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SPOOFING & HACKING IN POKÉMON GO

Trainer Tips Nick just released a video with this title. He argues that spoofing/cheating is not justifiable. I must say he makes well-spoken, excellent points. This video took courage for him to put out, I respect that he did it. I see he already has a bunch of thumbs-down hits for it, but that is to be expected (I would imagine that is mostly from a bunch of cheaters). What do you guys think? Agree or disagree? (And if you reply, it helps to let everyone know if you are a spoofer/cheater or a legit player.)

Asked by LBrouwer8 years ago

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I have not seen the video so it makes it imposible to comment on what was said as you didn't indicate any of the points you agree with that you are asking us to discuss - which kind of makes this look like an advert for a YouTube site (and that was all his video was yesterday)
I am not sure what courage has to do with a video stating an opinion - unless you are speaking out about a Mexican drug cartel or something.

As for spoofers, I don't think there are any legit reasons to spoof...there are just some excuses that appear better than others on the surface.
Sure, not everyone can play - but there are lots of things that many people are not able to do, but that doesn't mean 'breaking rules' is acceptable - sometimes you just can't do something.

Here's a link: https://youtu.be/O-mPzuv6meE?t=3m53s

Thanks...but this looks like another advert

My point is that if you want to discuss points on a forum, then you should probably mention the points.
The points made could have just as easily been mentioned without mentioning a specific YouTube account.

I have no problem with people mentioning specific YouTubers or anything - but this thread is created in a way it makes it feel like we MUST WATCH to even discuss this, as the specific points we are asked to discuss are not even mentioned.

The main point is actually mentioned - spoofing is not justifiable. And I think a big part of the users here watch TrainerTips anyway, so plenty of us can discuss this. Nobody's forcing you to watch the video!

I did discuss the issue too...and managed it without watching the video.
I do watch TT sometimes myself, but I am sure we can discuss our opinion on spoofing without advertsing a specific YouTuber - doing so opens the door to people giving opinions on the person and not the content, which detracts from the subject.
Besides, he is not the first of 'the big 4' to discuss it, but is the only one that got a mention for doing it.

I check in on his channel every few weeks or so. Also, I am not intentionally promoting him, I have no affiliation. I did not feel like re-listing out all the points he says in the video mostly because people tend to skip over long threads, I essentially already gave the TLDR version, and he already said pretty much everything. If you want to discuss this topic without responding to that video in specific, I would imagine you are free to start another thread (and please understand, I'm not trying to be rude by saying that). I am posting about it here because this forum/community tends to generate quality and sincere responses, where as on YouTube comments, the majority are mindless ravings, IMO! :D Also, just so you know, I'm pretty sure YouTubers do not benefit directly from anyone watching the video unless the video is watched without "skipping" the ad, that is to say, they get paid when you watch the full ad to completion, and not if you press "skip".

All good...I never once thought you were being rude at all. That specific comment was in reply to the post directly above mine.
My point was simply that we could have discussed all of the topics and opinions raised without refering to the video...alternatively we could mention that this has become a hot topic for many of the big YouTubers, as opposed to selecting a specific channel.
I did in fact respond to the topic in question in my very first post, and have done so again with others comments - this is a subject I feel strongly about.

I hope I am not sounding rude or anything either, I just like a robust discussion about the topics I join - and as I said would happen, a very good discussion topic has turned away from the specific issue and is now talking more about a specific channel, and it has given people the opportunity to discuss their opinion on the person and not the subject - which I think is unfair as Nick may not even be around to respond to them.

As for how YouTubers get paid, this is for a whole other thread too, because there are many various ways that they get paid, depending on many different factors - specifically, there is a reason they ask you to subscribe and press like on all the videos.

Sorry, I didn't read your post thorougly. Still, I found watching the video provided me with some good thoughts.

Also, there are quite a few points made in that video and I think it's easier to watch it than for someone to state them all.

