Ban for Timezone-Change-Exploit?
I heard of an exploit that you could get 15 free raidpasses on RaidDay by changing the timezone on your phone.
It seems to be as simple as:
- start at GMT-11 on RaidDay, get 5 free raidpasses
- close PokemonGo and change to GMT+0, get 5 more free raidpasses
- close again and change to GMT+12, get 5 more free raidpasses
It seems logic, that this could work.
And also, that this could lead to a ban, but has this happend to anyone of you?
Also, this exploit could easily be fixed by just using the timezone in which your Avatar is located by GPS...
Answers
As far as i know that exploit hasn't been closed. People in my community even do it to get multiple special trades on the same day. This is the first time i'm considering doing it too at least for the raid passes but really i don't know why Niantic wouldn't use the timezone of the GPS location in the first place
This is 100% cheating. Changing your time zone to get an advantage only available in another part of the world? Sounds a lot like spoofing to me. Just because you can get away with it doesn't mean it's okay. I teach high school and I constantly have to explain to 15 year olds why they are wrong when they say "it's only cheating if you get caught". Since most of the playing population is grown adults, I wouldn't think it would be that hard for them to figure this out.
If you can't figure it out, here it is: changing your time zone to gain an unfair advantage in the game is cheating. Don't do it.
Is there anything in the terms of service against this?
It's not cheating if it doesn't break the rules, it's just unethical then.
For example, have you heard of the game of Catan? You collect resources and can trade them with other players (generally to both players benefit), while you compete to build with points to win the game. You can also trade at a very high price, or a slightly cheaper price oyf you have a port, for whatever resource you want. There's a card in the game called monopoly, which allows you to declare a resource and everyone must reveal their hands and give you all of that resource.
I had the monopoly card, and had watched a few turns (including my own) where the roll generated some of the same resource for several players, but mostly many for myself.
I immediately offered many very generous trades. I was trading out many of this resource (due to my abundance) for whatever players would trade me. I was giving the same ratio as I'd have to pay a port (which I had). The players should have realized this, but they didn't. I traded out 16 of the same resource, only to play monopoly to get them all back for free (plus all of the same resource the other players already had), then used the port to generate everything I actually wanted and won the game.
I didn't cheat, even if other players may have felt that way. It was entirely within the rules, they all willingly made those trades thinking they were ripping me off, not the other way around. However from an ethical perspective, it may not have been a great way to keep friends :p
I don't think it's unfair - I don't take anything away from someone else...
It's a little unfair, that only players in Europe can exploit the cheap programming twice on RaidDay.
I don't think it does violate any terms of use, if someone does - please reply!
It has nothing to do with spoofing, if Niantic chooses to close the possibility of exploiting the system - I would totally be fine with it.
I hope they also fix e.g. the DodgeBug soon, but I think, they'll wait one or two years before they do that - just like they did with the CurveballBug...
So I think, I will do it, and I just told everyone in my local group how to use the trick...
You take raid passes, which Niantic sell for money, because they left the door of the store open. This is no different from stealing from a store.
Edit: here is the section it falls under in the terms of service.
"Cheating includes any action that attempts to or actually alters or interferes with the normal behavior or rules of a Service".
They don't have less free raidpasses - that's the difference to stealing.
If you steal something from someone, this someone got something less...
But I agree, that this would violate the terms of service - I just told my local group...
Edit: You could argue that getting 15 free RaidPasses is normal behavior to your free choice of setting your phone to any timezone you want :D
It is cheating. However this doesn't fall in the same category as spoofing.
In effect, you're stealing raid passes while playing the game. Spoofers are not playing the game. Sitting at home catching Pokemon 100 miles away is not playing the game. That's not Pokemon GO.
"stealing" raid passes is cheating, but it shouldn't be lumped with spoofing. They're different things.
I wouldn't call it "stealing" since it's an item autogenerated and you are not leaving someone else without their raid passes. Certainly it goes against the normal gameplay or event mechanics but it's nowhere near as annoying as GPS spoofing. I just think if it's so obvious Niantic should just close the loop. It has gotten to the point that even the most casuals are doing it because it's so spread so it's difficult to stay out of it when your 5 raid passes are finished and all your group just changes timezone and keeps raiding for free (it happened to me on Zapdos day, i was so pissed) It certainly has no benefits following the "ethical" way to play here
