The majority of you are willing to cheat in Pokémon GO

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In Pokémon GO, “spoofing” is always a big topic in the community. For this reason, we wanted to know from you whether you would cheat if you were sure not to get caught. We have summarized the surprising result here on MeinMMO.

What was the survey about? Although the developers of Pokémon GO rely on an honest way of playing, there are always trainers who want to gain an advantage in the game through so-called spoofing. This is how they change their GPS location and cheat themselves to a different location.

However, Niantic does not want this cheating and is punished at irregular intervals with various types of bans. But we wanted to know from you how you feel about spoofing and whether you would do it if you couldn’t be caught. Below you can see the result.

The result of our poll

This is how you made your decision: In our community poll of March 15, 2023, we asked you if you would cheat in Pokémon GO if you couldn’t be caught. Each reader could vote once in the poll. So far, 3,233 readers have taken part in our survey – with a surprising result (as of March 18, 2023 at 9:00 p.m.). How you voted:

  • 1,107 votes (34.2%) for “No, I don’t want to cheat”
  • 1,005 votes (31.1%) for “Yes, then I would do it regularly”
  • 818 votes (25.3%) for “Yes, I would try it once”
  • 303 votes (9.4%) for “I already spoof”

    • According to this, around 66% of the participants (2,126 votes in total), i.e. the clear majority of the trainers, would be willing to cheat in Pokémon GO or at least try it out. 303 of them (approx. 9%) are already cheating.

    Only 1,107 readers (about 34%) stated that cheating was out of the question for them, even if they couldn’t be caught. This means that just over a third of the participants would continue to play honestly.

    Why is the result surprising? Usually, trainers who spoof in Pokémon GO are often criticized in the community. Especially cheaters who bring disadvantages to other players, for example, keep throwing them out of arenas, are a thorn in their side.

    It is all the more surprising that the majority of you would be willing to cheat yourself. But there are also good reasons for this, as some participants have told us in the comments.

    You can read here how I think about the topic of “spoofing”.

    Therefore, players would be willing to cheat themselves

    Some trainers who indicated in the survey that they would be willing to spoof themselves explained their decision in the comments under our post on MeinMMO as well as in our Facebook group.

    It is clear that they would use this option primarily for content that Niantic is currently making difficult for them, such as swapping with friends in other parts of the world. But some would also be willing to travel digitally to other regions to complete their PokéDex or collect Vivillon.

    Regional events also play a role in the decision. This is how you can read the following comments (via MeinMMO & Facebook):

  • GedoensPuni: “Yes, I would do it. For regional and dazzling [Pokémon] and for the last presents for Vivillon.”
  • Luke: “If it were legal I would try it. As long as Pokémon GO doesn’t change the fact that you don’t have the opportunity to play in a small village and there is no possibility to create a PokéStop. Niantic would have to give all players the same opportunity and not that you have to drive several kilometers to at least [PokéStops] to be able to turn. Niantic practically forces the honest gamers to play normally at all.”
  • Sly M.: “Yeah…I think when you live in a village it’s more difficult and I could imagine it. In the city, if you are healthy and have the opportunity to go out, probably not.”
  • Rocco G.: “Just made a little spoofer because I missed Ocean Purmel. I couldn’t wait any longer and the unsolved task annoyed me. If spoofing, then only that you can move away from home, because there are people who can’t move properly, who are sick, live in a village with zero stops or arenas and don’t have the opportunity to go anywhere quickly . So spoofing only to move his character and to catch monsters, but it shouldn’t be able to port. Something like that could also be unlocked for a few hours a day, handy for the village players and the disabled players.”
  • Mario W.: “Possibly, but only for regional Pokémon and regional events.”

    • Are you still missing Vivillon? We’ll show you from which regions you need friends:

    Pokémon GO: Vivillon Map – You need friends from these regions

    That’s why trainers would definitely not spoof

    Spoofing spoils the fun: In the comments, however, numerous posts can also be found in which trainers explain that they would not spoof under any circumstances. From their point of view, there are also clear reasons for this (via MeinMMO & Facebook):

  • Zeet P.: “Nah, I did it on the PlayStation and it spoiled all the fun of the game.”
  • Dine S.: “No, the simple reason: you still want to achieve the challenges yourself that may not be directly feasible.”
  • MaMU: “NO – I would not cheat. Then it would be like any other game where you can enter cheats directly (e.g. via console commands or similar) – within a very short time you would have everything there is to get and the game would no longer be worth playing from this point on. If I registered all Pokémon in a few days, why should I keep playing?”
  • Xpiya: “I mean, if you take away the going out of Pokemon GO, it’s an incredibly bad game. It’s also general, only the fact that you play it on the side, sometimes here, sometimes there on your smartphone, makes it interesting. Who really wants to actively play a game like PoGO from the couch on a regular basis? On the other hand, even going to the dentist is fun.”

    • Trainer raises idea that might make spoofing uninteresting

    So that as few players as possible cheat in Pokémon GO, Niantic could also establish one or the other function that makes spoofing less interesting. One possibility, from Pokehunter0815’s point of view, would be to allow long-distance trading. This is how he writes:

    With the decision to implement regional Pokemon and events, Niantic was downright begging for spoofing. [… ] For example, if you could at least trade with best friends worldwide, what reason would there be for people who just want to get their PokéDex full to spoof? In addition, there would have to be a simple chat function directly in the game (that only works via Campfire if everyone would use Campfire, and the function there isn’t really good either). Fighting worldwide is also possible? Why not the same logic when swapping, including the pop-up window ‘Coach xxx wants to swap with you…’, I think that would be cool. In addition, a wish list of which Pokémon you would like to have and which you would like to give up would be perfect.

    Pokehunter0815 via MyMMO

    It remains to be seen whether Niantic will introduce this function at some point.

    What is your opinion on spoofing? Are you surprised that so many Trainers would be willing to cheat in-game if they were sure not to get caught? And would you perhaps do it yourself? Or are you strictly against cheaters? Feel free to write it to us here on MeinMMO in the comments and exchange ideas with other trainers.

    There’s a surprising new raid feature in Pokémon GO that trainers have been waiting for for years. We’ll show you what it brings you.

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