Pokemon Go experienced a meteoric rise in popularity when it was first released, from parents abandoning their children so they could go outside and play to people racking up $5,000 phone bills while trying to catch them all, it’s been a wild ride that seemingly leveled off once the first Pokemon Go porn parody was released – a sure sign that you’ve hit peak market saturation.
That’s not to say that people aren’t still playing Pokemon Go. By all means, it’s still one of the most popular phone games on the market today, but people are sick of walking around their neighborhoods and only finding Pidgeys and Rattatas. Who wants to walk 10 miles just to catch a Mankey? Not me, and certainly not you, which was why apps like PokeRadar, a program that shows you which Pokemon are near you and exactly where they are on a map, have become increasingly popular.
Except…
Niantic has updated their Terms of Service to include a clause where they’re able to ban anyone who uses these “cheating” apps. They call it cheating, I call it “using my resources” and “bitch it’s 95 outside today, I’m not walking 15 miles through a Washington DC hood just to catch a Staryu.” According to Niantic,
This includes, but is not limited to: falsifying your location, using emulators, modified or unofficial software and/or accessing Pokémon GO clients or backends in an unauthorized manner including through the use of third party software.
Our goal is to provide a fair, fun and legitimate game experience for everyone. We will continue to work with all of you to improve the quality of the gameplay, including ongoing optimization and fine tuning of our anti-cheat system.
Previously, players who were caught cheating only received a 12-hour ban, however it appears Niantic felt that a more harsh punishment was in order.
But this begs the question – how do you get caught cheating in the first place? Legally speaking, Niantic isn’t allowed to monitor users’ smartphone activity, which means in order to get caught using PokeRadar or some such app you’d have to be an idiot. Like, sprinting across town to catch a Dragonite and passing up everything that comes your way in the process sort of idiocy.
Personally, I think this is just Niantic’s way of trying to scare people into not cheating. Whether or not it’s practical and/or effective remains to be seen.
[H/T Mirror]