Niantic Disables Pokemon GO Tracking, Shuts Down Third-Party Tracking Sites

[ffronw]

Niantic Disables Pokemon GO Tracking, Shuts Down Third-Party Tracking Sites

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1339/1339708.jpgPokemon GO's latest update removed in-game tracking, while Niantic is going after third-party tracking sites.

A new update for Pokemon GO rolled out over the weekend, and it's got players up in arms. At issue are a number of changes, first among them the removal of the ability to track Pokemon. If you've played the game, you know that the lower right corner of the screen features a button that will show you the Pokemon that are nearby, with footprints under each one that help you determine how far away it is. Even though the footprints haven't been working, players were hopeful that they'd be fixed soon. Instead, Niantic removed footprints from the game entirely in yesterday's update.

In the time since footprints stopped working, people on the internet were working to address the issue, as they always do. Third-party tracking sites sprung up, with one of the most popular being Pokevision.com [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167989-Interactive-Pokemon-GO-Map-Lets-You-Find-Pokemon-in-Real-Time]. Pokevision used Niantic's API to pull the location of Pokemon and display it on a ESRI map for users to see. It even included the spawn timer for each one, allowing you to know if you could get to where that rare Pokemon was lurking before it despawned.

On Friday, Niantic CEO John Hanke official Twitter [http://www.vg247.com/2016/07/29/pokemon-go-boss-not-a-fan-of-pokemon-trackers-and-apps-which-show-spawn-locations/] said that the site was "respecting Niantic and Nintendo's wishes," indicating that they had been asked or told to shut down.

As you can imagine, the community is up in arms over the move, with the Pokemon GO subreddit [https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo] going, as one user put it, "From 'How Can We Find Ditto' to 'How Can We Take Down Niantic' In A Day." Now it's filled with posts from angry players discussing the changes, suggesting fixes, and some even reporting that they're quitting for good thanks to the changes.

It remains to be seen how Niantic will respond, but so far it's been quiet on the issue. If the CEO's quote is any indication, this may have been the intended outcome, but the mass amount of ire from the player base may change the company's outlook. We'll just have to wait and see.

Permalink

 

[Gorrath]

So the answer to the in game tracking feature being a broken, useless mess is to disable it and shut down any service helping to circumvent the problem? People wouldn't have relied on sites like Pokevision if the game gave you a working tracing feature to begin with. Instead of trying to crack down on 3rd parties providing a useful service, perhaps providing a working version of said service yourself might be in order? Ninantic doesn't need quite the level of detail that pokevision provided, but having SOME way to track pokemon is a damned important feature to play the game.

 

[Maze1125]

They'll reintroduce tracking soon,

Really?
Where's your evidence for that?

As things stand they've removed the in-game compatibility with a tracking system, shut down as many on-line systems as they can and made absolutely no indication that this is anything other than their intended path for the game.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Everything about this app screams "half-baked".

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

.

They'll reintroduce tracking soon,

Really?
Where's your evidence for that?

"Nintendo can do no wrong".

 

[RaikuFA]

.

They'll reintroduce tracking soon,

Really?
Where's your evidence for that?

"Nintendo can do no wrong".

Except Nintendo dosen't own pokemon, as evidenced by the tantrum Wall Street threw when they found out.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

.

They'll reintroduce tracking soon,

Really?
Where's your evidence for that?

"Nintendo can do no wrong".

Except Nintendo dosen't own pokemon, as evidenced by the tantrum Wall Street threw when they found out.

You mean Pokemon GO right?

 

[ffronw]

You mean Pokemon GO right?

Nintendo doesn't own Pokemon or Pokemon GO. They just own a little over 30% of The Pokemon Company, who owns the IP.

 

[Gorrath]

So the answer to the in game tracking feature being a broken, useless mess is to disable it

When a broken feature is shredding the game servers to pieces, then yes it is. Think about how strenuous of the servers it is for the servers to have to process the constant updates for the tracking for every individual concurrent player. It simply wasn't working.

I feel like taking this one line out of my post is akin to quote mining me. Removing a broken feature that's causing the game problems isn't an issue on its own, which is why I didn't merely complain about that. I don't presume you meant to misrepresent the spirit of what I was saying but that one line should be viewed in the context of everything else I said, not taken on its own. On its own, that line should be read literally as me ackowledging that the feature should have been disabled. I'd go so far as to say it shouldn't even have been implemented if it didn't work but then as we all know this is not a finished game, so fair enough.

