A couple of weeks ago Pokémon Go developer Niantic Labs started its banning game, cutting off users who were using location spoofers or other third-party services to help them become Pokemasters. Bans were given to players who were using emulators or bots that allow you to play the game on a laptop or PC tricking the app into believing you are walking around when you are not. So did you get banned from playing Pokémon Go after downloading an app that you thought might make the game more fun? There’s some good news for some of the banned accounts as Niantic has made some changes to its infrastructure that can account for the difference between an actual cheater, and someone who was merely using one of those sketchy Pokémon Go apps. According to Niantic some users who downloaded unauthorized apps, such as location spoofers or others that scrape data, may not have realized that some add-on map apps do more than just show you nearby Pokémon. And initially these accounts were banned permanently. But now Niantic has decided to give these gamers the benefit of the doubt.
Since the launch of Pokémon Go many developers on GitHub had developed tools for players to cheat in Pokémon Go. The most aggressive ones were the Pokemon GO bots such as Po-Go Bot as they were easy to setup as it had simple GUI and any novice can set it up. These bots used to farm all nearby PokeStops as well as capture all nearby Pokémon’s. Gradually these bots became so intelligent as features such as Automatic Transfer/Evolve Pokémon or set filter to prevent the bot from only farming Ratata’s and Pidgey’s, were implemented. Also there was a feature that could make the Pokémon GO farming simulated at a walking speed so that Niantic is not able to flag this activity and issue a ban. But these bots already had a disclaimer that use of these could lead to soft bans (Temporary Ban) or a permanent Ban as well. So eventually these accounts had to get banned. So to be on the safer side most of the users relied on add-on maps like PokéVision that showed Pokémon locations. Pokevision had over 50 million unique users and an unbelievable 12 million daily active users at the time it was shut down. And there were more such as PokeMesh, SmartPoke etc. and these services required users to login using their Pokémon Go credentials or using a PTC account. These services placed considerable load on the already stressed Pokémon Go servers. But Niantic Ceo John Hanke warns, this doesn’t mean that Niantic is softening on cheaters: Those apps explicitly break Niantic’s terms of service for the game, and using them ever again could get you another ban.
So.. You have been warned… once again!
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