Niantic brings down the hammer on ‘Pokémon Go’ cheaters, bans them permanently

Niantic hasn’t really taken kindly to cheaters and now they’re dishing out harsher punishments for those who use things like GPS spoofing, bots, and other software that’s allowing Pokémon Go players to game its system. Permanent bans are in the future of players who use GPS spoofing to catch Pokémon restricted to certain areas or regions, or those who use bots to automate certain parts of the game. What classifies for banning is: “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.”

It isn’t exactly clear how Niantic will be able to detect these activities but the company says they want to “provide a fair, fun and legitimate game experience for everyone.” And if you’ve suddenly been banned from playing the game by mistake, you can appeal it through this form.

Source: The Verge

‘Pokemon GO’ reminds you not to catch Pokemon while driving

At this point, if you haven’t heard of Pokemon GO, we’d think you’re living under a rock. The extremely popular augmented reality game has gotten so much hype and an addicted fan base that aspiring trainers (what you call the players in the game) have been playing the game no matter what situation they’re in—even while driving. That’s why Pokemon GO’s creator Niantic has released a minor update to the game reminding us to not catch Pokemon while driving. A prompt will keep showing up on your phone that reminds you not to play while driving and you’ll have to tap on the “I’m a passenger” button to resume playing. Of course, someone who’s driving can easily just tap on the button and say that they’re the passenger even if they aren’t. But what Niantic has done in a previous update is improve its scanning technology so it’s less likely you’ll spot Pokemon while in a moving car than by foot.

Source: GeekWire

Niantic admits bug causes catching difficulty in ‘Pokémon Go’

As Pokémon Go launches in more countries, more issues are also being brought to light with the game. One issue which people thought Niantic purposefully did was making it harder to catch even the lower level Pokémons. And they weren’t talking about this for a while, until recently that is. The developer finally announced on its Twitter account that the difficulties encountered while catching Pokémon, reduced accuracy while throwing, and the lack of bonus XP are part of a bug they’re currently fixing. Niantic didn’t say though when the bug will get fixed but hopefully they do it soon so the play quality doesn’t suffer.

Source: SlashGear

Niantic CEO’s Twitter account gets hacked

Niantic CEO John Hanke joins the list of high-profile Twitter users to get hacked. On July 31^st, a series of tweets appeared on his feed with the hashtag OurMine. The hackers claim it came from Brazil, where his company’s game Pokémon Go has yet to be released. Interestingly enough, OurMine is an actual company that claims to assess social network account security—making it seem like the hack is a marketing stunt that encourages users to upgrade the security of their profiles. The public’s reaction to the hack though is generally negative as they claim it’s a poor way to get that message across or even to express any criticisms about the game.

Source: CNET