Level 10 Gyms
Anyone miss them?
Even just…a little?
Answers
I don't miss prestiging. The process of selecting low level pokemon takes a long time and if you live in a cold country, your hands will got frost bite.
I do miss winning over 10 pokemon in one go. I miss taking down multiple dragonite which are not motivation dependent.
Taking over gym in the old system is easier than taking over gym in the current gym before ex-raids with berry feeders, since gyms go down faster than prestiging.
Definately miss them.
Ironic thing: I expected the "1 per gym" rule to be put in to stop Blissey towers. But I never expected the decrease from 10 to 6, prestige gone, and decay. Those 3 ruined Gyms. They used to be a territory acquisition game.
How much effort team 1 put into Prestiging vs team 2/3 tearing.
It would have nice to try incrimental changes. Like put the 1 per species in for a month or two, see how that changed. Before changing Prestige +10 to Auto 6 with Decay
I miss it a lot. Blissey towers were not common in my area because shaving was rampant and basically Blisseys below 3000 cp would get shaved out fast, leaving gyms with 1-2 Blisseys at the bottom followed by Garys and Dragonites. I was lower level so taking them down was still a pain but at least I could guaranteed do it if I took the time and was willing to spend the resources.
I prefer that any time to the current system where most gyms can't be taken down solo anymore due to extremely aggressive feeding and people trying to be in 20 gyms all the time to grow their Gym Leader medal and number of gold gyms.
The way I see it, both systems have their upsides and their downsides and a better gym system would be something that combines elements of both. The best change to the current system would be to get rid of remote feeding or nerf it heavily. It's pretty much the only reason for city players to have multiple accounts so would be a partial solution to that problem also.
EDIT: also miss prestiging a lot.
Living in a high-density area, it was nearly impossible to get more than 10-20 coins a day under the old system for me, and that usually took a lot of effort. Collecting 60-80 coins off rural gyms with 0 turnover (after traveling to another part of the country to visit friends) was the only way I was able to amass any amount of in-game currency under the old system. Getting 50 coins a day now, while still labor-intensive a lot of the time, is very feasible.
That said, the current system has serious issues. Grazz are too powerful right now, for sure, and make gym battling both stagnant and tedious. Error 29 is stupid and should be handled very differently so that legitimate players aren't locked out of battles. Beyond that, the gym meta is stale and battling isn't terribly exciting or fun. However, bringing back the old system doesn't solve these issues (aside from the berrying) and comes with a whole host of other problems others have enumerated above.
The only reason I'd want to see the old system back is so that I could get a gold Ace Trainer medal...silver is staring me in the face all the time. Gyms do need a rework but the system before was broken.
I miss a number of things about the old gym system. It was a challenge to build gyms that were hard to take down, and a challenge to take them down, plus prestiging added another dimension, and made lots of now irrelevant mon relevant. So, this motivated me to always strive to improve my pokemon.
There were problems, lots of forms of abuse, just like now, lack of variety in gym inhabitants, impossible for casual players to participate.
There definitely are some things I miss, though.
Level 10 gyms
Pros:
1. Challenge and enjoyment for high level players
2. 100 coins available every day
3. Ability to build real life territory in a game that is built on real life exploration
4. Strong motivation to build up quality defenders gives players more wide ranging goals.
Cons:
1. Gyms were 100% accessible to low level players and difficult for players on minority teams.
2. Along with 1, 100 coins was impossible for many players.
3. Every gym looked exactly the same
4. Alternate/unethical strategies such as bubblestrat and gym shaving we're more beneficial
5. Spoofers had a much bigger advantage over legit players.
6. Defeating 5+ Blisseys all 3k+ is monotonous, tedious, and damn hard
7. As long as you had Machamp and Dragonite you had very little need for diversity.
My conclusion? The new system is far from perfect, but overall, I see it as an improvement. I would like to see a hybrid system: all unique mons, no motivation decay, some kind of optional prestige system with item/stardust rewards, and someway to encourage diversity.
Back with the old gym system I spent so much time doing gyms that I didn't have time to farm dust. Now that the gyms are easy, I get my 50 coins without trying and get to do some dust farming so that I can power up Pokemon to wherever I want to power them up to. Back then I never had above 250K stardust, now I'm racking up so much that I just powered up a lvl 6 Larvitar to lvl 40 just because I could.
Wait, don't you remember the 5K dust per day?? Toward the end of prestiging I could go for days with only 10 gyms and "collect" the maximum dust and coins, although for security I preferred to be in 12 gyms.
I do miss the walking game before which was the only realistic way to get strong mons (for those with no map access).