Status: Closed — this petition is no longer accepting signatures.
Final supporters
Niantic does not stop Ingress or Pokemon Go from being playable on rooted devices.
Rooting a device is the Android equivalent of jailbreaking an iPhone, a means of unlocking the operating system so you can change system level files and give apps the ability to do things that they normally would not be able to do, such as change the location of the phone in the world.
This means that anyone with half a brain, $2.99 for the Fake GPS Pro app and YouTube can figure out how to root their device and use the app to set their GPS location to any place in the world, without Ingress or Pokemon Go knowing that they've done it.
This causes major problems for those that play the games as they should be played, because the cheater that uses GPS "spoofing" can do things much easier and "win" the game without ever leaving their house. This is against the Terms of Service of the game, but in reality the only thing that Niantic can do is to remove (ban) the account that is caught spoofing... and what we see is that Niantic rarely even does that.
This is a reactive approach and has proven time and time again to be ineffective, as the person doing the GPS spoofing just creates a new account in the game and continues doing what they were doing before.
The only way to deal with this proactively is to prohibit the games from running on rooted devices.
More like this
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Updates
August 22, 2016
I HAVE BEEN SPENDING MY NIGHTS READING EVERY MESSAGE ABOUT HOW SPOOFING COMPLETELY RUINS THE GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE FOR ACTUAL PLAYERS!! IT IS BEYOND FRUSTRATING TO SEE THIS LEVEL OF CHEATING GO UNCHECKED BY THE DEVELOPERS WHILE WE ALL PLAY BY THE RULES!! WE ARE KEEPING THE PRESSURE UP UNTIL THEY TAKE REAL ACTION AGAINST ROOTED DEVICES!!
August 22, 2016
I AM ABSOLUTELY BLOWN AWAY BY THE MOMENTUM WE HAVE BUILT TOGETHER!! THIS ENERGY PROVES THAT THE GAMING COMMUNITY IS READY TO STOP THESE SPOOFERS ONCE AND FOR ALL!!
33 Comments
I've played Ingress since December 2012, and have had issues with people modifying their GPS since then. I applaud Niantic for taking measures to stop this (not allowing mock locations), but disallowing rooted devices is the next logical step. NOT doing this is going to do much more harm than good to both games as spoofers get more common.
I know that there are people in the world that play Ingress on rooted devices without cheating, and this change would affect them… but I would much rather those few people be inconvenienced than all of the players of the game.
I am developer, i must have rooted device for work.
I use root to take bloat and be off my phone.... It's not worth my time to cheat...
yes, but everyone still calls him Buzz. Just making sure you aren't trying to expand your accusations. Not out of the question given your past track record. I will always defend my little buzzard. Not the first time you've accused him of cheating either *eye roll*.
Neither duckx3 nor buzzculpepper were there. I do not know or care who is playing the accounts, but they were both being used to attack a portal and there was nobody else but me and Tigersage there. We have reported and provided photo evidence to Niantic, so it is up to them now. Also, buzzculpepper went from my pond portal the the Mexican fountain 2 miles away in 1 minute.... which isn't possible unless you are in a helicopter. Doesn't Luke have a different account now? Something like RabidLndian?
Skyblast, sounds like you're describing a taster's choice commercial here, a lovely afternoon on a park bench with a dear friend... Also, are you now accusing buzz of spoofing? Remove the tinfoil hat, sir.
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Status: Closed — this petition is no longer accepting signatures.
Final supporters
Niantic does not stop Ingress or Pokemon Go from being playable on rooted devices.
Rooting a device is the Android equivalent of jailbreaking an iPhone, a means of unlocking the operating system so you can change system level files and give apps the ability to do things that they normally would not be able to do, such as change the location of the phone in the world.
This means that anyone with half a brain, $2.99 for the Fake GPS Pro app and YouTube can figure out how to root their device and use the app to set their GPS location to any place in the world, without Ingress or Pokemon Go knowing that they've done it.
This causes major problems for those that play the games as they should be played, because the cheater that uses GPS "spoofing" can do things much easier and "win" the game without ever leaving their house. This is against the Terms of Service of the game, but in reality the only thing that Niantic can do is to remove (ban) the account that is caught spoofing... and what we see is that Niantic rarely even does that.
This is a reactive approach and has proven time and time again to be ineffective, as the person doing the GPS spoofing just creates a new account in the game and continues doing what they were doing before.
The only way to deal with this proactively is to prohibit the games from running on rooted devices.
Updates
August 22, 2016
I HAVE BEEN SPENDING MY NIGHTS READING EVERY MESSAGE ABOUT HOW SPOOFING COMPLETELY RUINS THE GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCE FOR ACTUAL PLAYERS!! IT IS BEYOND FRUSTRATING TO SEE THIS LEVEL OF CHEATING GO UNCHECKED BY THE DEVELOPERS WHILE WE ALL PLAY BY THE RULES!! WE ARE KEEPING THE PRESSURE UP UNTIL THEY TAKE REAL ACTION AGAINST ROOTED DEVICES!!
August 22, 2016
I AM ABSOLUTELY BLOWN AWAY BY THE MOMENTUM WE HAVE BUILT TOGETHER!! THIS ENERGY PROVES THAT THE GAMING COMMUNITY IS READY TO STOP THESE SPOOFERS ONCE AND FOR ALL!!
33 Comments
This is GPS based game - GPS accuracy is a fundamental requirement. The ability to spoof is ruining the game.
I've played Ingress since December 2012, and have had issues with people modifying their GPS since then. I applaud Niantic for taking measures to stop this (not allowing mock locations), but disallowing rooted devices is the next logical step. NOT doing this is going to do much more harm than good to both games as spoofers get more common.
I know that there are people in the world that play Ingress on rooted devices without cheating, and this change would affect them… but I would much rather those few people be inconvenienced than all of the players of the game.
I am developer, i must have rooted device for work.
I use root to take bloat and be off my phone.... It's not worth my time to cheat...
yes, but everyone still calls him Buzz. Just making sure you aren't trying to expand your accusations. Not out of the question given your past track record. I will always defend my little buzzard. Not the first time you've accused him of cheating either *eye roll*.
Neither duckx3 nor buzzculpepper were there. I do not know or care who is playing the accounts, but they were both being used to attack a portal and there was nobody else but me and Tigersage there. We have reported and provided photo evidence to Niantic, so it is up to them now. Also, buzzculpepper went from my pond portal the the Mexican fountain 2 miles away in 1 minute.... which isn't possible unless you are in a helicopter. Doesn't Luke have a different account now? Something like RabidLndian?
Skyblast, sounds like you're describing a taster's choice commercial here, a lovely afternoon on a park bench with a dear friend... Also, are you now accusing buzz of spoofing? Remove the tinfoil hat, sir.
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This is GPS based game - GPS accuracy is a fundamental requirement. The ability to spoof is ruining the game.