But in general Nick who made that video states that there's no acceptable reason for spoofing.
Not "I'm a long way from Pokestops", nor "it's cold outside" or even "I am disabled and can't go out".

As for the "courage" for posting the video that was mentioned, I see your point, but you have to understand that someone who makes a living of making YouTube videos are reliant on people watching their videos and if a video is about something that can alienate the viewers, that can cost him this job.
So it does take a sort of courage to make a video about something that perhaps does not sit well with the viewers.

but also if people are on the fence about subscribing, stating something they agree with will also encourage them to subscribe - especially in this politically correct world we live in.
I am sure he will get just just as many new subscribers out of it to compensate for any lost due to this.

It isn't brave to discuss something YouTube that many people agree with ....dang, it even got him a free advert on this site, and people are getting emotional about protecting him, so it is clearly doing him more good than harm.

Well, he mentions GamePress in his videos quite often, so I think there is a mutual benefit there! It's very easy to loose subscribers on Youtube and that is currently pretty much his living, so in a way it was a bit of self sabotage but he did it for the right reasons so I applaud him. A lot of times it doesn't matter if what you're saying is "right"/logical, if it rubs someone the wrong way, they will respond negatively/unsubscribe and that is that.

Just as if you say something that many agree with, you will get more subs.
I am going to give him more credit, and suggest he is smart enough to have calculated the risk vs reward of this specific subject.

Funny enough, he also mention pokemongohub, who clearly have botted to get and collate the spawn information of 750K+ mons in a matter of a couple of days.

It seems my point about naming a specific youtuber leads to discussing the person and not the content/topic was accurate.

He mentions at the end of the video, if one is spoofing and not ever touching gyms then that is more or less fine, but the second a cheater puts their ill-gotten 'mon in a gym, they have crossed the line and are negatively impacting other players. So as far as research goes, I suppose he would be fine with it (I think it is more or less OK, myself), so long as it does not negatively impact other players (e.g. bog down the servers, etc.).

But it does...it puts a massive load on the servers that would not otherwise be there - meaning we all suffer lag and response issues.
Also, it means that resources are directed into maintaining servers instead of other areas...such as content creation.

It impacts us both directly and indirectly.

I am of the belief that this is why Niantic are concentrating on getting rid of maps and scanners. The load on the server for these types of things would be immense - for example some scanners require you to maintain multiple 'bot' accounts all placing a load on the server so that you can catch a mon on a single playing account.

I would even go as far as to predict that there are more active accounts used for bots, mapping and scanners than there are legit active accounts.

Scanners, maps, and bots are utilising expensive resources...and Niantic can save money and improve performance for legit player by doing away with these things.
And I have not even touched on the cost of bandwidth
It explains why Niantic have been so aggressive in chasing maps and scanner services.

"which kind of makes this look like an advert for a YouTube site." I thought about that, which is why I specifically chose not to link to it :)

"sometimes you just can't do something."
This is true, and yet, sometimes when people want to do something, they make it happen.
The first comment which shows up on the video is
"im in a wheelchair i manage to get out to play the game the right way so it shouldnt matter if ur in a wheelchair". While I have no idea as to the legitimacy of that comment, it sounds plausible and makes a great point.

The argument of 'I am in a hospital'...'I am bed ridden' etc seem to be the issues that some people raise as if this justifies breaking the rules.
Sure, saying 'that doesn't excuse cheating' sounds like you are being mean on the surface, but that is the politically correct society we live in, versus actual sensible reality.

People who are bed ridden can't run marathons either, but that doesn't mean they can push a cursor around a map and consider it competing - sometimes you just can't do things.

There are those whose government does not allow the app to run in their country - this doesn't justify cheating, although it results in the same thing of the person just can't play.

There are rules, and you know if you break them you risk your account. If you can not play the game, then that is unfortunate but one reason for not being able to play the game does not trump another reason for not being able to play the game.

Basically you just summarized the content of the video, so I quote you:

"As for spoofers, I don't think there are any legit reasons to spoof...there are just some excuses that appear better than others on the surface.
Sure, not everyone can play - but there are lots of things that many people are not able to do, but that doesn't mean 'breaking rules' is acceptable - sometimes you just can't do something."

