'Pokémon GO' News, Updates: Niantic Is Taking Steps to Stop Spoofing
"Pokémon GO" is an augmented reality (AR) game that has captured the imagination of many trainers both young and old. With its slogan "Get up and Go," players are prompted to walk around in contrary to just sitting idly by, but some cheaters have found a way to get around this — through spoofing.
For those who are unaware, spoofing is the act of using various apps and online tools to move around without actually getting up and walking. In effect, what this does is it allows those players to hover around some gyms and strike when they need to without being physically present. This messes up the competitive field especially for the dedicated trainers.
Luckily, Niantic has already expressed that they've heard the community's woes and are working on a solution. The company is currently working on a tool that will help them track those who use spoofing mechanisms and lay the necessary penalties, although it may prove to be challenging.
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According to Pokémon GO Hub, these are the current debacles that they may be facing:
- Niantic doesn't have automated tools to group similar reports yet
- The team is busy with current feature development and they're addressing more pressing support tickets
- "Google is slowly helping out on their end" — no further info was shared, most likely referencing the Android 7.1 update
While it is recognized that there will be hurdles along the way, the fact that Niantic is now taking an aggressive step toward this problem is definitely something worth celebrating. It only shows that they are taking the players' experience into account, and hopefully it will create a leveled playing field.
"Pokémon GO" has launched several events in hopes that the players who have lost interest will come back. The latest was the "Pokémon GO" Eggstravaganza which just recently ended. While it did have some traction, hopefully the spoofing fix will bring back even more trainers into the game once more.
