Pokemon Go community is furious after tracking app crackdown

[merrybigboy]

It seemed like Pokemon Go's Friday update was all for the better, but many of the game's more dedicated players don't feel that way. On Reddit, players are actively blasting developer Niantic for removing features and cracking down on third-party apps that helped them find Pokemon in the game.

Enlarge Image

A very small slice of the hate on Reddit right now.

Screenshot by Sean Hollister/CNET

Originally, Pokemon Go featured a system called "Nearby" that would show how close wild Pokemon were to the player. If a Pokemon had one or two "footprints" next to their icon, it would be closer than a Pokemon with three, which let some users track down Pokemon by playing "warmer/colder" until they ran across the creature.

I say "some users," because the feature -- like much of Pokemon Go -- was initially buggy as heck. It wouldn't work reliably for me or many other players.

In response, software developers in the Pokemon Go community decided to make their own Pokemon-finding apps, like Pokevision,using the very same data used by the game.

What just happened?

Niantic is getting rid of both ways to find Pokemon at the same time. Not only does the latest update completely remove the footprints system, but Niantic also appears to be cracking down on the third-party Pokemon tracking apps as well.

Pokevision, the best-known tracking site, is currently not functioning and its creators can't yet say whether it will ever return. PokeHound.com is also missing in action, and Forbes noticed that its creators tweeted a link to this image alleging it had been sent a cease-and-desist letter.

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Pokevision @PokeVisionGo

Sorry guys - we took the Teespring down because while we do want Pokevision to be up, we can't guarantee it & don't want to give false hope.

7:32 PM - 31 Jul 2016

 

 361361 Retweets

 

 2,4702,470 likes

We're not yet sure whether these apps are actually being threatened with legal action quite yet. Niantic, Nintendo, The Pokemon Company and PokeVision didn't immediately reply to requests for comment.

But Reddit's Pokemon Go development community appears to have discovered that Niantic is using technical means to block these apps as well. Niantic appears to be throttling these apps so they can't request the locations of Pokemon more than once every five seconds, and some Redditors believe the company has completely blocked the IP addresses of Amazon Web Services and other cloud service providers where third-party tracking apps are being hosted.

We can't confirm that either quite yet -- or even that Niantic won't just reinstate the footprints feature once it figures out how to keep its servers running smoothly. All we know for sure is players currently have very few ways to track down wild Pokemon.

And we know players are angry. This tweet, from one of the founders of Pokevision, has over 3,600 retweets:

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Yang @YangCLiu

You don't invent Marco Polo, get 80M players to join, then remove the Polo part and expect people to keep playing.

12:32 AM - 31 Jul 2016

 

 4,2954,295 Retweets

 

 5,6845,684 likes

There's a dedicated Reddit thread just to gripe about the changes, and another filled with players asking Apple and Google to refund the money spent on in-game purchases, arguing that it's not the game they thought they were paying for.

Surprisingly, Apple seems to be honoring those requests. That may not be good news for Niantic.

 

http://www.cnet.com/news/pokemon-go-pokevision-crack-down-players-furious/