Right now the gyms around me are filled with CP 2000+ pokes, so either those folks did a lot of playing/evolving before the updates or they’ve spent an inordinate amount of time post-update scouring the city for pokemon. It’s the ultimate in “sad” when you are in an urban area with stops and gyms everywhere, and the “Sightings” list has a single zubat. I honestly have not caught a “new to me” poke since that update, and not for lack of trying (and I’m far from having my pokedex filled). Combine this with the fact that it’s become markedly more difficult to catch even the weakest of pokes without needing multiple throws and having them escape 40% of the time, and the game is simply no longer fun. At home it’s even worse, with nothing at all most times I walk, and maybe a weedle or a pidgey when something does pop up. Post update I have literally seen nothing but zubats, pidgeys and clefairys in the 4 block radius around my building. When I am downtown working, pre-update I saw a lot of pidgeys and zubats, but a decent number of other pokes mixed in too. Since the update that changed the tracking screen it seems like the frequency and variety of Pokémon available in the areas around me have dropped dramatically. I’ve pretty much given up on the game at this point. The only downside is that we got home too late to have chili for dinner.

But fire up some “gotta catch 'em all” and suddenly we’re going places with little-to-no regard for her “safe spots”. She’s tried ECT, every anti-depressant known to man, Xanax, Clanozapam and who knows what else, all with temporary improvements at best. I swear, this game has worked better than any therapy or medication for my wife. She informed me that while we were out, she wanted to head to the outlet mall because she had heard there were some rare Pokemon showing up there. I asked her why she got all dressed up to go to a parking lot for 2 minutes. In what seemed like mere seconds later, she comes charging down the stairs with her hair done and full makeup on, demanding that we immediately head out to said parking lot since she hasn’t seen a Squirtle yet, much less caught one.

Went inside, did my shopping, came home and casually mentioned to my wife that I stumbled on the Squirtle while I was out. In the parking lot I checked out my Pokemon Go to see if anything was around. Last night I went to the store to pick up the makings for chili.

Monster collecting games