In the past few weeks we've seen Pokémon GO developer Niantic drop the ban hammer on some accounts due to the use of tools which make it easier to locate monsters and gain an advantage over rival players.
Some of these bans are the result of players using seemingly innocent apps which show you a map with the locations of nearby 'mon, and the users who have been blocked as a result of these services perhaps feel a little hard done to. The good news for those people is that Niantic is now lifting bans on a "small subset" of accounts.
Here's the official statement:
We continue to work to ensure the integrity of the game and the health of our servers by blocking unauthorized access and at times by banning offending accounts. This includes blocking bots, data scraping operations, and banning end user accounts associated with those activities. Some players may not have realized that some add-on map apps do more than just show you nearby Pokémon. Each end-user app can be used as a collection tool by the app creator, invisibly collecting and forwarding data to the app creator with or without the knowledge of the end user. These apps can have an effect similar to DDoS attacks on our servers. Because of this we have had to ban some accounts associated with using these add-on map tools, leading to confusion by some users about why they were banned. This is a small subset of the accounts banned.
As a result of some changes made to our infrastructure, we are now able to unban this set of accounts. Add-on maps which scrape data from our servers still violate our Terms of Service and use of them may still result in an account ban going forward. Accounts whose sole purpose was to scrape data are not being unbanned. Accounts which used apps or websites to remotely capture Pokémon, battle or deploy on Gyms, or harvest resources from PokéStops are also not being unbanned. Our main priority is to provide a fair, fun, and legitimate experience for all players, so, aggressive banning will continue to occur for players who engage in these kinds of activities.
Was your account banned because you used one of these apps? Have you have any notification that the ban will be lifted? Let us know by posting a comment below.
[source pokemongolive.com]
Comments 18
Game is still bad
@Snow-Dust succ
>Our main priority is to provide a fair, fun, and legitimate experience for all players.
>fair, fun, and legitimate experience for all players.
>fair, fun,
>fun...
Best news of the day.
"blocking unauthorized access " isn't using apk unauthorized access?
They noticed many people use apk and banning them would drop the number of users even further, so now they backpedaled on banning people left and right.
You know that big fat "GO" that you've plastered on the photo? I've heard that's what the NX is called. It would be funny if that is its final name and we knew but didn't know all this time. What would "GO" stand for? Gaming Online?
I climbed all the way up a steep hill in the middle of nowhere thinking 'ah well this oughta be good for 24 hours till someone gets up here', wrong. Within 4 hours some spoofing lamer had taken it. That is what's wrong with this game!
@InternetBowser One/fourth of the player base has stopped using the app. One-fourth.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE I think your on to something. Sounds great too
@Ikramali It could turn Nintendo into an "NGO".
And its launch colour will be "NintyGO".
Lol.
As successful as the game is you'd think that Niantic would be grateful and make it right with the players who have lost money playing the game do to the server issues but you would have better luck getting a letter to the president than getting ahold of Niantic to resolve an issue twice I lost in game items do to their servers I refuse to purchase anything else from the game.
Let's see how many people are still playing in the dead of winter of their respective markets.
@Mega_Yarn_Poochy Which is totally normal on an MMO....
They'll come back for the next update.
@ShaunOfNintendo Why are you greentexting outside of the website beginning with the number 4?
lol less and less people are playing this thing each day
The huge, unaddressed with Pokemon Go is that there is no balance, especially when you get past level 20. Catching a CP 10 Pidgey is exactly the same as catching a CP 1195 Pidgeot. You get the same experience, stardust, and number of candy. Transferring either one will net you just one more candy. It's not even a money-grab by Niantic, because they don't sell stardust or candy. It's just poorly balanced game design and it hits you like a brick wall. If they want to keep an install-base, they should actually reward people for playing the game. Oh yeah, and fix tracking.
Haven't touched the game in a week! I should just delete this waste of my time already...
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