Totally agree

is cheating, so i agree doesnt matter what excuse you use, even if you cant move from bed, in the end is cheating, sure that some guys practically need or have to spoof for play the game, but still is cheating

so yeah i agree

As long as they dont touch or impact(selling accounts) gyms spoofing is irrelevant, they might as well as be invisible. Its the spoofers who participate in gyms and subsequently dominate due to their ridiculous advantage that is the main issue.

Cheating takes all the fun of the game for cheaters themselves. Is it fun having 20 dragonites nope i caught 2 run blocks and blocks for them was it fun yep. Cheating in a game that gives you just personal reward is just playing dumb.

I have researched GPS spoofing for iOS and it looks really complicated (maybe easier on Android?) - I'm not sure I could do it successfully even if I wanted to! So perhaps it really IS fun for spoofers to spend their hours figuring out how to teleport to Japan, Australia or wherever, look for and catch perfect mons etc - and not get banned. It's not the challenge I choose, (I'm happy to finally have enough candy to evolve only my 2nd d'nite at level 33), but I suspect spoofers have their own measurement system and challenges that they enjoy every bit as much as you or I appreciate catching a rare Snorlax in the wild!

That said I am sympathetic to those who are affected if they only have access to a few local gyms that have been targeted by enemy spoofers - it is clearly an unfair advantage.

Finding a wild snorlax while scratching their ass is a very patetic form of having fun kinda like a dog robot. Make believe traveling all over the world kinda fun still make believe. But some people just like to suck feet i can not judge that.

No dude. Im on a LB scanning group with both legit players and spoofers and they ridcule and laugh at us. They think its funny making us drive in circles and they brag about being in 100's of gyms.

But I agree the day I spoof would be shortly followed by my quitting. Im not sitting in front of a computer for hours a day unless Im getting a paycheck.

I think he made some really good points and I agree with him.
The one "reason" for spoofing that I've had mixed views on is if one is disabled or something like that, but I agree with Nicks views on the matter.

And, no, I do not spoof. Way back I did watch a few videos on how to spoof and I read some articles/posts about it, but I've never wanted to try it.

When I started playing I was at a place where I had 5km to the nearest Pokestop and gym and twice as long if I wanted more than one, so spoofing would have helped me then. On the other hand, since I opted out I got loads more exercise and got to enjoy the nature more.

That said, I think Niantic really did screw up when they made it so much more difficult for rural players. the difference between rural areas and city areas are just way too big.
And seeing as Niantic wants us to go out and explore places, "forcing" us to head to towns really do not seem like the right thing to do. Would have made much more sense if they made us explore the nature more.

My mother is completely disabled. I understand the reasons we want to find reasons for this to be an excuse but it really just isn't. There is a competitive aspect to this game. Spoofing and placing mons in gyms in the case of someone that cannot walk is the same as someone doing a flyover of the Boston marathon in an F16 that cannot walk then declaring them the winner. It's not right. It sucks that folks that cannot physically do the physical aspects of certain things are limited by such. But cheating is cheating and it is never OK because it ruins competition for everyone including the cheater. Period

i live in a coastal region were people holiday the out of towners come in with their armies of snorlaxes and dragonites (ironically hard to get because the tracking system makes dratini hard to find with the low pokestop density and when the migrates spawn points to pokestops they left off magikarp/dratini spawns) it takes ages to turf them out. I have visited Brisbane a couple of times and it's an entirely different game it did make it very tempting to spoof (esp. in order to secure the mons necessary to combat the local spoofer king but i got by in the end but the recent gym changes only made it harder)

In some aspects it makes sense.

I think instead the main problem is radar/map provider. With some bot accounts they can get the pokemon distribution even in a very large city.

Cheaters totally ruin the game for me. Since a while now all my gyms in my area are blue from one and the same person who uses 8 different accounts wwith basically the same name all having an unlimited amount of Blissey.

