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'Pokémon GO' Cuts Off Access To Pokévision And Other Creature-Finding Apps
- Thread starter charlequin
- Start date
Yeah but most people likely didn't use the 3rd party tracker anyway and the steps system has been broken longer than it worked. Millions of others get along fine.
Bear Force One
Banned
You are the very worst sort of apologist. It's mind boggling.
Crazyorloco
Member
They just need to fix that tracker and we're good again.
Most people don't use the tracker.
Yeah, I'm giving a company the benefit of the doubt and my enjoyment of the game hasn't decreased, plenty more others are the same. Sorry I'm not chucking a temper tantrum over an ultra basic mobile game.
The way hardcore players play doesn't represent the majority. Some of you need to come to terms with that eventually. The game is not dying, the game is not broken. The game is still working for the multitude of people playing the game casually.
Some people here feel entitled to a third-party feature that was never supposed to be in the game to begin with.
There are alternatives to pokevision that still work.
https://m.reddit.com/r/pokemongodev/comments/4vgpjf/any_alternative_to_pokevision/
https://m.reddit.com/r/pokemongodev/comments/4vgpjf/any_alternative_to_pokevision/
Nothing you're saying is or should be an excuse for a company that refuses to communicate with its customers. Not to mention if you ask Ingress players you'll know that this isn't without precedent..
The fact that you can't track (read: footstep tracker) pokemon makes it useless to me. I understand it doesn't to everyone, but the fact that they're in one hand removing the only actual way to accomplish this and in the other hand removing that feature from the game, while saying nothing about this, is incredibly scummy.
Steve Youngblood
Member
I think there are different types of users honestly. I'm in the casual group. I never used the tracker when it worked, and didn't use Pokevision either. I pretty much just play the game when I'm out and about anyway and maybe go slightly out of my way to hit up PokeStops are go for little walks here and there to hatch an egg. I never specifically ventured out to catch a Pokemon, so I feel like I'm in the same boat as you are.
However, my wife got super into this game from pretty much day one when it launched. When the tracker worked, she'd see something that she wanted pop up and hop on her bike to go look for it. Sometimes she'd be gone for a few minutes. Sometimes as long as an hour as in the search for one she'd find another and go looking for it. She had been extremely frustrated the entire time the three steps bug was in place, and her interest greatly diminished. She didn't give up on the game, mind you. But gone was the enthusiasm to head out into the evening at a moment's notice. For the few days that Pokevision was working, she was starting to get back into that week one fervor she was in.
Like I said, I never really played the game that way. But even my more laid back approach is leading gradually to disinterest. At level 18, the road to higher levels is further and further away, and you can only catch pidgeys and rattatas to evolve them for so long before it starts to get old. I've only got one incubator. And even if I decided to run outside in the heat instead of the treadmill to hatch eggs, having to leave the app open to track the GPS is a real battery drain. And most of the time that 5 km egg is just something like a Paras or a Zubat for me too.
Where I'm going with this is that the day to day grind is starting to get less and less appealing to me. I basically only bother with PokeStop clusters when I'm almost out of Pokeballs. It's starting to get to the point where I was possibly going to need to get more attentive about seeking out specific Pokemon I don't have or looking for specific ones whose evolved forms I lacked. But without a functioning tracker, that also seems pointless.
I'm not trying to speak for everyone. I fully get that there was progress to be made without a functioning tracker. However, even as someone who didn't care about it before, I find myself now thinking that there needs to be something along those lines. Or just other functionality to the game. At 23,000 points away from level 19, I just don't have a ton of drive to keep throwing multiple pokeballs per attempt at the same Pokemon I've caught time and time again. And family outings to lure hotspots also aren't really all that appealing. We've got a 4 year old. When we take him someplace fun out of the house, he wants to be up and active. Not camped out somewhere so that his parents can see if anything shows up. Even during those couple of times where he would spend half an hour on one playground when we are around lures, it's really not that exciting to me.
And I've never given them excuses for their communication and have admitted several times that need to improve it. Like, so so many times now.