Removing the feature is a bandaid solution, but it was required. The extreme likelihood is that a new system will be reimplemented when it's ready. In the most likely scenario, the tracking feature will be clientside in order to unload the strain from the servers. Until then, people need to calm their bitching. Whining about how to "take down the company who developed the game for us" doesn't get anyone anywhere. Frankly, the subreddit is full of people acting like entitled brats.

While I agree that talking about "taking down the company" is stupid, people that have paid for things in-game are absolutely entitled to "*****" and "whine" about the functionality of the game, including existing broken features being disabled with all alternatives to said broken feature being simultaneously squashed. Even if a product is free, people who use said product are entitled to opine on the quality of said product and changes to it. I see nothing wrong with the more moderate vitriol getting passed around since actually being able to know where to go to catch anything is quite an important aspect of playing the game.

As for the third party software shut down, it's understandable that they don't want people accessing third party sites. Companies rarely do. Not to mention, the efficiency of Pokevision is WAAAAAY more efficient than anything that's ever been in the game. It's practically cheating. And it gives an unfair advantage to the people who know about Pokevision over the ones who don't.

They'll reintroduce tracking soon, especially with how many people are whining about it. But there is literally no reason for entitled fans to be so aggressive towards Niantic.

It is understandable that they don't like the third party stuff, especially a tool with the power of pokevision. I agree that pokevision is too powerful and so I have not used it. But lacking such an important function as tracking in the game is a reasonable complaint. Sure, it'll get fixed and sure, their implementation will probably be decent and not op, but in the mean time, being aggravated with the company for not having a solution to a serious problem and cutting off any third party solution is, I believe, ill timed. If they had just waited to implement their own, working feature first and then cut off the third parties, I think that would have been far more reasonable. And again, I'm not defending those who want to bring the company down; that's both stupid and shortsighted, but not all complaints about this issue are invalid whining either.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

.

They'll reintroduce tracking soon,

Really?
Where's your evidence for that?

"Nintendo can do no wrong".

Except Nintendo dosen't own pokemon, as evidenced by the tantrum Wall Street threw when they found out.

You're right, it's owned by The Pokemon Company... which is - oh hey, it's owned by Nintendo.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

They'll reintroduce tracking soon,

Really?
Where's your evidence for that?

As things stand they've removed the in-game compatibility with a tracking system, shut down as many on-line systems as they can and made absolutely no indication that this is anything other than their intended path for the game.

They have made no indication that this is their intended path for the game.

"They've made no indication they intend to take this path, other than taking this path".

 

[irish286]

They better add another tracking feature soon. The three feet issue was already making it hard for my pokemon group. Now that we have no way to track pokemon no one wants to go. No one wants to bumble around in hope of stumbling upon something more than a freaking weedle...

 

[Gorrath]

They better add another tracking feature soon. The three feet issue was already making it hard for my pokemon group. Now that we have no way to track pokemon no one wants to go. No one wants to bumble around in hope of stumbling upon anything more than a freaking weedle...

What if I sweetened the pot by telling you that you could bumble around in hopes of finding 20 weedles?

 

[irish286]

They better add another tracking feature soon. The three feet issue was already making it hard for my pokemon group. Now that we have no way to track pokemon no one wants to go. No one wants to bumble around in hope of stumbling upon anything more than a freaking weedle...

What if I sweetened the pot by telling you that you could bumble around in hopes of finding 20 weedles?

\
Sorry, meant "something more" not "anything more".

 

[Gorrath]

They better add another tracking feature soon. The three feet issue was already making it hard for my pokemon group. Now that we have no way to track pokemon no one wants to go. No one wants to bumble around in hope of stumbling upon anything more than a freaking weedle...

What if I sweetened the pot by telling you that you could bumble around in hopes of finding 20 weedles?

\
Sorry, meant "something more" not "anything more".

Oh I didn't mean to pick on your grammar, I was just making a bad joke. Lord knows I could choke to death on the weedles I've caught.

 

[Leg End]

So, this sounds like the game is just utterly broken right now. Can someone tell someone who is unable to play how this actually affects playing it?

They'll reintroduce tracking soon, especially with how many people are whining about it. But there is literally no reason for entitled fans to be so aggressive towards Niantic.

I didn't know wanting a game to work was considered entitled. I mean, there are actual paying customers to my understanding so I think there is some degree of rightful entitlement.