A new perspective on raids
Today I went ahead and challenged my first Level 4 raid- a Rhydon. There are 40 minutes left on the clock, and I thought there could be people challenging as well.
At first there were two other guys, but I couldn't find them, and they were in the lobby. The three of us tried but only managed to take the Rhydon to around a third of its HP.
The two guys found me and said, hey, there's only 3 of us, I don't think we can beat them. Then I assured them that we should wait another 5 minutes to see if anyone else is coming, and we analysed our squad and tactics.
A few minutes later a family with their son came along, along with another woman, who said, 'so are we gonna kick Rhydon's ass or what?'
Sure enough, with everyone's efforts, (even desperate Jolteons and twister gyarados thrown in the end), the Rhydon was down with 40s to spare.
What did I learn from this?
This world is not so hostile and that feeling of 'hey, you play pokemon go? Lets do it together!' came back, in a similar fashion to when the game first came out. The two dudes who I first battled with also gave me tips on joining local pokemon go facebook groups, battling, and Raid Egg/Pokemon tracker maps (at this stage, I really don't give a damn about ethics)
My advice: Try to join your local whatsapp or facebook groups, whilst taking care of privacy and only sharing information related to pokemon go purposes.
If you were a solo player before, don't be shy and talk to strangers. If they are engaging in a game like Pokemon Go, odds are they are not maliciously aligned. They are all playing this stupid game that smudges their phone screen.
If you are a rural player then the above doesn't really apply to you that well, but still do make an effort in trying to join some groups near your cities and keeping an eye out for raids :)
That's all for today folks :)
Answers
I used to be really discreet when playing PoGO, averting my screen, etc. Then I was joined in a level 3 raid by two rival team members, one of whom I had kicked out of the gym earlier. It was only awkward for a moment, and then it was fun defeating the vape together.
I didn't play at the beginning (thinking all these people were crazy... LOL), but I guess I'm getting an idea of what it might have been like. I'm looking forward to more joint raids and finally meeting the people I have "encountered" in the local gyms.