Diablohead
Member
At first it was helpful and it really could benefit from a rough direction notice too but it was a ton better then nothing like we have now.
blankempathy
Member
You just keep on thinking that this is about people upset that they can't "cheat" when the reality is that those third party apps were a current solution to one of pokemon go's biggest problem. Now people are stuck waiting who knows how long for niantic to fix the issue.
Steve Youngblood
Member
As has been mentioned time and time again, I think the issue here isn't that disabling these specific trackers is egregious in a vacuum. However, when you consider that a lot of the popularity of the trackers was born out of the need for something to replace the existing in-game functionality that was broken, you're going to see more criticism of such a move. Maybe something like Pokevision goes too far. But there'd be a better claim to shut it down as cheating if existing functionality worked as intended.
Darkstorne
Member
Literally finding this unplayable now, and I never used tracker websites or apps. I just have to make do with catching whatever shows up. An Electabuzz might show up on my tracker but I've got absolutely no idea what to do about finding it now.
Really hope they get this tracker fixed. Reintroduce the footprints, and have them rotate towards the direction each Pokemon is in. That removes the need for third party apps entirely, is a realistic simulation of actually tracking footprints, and encourages people to WALK to find things instead of sitting down at a PokeStop spending cash on lures. Maybe that was the incentive behind ditching the tracker entirely and shutting down third party software though...
Really hope they get this tracker fixed. Reintroduce the footprints, and have them rotate towards the direction each Pokemon is in. That removes the need for third party apps entirely, is a realistic simulation of actually tracking footprints, and encourages people to WALK to find things instead of sitting down at a PokeStop spending cash on lures. Maybe that was the incentive behind ditching the tracker entirely and shutting down third party software though...
I didn't even mention the third party trackers in the past you quoted and here you are sucking up the crap the company is doing. Gotta agree with you being the worst type of apologist. I suppose there were even people defending gearbox with aliens as well so I shouldn't even be surprised.
I played ingress and have been burned by Niantec before. This company deserves no good will until they've shown some themselves. I really think Nintendo needs to pull Niantec off this and start over with an in house project themselves. Let the community crowd source the data and in a few months we'd have the same info as ingress if not more just due to the name behind the project.
I really don't mind the trackers, I'm not someone who thinks cheating in this is bad. The game right now is broken since the footprints are gone but I'm sure they'll come back. But even with the footprints some people will cry foul now that Niantic is blocking the trackers.
blankempathy
Member
Oh I'm sure some would be upset too but the anger is amplified because for a lot of people it was a way around the issues. Now some are stuck with wandering mg around aimlessly.
Sounds like we've made similar progress in the game playing the same way, except I just use as an exercise enhancer and bring it with me to the shops and Mcdonalds and stuff as well.
I do understand that there's different kinds of players that play the game. There's people like us, and people like your wife and other users in this thread. What I take issue with here is the people who use trackers and the like strongarming the Internet and basically bashing the game, the developers, and making fun of people who still do enjoy the game.
I still believe Niantic needs better communication and should fix or replace the in-game tracker even if I don't currently use it, because I may indeed use it one day. However I think everyone seriously needs to calm down and realise there are other ways to play in the meantime - a way people like us have been playing. Either that or realise it's absolutely not the end of the world and they can seriously juat do something else completely different for the time being. With the way people are acting it's as if it has been released publicly for way longer than a month.
I too don't get much much enjoyment from sitting at lures, but lots seem to. It's sort of like the new hang out spot for a ton of people. Instead of sitting at lures my partner and I just walk along a route that nets us a few Poke-stops along the way.
I also just have fun seeing what Pokemon pop up. Sometimes I run into cool unique ones, but on my nightly walks I just catch most things I run into. I caught 23 Pokemon tonight. Ekans, Staryu, Goldeen, Staryu, Pidgey, Rattata and Spearow. When I got home I threw on a lucky egg and evolved a bunch of stuff. Almost level 19 now (my partner is level 20 and she plays the same way as me, fair crazy).
