Holding gyms has become much more interesting, as well. It's not just a matter of putting a pokemon in a gym and maybe training at that gym a bit to raise its prestige, and then hoping everything goes well after I leave, which is how things generally went down back home. Now it's like... I can keep an eye on my gym whenever I want. I can make a short trip out to my gym whenever I have free time and train there for a while to keep its prestige up. It actually feels like I'm defending a gym, rather than placing my pokemon there, collecting my bonus, and moving on.
GRANTED, there are, of course, a fuckton of other Pokemon Go players here, so there are also a lot more rival team members who can also keep an eye on the gym and challenge it whenever they feel like, as well. But, the point remains, it feels a lot more involved. Not only that, but, the gym that I did take over is holding up a lot better than I thought it would. OwO