By now, we should all know that a popular tracker named FastPokeMap is again up and running. That’s some wickedly good news for the game! This article is not about trackers, it’s about Niantic and their stance on trackers.
Trackers are not ruining the game, they’re keeping it alive
Evidently, the game has lost a lot of players in October. It’s a fact that’s hard to argue, especially with the advent of “Pokemon GO is dead” memes and posts on social networks.
Niantic has proven that they are ready to give everything they have to keep the “third party tracker situation” under control. However, we don’t think there is one. The trackers are not destroying the game, or imposing huge load on Niantic servers. We argue, and you should also, that they are keeping the game alive.
It’s not a rare occasion that developers drop the ball. There, we said it: Niantic fucked up. After the ingame tracker stopped working, there is no alternative for players, no tool to use but to rely on third party trackers. Combine the lack of tracking with the recent changes to spawns while driving and you’ve got a simple formula for self destruction.
The author of FastPokeMap explained in details why they are still maintaining the site in his open letter to Niantic. We stand behind his words 100%. There is no future for Pokemon GO if Niantic continues to hammer down community members and leaders who are willing to spend hundreds of hours just to make the game playable again.
We do not think that there is, or should be, any beef between Niantic and the third party trackers. Yes, go after bots and cheaters. Go after geo spoofers and mechanic abusers. But Niantic needs to acknowledge the efforts and influence websites like FastPokeMap have.
How is Gamepress and Bubblestrat OK and re-enabling a core game feature like tracking is not OK? That makes no sense.
We need to have a community call and vote on how we stand as a community. We know on what side we stand. Do you?
And don’t ask us or threaten us to take down articles on FastPokeMap. We won’t. They deserve to be seen and read about.
