Rant: The New Update is a Massive F*** You to Suburban Players

I'm in a similar situation, but I have taken matters into my own hands. First up I have travelled to a bigger city to participate in raids and second of all I have stubbornly attended every level 3 and 4 raid I could find in my small town to find other people. I have also just started a facebook group. Last night I did manage to get 5 people to a Lapras raid and we got in on our second try. Even though I didn't actually catch the Lapras it was a great feeling to actually do a level 4 raid in my town. Something that I didn't think possible just a couple of days ago.

Brings a whole new dimension to this game. And I have had to force myself to be more outgoing and it's been very good.

Get online and phone is some spoofer backup.
??????
Profit

I also live in the suburbs and can feel your pain. Luckily though the gym turnover rate near me is just right. I have gotten the max payout every day so far except for one day where I was just two coins short.

As for raids, I have only been able to do a handful so far. Because (like you) I can't count on people spontaneously showing up for raids, I have been trying to develop a team of Pokemon to solo a level 3 raid boss even though I am only level 31. I don't think I am there yet.

Yesterday I planned an outing with two friends and we did four raids together. The best part though was when someone approached us just as we finished a level 3 raid. They guy said he leads a team of trainers that meet up each evening to take down a level 4 boss. He gave me information for their Facebook group, which is how they communicate.

This meeting happened by chance, so I was thinking about how I could have actively found this group, which is something all of us can try. I think I could have found and joined a metro-wide Facebook group for PMG and used that to find a more local Facebook group for PMG (either by finding a link to other groups or asking the group members).

Maybe give this a try and see if you can find others like yourself that would both enjoy and benefit from playing PMG together. Good luck!!

I couldn't do anything useful when waiting for the gyms to come back, and now I can't do anything because I'm disappointed to the point of depression. This game has revived me so much since last summer, even with all the lags and crappy phone. Now the energy has drained out of me, it's the second day I haven't gone out even to spend the free raid pass, going for groceries has never been so difficult. I had faith in the game because of improvements like the buddy system, Pinap berries, improved candy from evolved forms, gen2 coming so soon... I looked forward to feeding pokemon because it added some Tamagotchi aspect to the game, but of course I expected unmotivated Pokemon to return and to have actual reasons to defend. I wish I could look into the future to see whether it's okay to have hope or I have to force myself out of this addiction. Or at least fall into hibernation until the fest, by which time they should at least fix the bugs.

I'm feeling the same pain in the fact that defenders can stay days but not earn any coins. At least if they get some rewards, maybe stardust, to compensate for the effort, it won't be so painful.

Yes, suburban players are screwed!!
But this is what they wanted. they wanted to stop gym stagnation and put an end to the 10 blisseys in gym.

suburban players wanted spoofers gone because they took over all the gyms and collected coins daily but now all spoofers moved to the big cities and just do level 4 raids and take over gyms with high turn over suburban players are still suffering lmao!!

The is the best system ever. nothing have changed!

On the bright side, it is easier to get items with gyms functioning as stops. Overall though, I don't like the changes. I used to take solace in my 80-100 coins/day instead of the nearly unlimited items that urban players got (with fewer coins).
They should settle up coins for defending at the end of each day to 100 max (that is what an extra raid pass costs after all). When a poke gets booted, he gets the coins earned that day to go home with. They should change the payout to 1 for the first 10 min, 1 for the next 20, 1 for the next 30, and 1 for each hour thereafter. That would fix some problems.

I know it must be rough in more rural areas where population is a bit more scarce for PoGo. The only thing I can hope for you is that Niantic updates the gym defenders to give you an option to take your Pokemon back, whether it be by going back to the gym and manually withdrawing or withdrawing from anywhere. I'm an urban player, and even I think it's pretty silly that it's basically held hostage lmao.

You know what would be helpful since they keep pushing all this socialization requirement on us - a game associated messaging system. I've met some nice folks doing raids the last couple days and would love to have a way to know when they are in the area, etc. but I'm not going to give someone I just met my personal number.

My town had a Facebook and whatsapp group long before the raids came out, so we were well prepared for this! As for the gym stagnation problem, dual accounting is probably the only way to go. It's Niantic's own fault if they force players to break ToS to combat player base discrimination.