Oh, and on my walks at the park I've seen parents playing Pokemon Go with their kids. But I think they were a bit older than 4. Still though I think it's real nice that parents are bonding with their kids through the game.
Hey buddy, this thread is about Niantic getting rid of third party trackers like Pokevision. You didn't need to mention it. I mentioned the trackers because you and a few others seem to treat it like the situation is removed from those third party apps when it comes to the outrage online. It's not. And the majority of players don't give a damn about what's being raged about.
Call me an "apologist" all you want, but it won't change anything. I mean I could call you a few accurate choice words too y'know. I'm going to continue having fun with the game along with a lot of other people. You and the minority of others that are outraged can wallow in your hate and continue acting like this is some major issue, meanwhile I'll just be having fun playing the game a different way.
Besides, I think it's amusing that you were fed up with Niantic over how they handle Ingress but still chose to play this game and inevitably get mad when it goes how you expected based uppn prior experience. That's stupid.
Bear Force One
Banned
I'm talking about Pokevision bruh.
The game has always been about wandering around aimlessly. You're supposed to go to new places and wander around. That's the game.
If the in game tracker worked the number of people who cared about this would plummet.
I wish it was. I did that all day the first day and found nothing - because all the interesting places nearby aren't hugely populated. It's about wandering around dense areas where there are more cell signals. That's where pokemon spawn.
My "narrow vision" is the developer vision. It is supported by how the game works. Explain how it isn't if you really don't believe so.
The app gives an unfair advantage (giving more rare high level Pokemons and doing so much quicker) to people who use the app over those who don't, allowing them to hog all the pokegyms. In addition it provides functionality that the game designers didn't intend (zoning in on specific Pokemon locations). People can justify it for themselves all they want, it's simply cheating and nothing will change that. In fact, it's functionally identical to using an aimbot to get a competitive edge. Doesn't matter whether the original game had crappy controls, or whether you think the game is more fun with an aimbot, that doesn't make using an aimbot not cheating.
I think a lot of people have probably been spoiled by Pokevision, but honestly things like Pokevision didn't become so widespread until the in-game tracker broke.
Steve Youngblood
Member
I think that it kind of does. Like I said, I'm not trying to say that everything Pokevision did was fair use and that it should definitely come back and anyone who disagrees is wrong. I'm just saying that it's harder for me to sympathize with a dev complaining that usage of such a tool is cheating when a large part of the popularity is due to the current game being broken. This is part of poor communication people are talking about. Maybe these apps are unfair. But perhaps while shutting them down they might consider explaining specifically why the in-game tracking was removed and what -- if anything -- they intend to do about it.
Obscuritas
Member
I'm sure that they know it, I mean, no one can be so detached from reality to not see what you just said. They are just being in denial.
PSFan
Member
Now you're just trolling. The trackers don't "give" anyone any Pokemon. The good rare ones maybe spawn once or twice a week if that. And you certainly aren't able to control what spawns or what level they are.
You've deluded yourself into thinking these are some grand cheating tactic like action replays or something.
I'd say you are the one who are in denial.
The people who made stuff like Pokevision reverse engineered code within the Android APK didn't they, hence the C&Ds being sent to various Github projects along with the websites? I swear I remember the CEO saying something about not liking the code being used that way during an interview - which is fair enough, it's not open source.
dark_chris
Member
On one hand, I can feel sorry for those that relied on that stuff to find Pokemon and were living in places where they had to travel far.
On the other hand, the footprints stuff never worked for me. My gf and I would go out and just venture around. We never saw Pokemon with less than three footprints and never relied on trackers because it would often be inaccurate for us. Instead, we relied on feedback from the Facebook GO groups who mention about where they nest around. To us, that was our Pokemon tracker.
On the other hand, the footprints stuff never worked for me. My gf and I would go out and just venture around. We never saw Pokemon with less than three footprints and never relied on trackers because it would often be inaccurate for us. Instead, we relied on feedback from the Facebook GO groups who mention about where they nest around. To us, that was our Pokemon tracker.
