A thing that often leads to conflicts among trainers in Pokémon GO are spoofers. Now, Niantic wants to take stronger action against these players. We from MeinMMO show you what this is all about and what the community says about it.
What kind of players are we talking about? In Pokémon GO, there has been a significant problem with so-called spoofers for years. These are trainers who cheat in the game and use rooted devices and corresponding software to manipulate the game, allowing them to position themselves anywhere in the world without actually being there.
They often don’t just go about their business in the game; instead, they annoy other trainers by constantly emptying the gyms and preventing them from earning coins. For this reason, honest players of Pokémon GO have long been demanding that something be done about this plague.
Now there is a small glimmer of hope that spoofers will have a harder time in the future. We show you what it’s all about.
Niantic plans stricter measures against spoofers
On June 23, Niantic announced via their Twitter account that there will now be new regulations to enforce their player guidelines and terms of use for all Niantic games. This was followed by a reference to their homepage, where more details are outlined.
What do the guidelines state? According to the new guidelines, there will be stricter measures against players who cheat not only in Pokémon GO but also in other Niantic games. Niantic initially refers to the numerous reports they have received from frustrated trainers regarding the cheating behavior of other players.
Since the last update on this topic was more than a year ago, Niantic wants to explain what their next steps are and what they are working on. It can be read on their site:
In our last post, we primarily focused on providing an overview of the actions we have taken to penalize accounts that we have classified as fraudulent in several Niantic games. Since then, we have invested in better monitoring of cheating behavior and can now identify these activities more reliably, quickly, and accurately to prevent legitimate players from being unfairly punished.
As a result, we will be taking a more rigorous approach to this behavior in all our games and implementing our improved approach to combating cheating. We are now beginning to take action against a number of accounts that we have identified as violating our terms of use or player guidelines during recent in-game events in Pokémon GO.
This is just the first step in implementing our enhanced systems for detecting and enforcing cheating behavior. These improvements will be integrated into all Niantic games to consistently and continuously identify and punish players, rather than in waves as we have done in the past.
In the future, we will continue to improve our methods and processes to ensure that we are always one step ahead of any new behaviors that allow players to exploit the game rules unfairly.
via nianticlabs.com
Additionally, Niantic references their player guidelines on their homepage and what to keep in mind when using the games:
Please only use the official versions of our games available in the Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and Samsung Galaxy Store. Note that we do not support rooted or jailbroken devices or third-party apps. If you are unsure about what behaviors are acceptable in our games, please read our player guidelines.
via nianticlabs.com
What will change? Niantic has been working for some time with various consequences when players are caught spoofing. These range from a warning to a soft ban of a few days, up to a complete exclusion from the game.
In the past, they often implemented these in so-called ban waves. Numerous accounts were classified as cheaters by the system, resulting in various bans. However, this system was not entirely reliable.
Often, even players who did not cheat at all, like Spieltrend, the most well-known German YouTuber regarding Pokémon GO, were affected.
Now this procedure is said to have been revised and will continue to be adjusted. Thus, Niantic intends to implement an improved system that better detects cheaters and takes immediate action against them. For this reason, there should be no more ban waves.
The first consequences against spoofers in Pokémon GO are expected to follow soon. A player shows how bad spoofers can really be in the following article:
Trainers are skeptical: “Please actually do something!”
On social networks, trainers are skeptical regarding the announcement that stricter measures against cheaters will be implemented. Many have been fighting for a long time for spoofers in their vicinity to finally be punished and have had little success so far.
Many hope that something will finally happen and that spoofers will be held accountable. On Twitter, the following comments can be read:
- reladude: “You talk a lot, but the fact is, I’ve been reporting spoofers in my area for a year. I’ve even given you times, places, and accounts of the spoofers, and still, nothing has been done. Listen to the people who give you information so that legitimate players can enjoy the game.”
- SwgTips: “I can imagine that a whole bunch of trainers who walk 200 km a day will take a break here.”
- DanOttawaPOGO: “There have been a number of discussions on this topic when I reported a trainer who walked 230 km in a day. As long as Niantic doesn’t restrict cheating, people will cheat.”
- MTemplar07: “Please actually do something!”
- DalekYuna: “This is the ‘We pretend to do something every few months’ post. Spoofers put too much money into the game. That’s why you’ll never really take action against them, because they are a source of revenue. Otherwise, you’d go after the spoofing apps that alter your code.”
Whether Niantic will finally put an end to this problem in Pokémon GO and actually take stronger action against spoofers, or if it will just be hot air, remains to be seen.
What do you think about spoofing in Pokémon GO? Do you find it okay? Or are you hoping for tough consequences from Niantic soon? Feel free to share your opinion here on MeinMMO in the comments and exchange ideas with other trainers about it.
I have also dealt with this topic and don’t find spoofing as bad as everyone says. What I mean by that and why spoofers can even help honest players will be shown in the corresponding article.
