This game updates occasionally, trying to keep users engaged in the game by changing it up. Recently they celebrated their one year, and during that week they had a Pokémon fest in Chicago. That week also provided numerous updates for other users as well, such as double XP and candy and 1/3 the usual walking distance for eggs and buddies. However, the fear was full of crashes and server failures so the biggest fans of the game couldnt even play it. In addition, once they took away the fest week, they updated the layout of the gyms, making you have a specific amount of time to defeat one Pokémon otherwise it resets any CP you might have taken. Before that, you would attack a gym maybe 3 times, each time easier than the first, before you conquered. With this new update it makes it impossible to conquer gyms, especially if you arent at a necessarily high level like I am (23). And yes there are solutions to this, such as level up, and increase the CP of your Pokémon (to an extent since you cant increase it past what your trainer level allows) but for someone like me who lives in the middle of nowhere basically, I have little to no opportunity to level up at any rate, especially Since the XP needed to level up keeps getting more absurd. Needless to say, I am only able to play this game on vacations because of the location of which I live. Niantic has done a good job with the game and its safety features, but like all trends, they die off eventually, and less people are playing it (which is why they are updating it, keeping people interested) but they need to rethink how hard/ what kinds of updates they are making because this game is almost impossible to play for people like me who do not live anywhere close to civilization. I have enjoyed the time I get to play it, on vacations and such, but making it even harder to play has made me lose interest in this game and what it used to mean for so many other people like me.