Musing about the Old Gym System vs New Gym System

To answer your question, in my opinion, yes. But it still would have favored the high level players and made it tough on beginners. Clearly Niantic wants a system where a new player can take down many of the gyms they see.

Neither.

The only thing I like better about the old gyms was that I controlled how many Coins I earned per day. Everything else about the new gym structure is much better. There are more of them now, which is better, and no gym is too much to take down; any semi-serious Gym with 10 defenders was a lot of work to take down so too heavily favoured mid to large groups of players over pairs or solo players of almost any level. Also, being able to feed berries to defenders to get Stardust is a nice way to make use of berries that most of us just toss out anyway. (seriously, I keep forgetting that I have Nanab berries until I look at my catch screen and see 45)

Overall, again the only thing better about the old system was that I controlled how many coins I got. I could get 10 per day fairly easily, but if I wanted to risk it, I could get up to 100. I don't mind how it dropped to 50 per day, but I do mind that I'm not in control of when I get those coins.

The old system sucked.

The new system also sucks.

The thing I don't like about the new system is that it's too easy. I don't even have to bother dodging, which in turn has eroded my dodging skills. Most of the time, I've killed the mon before it can even get a charge attack off.

I think this could easily be fixed if the motivation decay started with a delay rather than immediately. Maybe give it a 4 hour window from first placement and 0.5-1 hour after a golden razz (maybe only within the first 24hrs) where there is no motivation decay. That way a higher level trainer can take up the challenge of fighting a strong gym.

The fact that my guy has already lost some CP before I've even finished spinning the stop post battle or that my cloyster has 3x the CP of the dragonite I'm fighting is pretty ridiculous.

My best "challanging" gym:
- Old gym structure (level 10, prestige, coins, stardust)
- One specie per Pokemon
- Old CP decay

They instantly removed the little dept of the game by introducing the new gym system and raids.

How to make a game as casual as possible... written by Niantic

Let's face it, the new gyms are rubbish. Does anyone get any actual enjoyment out of them or are you doing them for the coins? As the only way of getting hold of in game currency without actually spending real money, we go through this laborious process everyday, usually getting through a demotivated gym with just the one Pokémon. I'm not saying the old system was without flaws, but at least it made you think, it made you use a wide variety of mons, it gave you a sense of achievement & you got to show off your best mons for all to see. Limiting the gyms to 1 mon of each type & a much slower motivation decay system was all it needed. They want co-operative gameplay when it comes to raids, why not encourage it for gyms? Being able to spin the gym disc is for me, the only good change made with the new system. While we'll never go back, I really hope they devise a system that brings back the competitive edge & delivers a much better experience than we're getting at the moment.

The new gym system is better, except that motivation decays too quickly. I hardly ever use type counters for gyms anymore, because if the defenders have been there for any length of time, I can sweep through them very quickly with a single generalist. It is too easy now, but at least everyone can play. With the old system, only level 30+ players could participate in gyms at all, and the minimum level was continually increasing, due to the CP ordering. And prestiging against Blissey was not fun.

And yes, people have more access to strong raid bosses now (e.g. T-tar and Machamp), but those mons still need to be powered up.

I would like it if gyms took 5-20 minutes to take down solo. 45+ minutes (old system) was too much, and 90 seconds (new system) is not enough.

I agree that the new gym system is bad (too easy!), and the old gym system was bad (too hard!).
Why couldn't they find some middle ground and say:
1) Limit occupants to 8.
2) Limit occupants to 1 of each type (as now).
3) Eliminate this ridiculous 'decay of motivation' all together.
4) Mix up the mon placement order (so its not biggest CP on top), go with 'first in/first battled' (as now).
5) Resume 10 pokecoins/per day - for each mon you have occupying a gym somewhere. That rewards you for defending instead of getting rewarded for failing to hold the gym! (which makes NO sense!).

My two cents worth - sort of a mix between old & new, but far more interesting than gyms are now, and more of a challenge, but not impossible for newbies.

I think the best answer might be to have both novice style (new version) and master style (old version) on the board simultaneously. And maybe an intermediate version with more spots and slower decay. Increasing rewards for greater difficulty. One species per gym across the board. Only the person who defeated the gym can place a legendary and go back to first in is last to leave. So, every battle would end with a different legendary to defeat. On days when high level players didn’t have the time to group up or place in high level gyms, you could still sweep a couple of beginners for coins. Thoughts?

I have read all the posts. My two cents worth is that the new system is much better than the old system.

I like the old system more fun and intellectual challenge not because of coins. Who on earth would spend all that time for 50 or 100 coins/day (.5 or 1 US dollar) make no sense to me.