Aimbots don't automatically kill opponents either, just make it easier.
Steve Youngblood
Member
I honestly don't know anything about it. I didn't use the site for any gains at all. My exposure to it was that I did look at it the first night I heard about it. But even then it either wasn't working well, or there was just nothing going on. I saw one or two Pokemon in about a one mile radius. Nothing I cared about, and nothing that I was going to act on anyway as even if there was a super rare thing a few blocks away I was going to need to load up the kid in the car at night just to drag him on a stupid trip he wouldn't have understood when he needed to be getting to bed. Not worth the hassle for me.
Are you really comparing aimbots in a competitive FPS to a map that helps people figure out where they should travel to play a mobile, uncompetitive, mostly single player game?
It's not single player game, it's a mmirlg.
Are you really comparing aimbots in a competitive FPS to a map that helps people figure out where they should travel to play a mobile, uncompetitive, mostly single player game?
Bear Force One
Banned
You replied to me.
This thread is hilarious, It's filled with users expressing their anger about Niantic shutting down something that was born of Niantic own stupidity. And a very small group running around posting from what sounds like Niantic own playbook just making every excuse they can think of.
For me personally pokevision was only useful in telling me where to find nests.
For me personally pokevision was only useful in telling me where to find nests.
Zen_Arcade
Banned
Just because something is usable doesn't mean it's good. Or even as good as it used to be.
Shits broken and not only did they take away the broken feature and leave us high and dry as to if it's even going to come back, but they took away the only other thing that was taking its place.
Stop making excuses for shit behavior. When your best defense towards excusing something is "It's not that bad." Or "It's been broken so long that it doesn't even bother anyone that it's gone anymore." maybe you should step back and ask yourself why you feel the need to defend what you're defending.
If it is true that Pokevision gave an increased chance of finding rare and powerful Pokomans (boolbasaur etc.), then I would call that giving those using Pokevision an unfair advantage in the game. Although I don`t really care since I use it as a Wii Fit-game first and foremost.
I too looked at it after I first heard about it as well, and the experience wasn't much better than me just aimlessly looking around. Like, yeah, I know I mostly get commons around here. I'd rather be getting egg mileage over looking at a webpage as I'm walking.
There's already Pokevision alternatives, but you'd know that if you looked it up. Niantic wasn't able to kill the tracking beast.
And stop bloody saying I'm "making excuaes for shit behaviour". This thread is like a wall. No matter how much I say I agree that their communication sucks you people here never seem to read it or something. I don't think the app is broken, I still think it's fun, I think Niantic's communication is shit, I think the reaction to this whole thing is absolutely ridiculous.
But, why am I here defending it? Because this game makes me enjoy exercising more. It makes going out more fun for me. I don't leave the house to find specific thinga but instead take it with me as I walk and turn exercise into an activity instead of a chore. This has me elated. I thought this app would be ass but since it came out it has made physical activity for a person like me with conditions that leave me exhausted all the time and with chronic pain a really fun experience. Seeing people breath fire about the app and shit on everything about it and people who still like it or are at least patient makes me sick. It's absolutely ridiculous behaviour. It's a damn mobile game. It's fun, it's social, it's helping. It's amazing to be able to go out and experience this game with other people who aren't making any discussion about this game a horribly negative experience.
Lady Siara
Member
IchigoSharingan
Member
And we'll all be curious if you'll keep your drool catcher from all the deep throating you're doing on Niantic when they no longer need your white knighting.
I am right there with you. Tried telling people to relax in the last thread and got berated and called a white knight.
Edit: Holy shit it happened again right above me!
Snkfanatic
Banned
Wow...grow up. This post is beyond pathetic.
This is exactly what I meant in my post above. These kinds of posts in the online Go community are disgusting.
Mikey Jr.
Member
Negative!
There was a tracker. You were tracking down Pokémon. That was the main point of the game imo. To track down pokemon. Not to just walk around anywhere lost not knowing if you should be crossing streets aimlessly or headed over to here or there.
Tracking! Gotta track them all!
Please stop playing.