Pokemon Go players convinced Niantic is trying to make them spoof

Pokemon Go players are accusing Niantic of making key gameplay design decisions that are forcing them to spoof with remote players especially impacted.

It’s no secret that one of the main goals of Pokemon Go is to make people more active and encourage them to explore the world. Many fans believe it’s this mentality that led to the controversial Remote Raid Pass nerf that negatively affected many communities.

To circumvent these changes and make the game more accessible, some players resort to spoofing. Spoofing is a bannable strategy that lets Pokemon Go players travel the in-game world without moving at all in real life.

Spoofing is explicitly against the game’s rules with Niantic outlining that, “Using tools or techniques to alter or falsify your location (‘spoofing’),” is a form of cheating. Despite this, not everyone is convinced the Pokemon Go developer’s design choices back up this statement.

Pokemon Go fans feel pressured to start spoofing

An extremely frustrated Pokemon Go player insisted on Reddit, “I swear niantic is TRYING to make spoofers,” believing the current design of ongoing raids is pressuring trainers into cheating.

Elaborating on their situation, the post explains, “I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere with 3 gyms, and 1 had raikou, and NOBODY attacking it, because it’s a small town, there’s not a few thousand pokemon go players who can all run to a raid,” before admitting, “I spoofed my ass to new york and california and grabbed raids ‘locally’ where people actually exist.”

One fan who also lives in a low-population area concurred, “It’s not like how it was when the game first came out and everyone and their mom was running around playing and showing people where Pokemon were spawning. I’ve never done a shadow raid and I probably never will because of this sh*t.”

Pushed over the edge, a different user responded, “Yeah I wouldn’t be playing if not for spoofing. I actually like playing legit. But no one in my area plays anymore so makes raids pretty much non existent.”

Showing that this sentiment isn’t exclusive to rural players, one trainer replied, “I live in NY and I don’t have any shadow Raikou because I couldn’t go downtown to raid them. The is essentially dead outside the downtown core of Manhattan. The game has become a spoofers paradise, don’t get me started with the showcases.”

Pokemon Go has had difficulties providing a complete experience to remote players for some time. Outside of the rare few benefits of playing in a smaller community, Pokemon Go is a game that is typically easier to play and progress in population-dense areas like cities and towns.