Niantic doesn't even seem to care about it. How difficult can it be to have a script that automatically checks for multiple accounts that have similar names. I've never seen someone cheating so obviously.

After just recently becoming a victim of spoofing I really hope they catch these. Had 3 level 10 gyms where I work for 5 days, all 3 got taken down and replaced to level 10 team Valor in a matter of 10 mins. 1 gym was filled with all 10 blisseys. Started to take 1 down today once I got it to level 4, Spoofer shows up and puts it back to level 10 during my battle and fills it up again. Really annoying and bunch of BS.

The Trainer Tips dude seems like a cool dude, but I've never found his videos worthwhile unless you enjoyed watching him vlog. All his points it seems like he made judging from this forum is pretty reasonable? But all of these were points me and you could think of without watching his video. Idk just never found any of the pokemon go youtubers worthwhile outside of a few who showed us gym mechaics and such. Something I can learn and take away from.

I generally agree with the points he makes in the video regarding spoofing, but the whole "you can be anything you want to be with hard work" bit just kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I'm an incredibly privileged person for a lot of reasons, and so is this dude -- but he doesn't really seem to acknowledge that when he talks about this issue.

Overall, good stuff, but a little too idealistic for me. Life indeed isn't fair, and there are so many people who can never improve their situations in life based solely on hard work -- that's just how the world is. We shouldn't pretend that anyone can pull themselves up by the bootstraps and move around the world, or get out of poverty, or overcome their disability, or whatever.

TT seems kind of smug with his "I built this, you can too" attitude. It's positive, but it fails to take into account numerous variables which keep people from fulfilling their dreams or overcoming real obstacles in their lives.

I wish I could like this comment a thousand times.

Getting more people to click doesn't sound brave. I don't watch his videos but just looking at his titles looks like he's begging to be clicked. I doubt he cares if he gets dislikes at this point with so many views.
"Spoofing hacking"
"Important announcement"
"5441 max cp"
"Next event (pic says "Hanks said what?")"
"Your acct could be banned"

Those are just the most recent that popped up.

The funny (or sad) part is the amount of spoofers disliking the video and leaving triggered comments...

Exactly...it was a calculated risk that seems to have worked in his favour.
I am giving him credit for knowing his audience, and knowing what will work for him.

..but now we are discussing the person and not the issue.

I must say I got seriously triggered by all the downvotes and spoof-defending comments on the clip.
Just change out Pokemon Go to another competitive game or sport and put the same aspects into perspective and they'll have to see how ridiculous they sound when they're actually supporting cheating.
I thought all Nick's arguments made perfect sense and I also think he were as humble as possible while giving them.

What does courage have to do with talking about a fucking app game?

Removing this post...it seems I was a little premature

I am not a gamer. I like pogo, because it encourages me to walk around and find things in my environment. Spoofing would be pretty meaningless for me.

Funniest thing, I downloaded this game to participate in conversations at work. Then I started to lose weight. Gotta walk a bit more to hatch that egg. If someone cheats, so be it. It's a game. I'm going to walk and battle and collect. I don't worry about others. I fight when I can. I have found 2 houses for sale that I would like to buy because of walking. My wife walks with me. When she's at work, I walk with friends. Go ahead and spoof. You're missing out on so much more. This game was created to bring people together, and it has, as far as it concerns me. Cheat if you want, it doesn't concern me. You're only cheating yourself out of something else.

Have not Watche'd the video! Read the posts!
Spoofing ruined the game for me and I almost resorted to doing the same. It was just impossible to compete and still is! Instead I set my own goals and never bother to attack gyms in my area anymore. I will also never ever spend real money in the game as it is si ply not fair when a cheat can spend 10 mins downloading an app and have an enormous advantage.
It is a shame that one of the games I have loved above all others I feel I I cannot contribute to financially as a matter of principle!
I would love to see spoofing and bots and scanners eliminated above all other updates!!!

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