC.Final words: I'm proud of all you for sticking it out. Because we now have walked more, talked more with Trainers, caught more. It almost mirrors the atmosphere in the anime series. One big thumbs up for you all, fellow Trainers. And a big thank you for The Silph Road.With love,A Valor Trainer secretly Team Harmony via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2zHgMyx