"My wholesome Moltres Day experience"

#PokemonGO: I live in a small city in New England, and there’s a fair amount of people playing Pokémon GO when I’m out walking my dog. I recently picked up GO again after a two year hiatus and I’ve been pretty addicted! They fixed a lot of my gripes that I had at launch and now I’m a daily player. Moltres Day was my first attempt at a bigger raid, as I’ve had no interest in the Regis. My two friends who are regular players went into town with me to begin the hunt. I asked a lot of questions as I had no idea what to expect and I was pretty excited!We walked to the gym at the local fire department because we’ve seen a lot of people there for the Regi raids, but it was a ghost town! I decided that we should wait a while to see if anyone shows. Sure enough, a mother and her young son approached. The son looked a little shy and the mother was all smiles, I couldn’t hear what they were saying but I assumed she was trying to hype him up. I shouted over to them, “Hey there!” “Hiiii!” “Moltres Day?” The kid started beaming. The mom recommended that we wait because her friend with more kids would be coming soon. Then a van with 8 kids rolls up and they’re running over all smiles. I did some small talk with the moms before we all jumped in to the raid. The kids were so funny and shouting elementary insults at Moltres: “why can’t I catch this freaking poop head?!” “This dork needs to die!” etc. After everyone caught Moltres (but me), they asked if they could show me their shinies and their strongest Pokémon. They had cute nicknames for everything, told me about stories of when they were with so-and-so and they saw this crazy rare Pokémon. It reminded me of what made Pokémon so special at that age, just chilling with friends and getting totally wrapped up in the Pokémon world. The moms invited us to walk with them and try to get more Moltres. “We’re gonna take over the whole TOWN!” one kid said. We humbly obliged and walked about a mile and a half with them, talking the whole way and taking down Moltres after Moltres. I was probably the most social of my two friends, and the kids seemed to take a liking to me. “You’re so tall! If I was as tall as you, I wouldn’t have to worry about any bullies...” “Yeah, if I was that tall,I’d just... I’d just walk right OVER THEM!!” I was bullied a lot when I was a kid so I commiserated with them about bullies for a while and offered my advice. By 4:45, with fifteen minutes til the end of the raid, my friends and I decided to call it quits. The kids asked if we could exchange friend codes and we all became PoGo friends. Upon seeing my friend’s username, one of the kids exclaimed, “YOU’RE (name redacted)?! I see you at all the Mystic gyms! Your Pokémon are crazy!!” My friend, who is not one for anything pertaining to children, flashed this sheepish smile that I have never seen on him in the last 17 years I’ve known him.All in all, I think it’s important to remember that Pokémon GO is supposed to be a fun game with kids in mind. Of course there are layers to appease the older crowd and series veterans, but there’s no reason to take it seriously to a stressful level. I didn’t catch a single Moltres, and we participated in over a dozen raids, but it didn’t matter to me! I had some great talks with these kids, and it was super humbling seeing these kids I absolutely would’ve been friends with back in the day going through the same game-related childhood joy that I had. Great times. Can’t wait for the next community event. via /r/pokemongo https://ift.tt/2O2ujDW