Pokemon Go player earns lots of XP in a weekend, triggers anti-cheat measures from Niantic

Lame

Even if you don't follow Pokemon Go, this is a neat little inspiring story, and an interesting case of game design.

Although quite a bit of folks have quit Go, a large fanbase still remains, and among them is an avid player named Jimmy Derocher of Austin, Texas. His goal was to prove people wrong by earning one million experience points (XP) over an entire weekend, something others deemed "impossible" or "cheating." To do this, he would basically walk non-stop during that entire period, in a pattern that many dubbed "Jimmy's Loop," with 10 Pokestops within an 0.2 mile radius.

Jimmy's attempt was admirable, except for one thing -- he tripped Niantic's anti-cheat measures, which caused every creature to run away from him for hours on end. He calls it a "soft ban," and flags your account for 24 hours to prevent XP gain. This is partially his goal, he says, to spread awareness of this limitation, and how it might hurt players -- especially ones who play and stream for charity like he was.

Niantic never responded to his ask for a temporary whitelist (it was a the weekend, sure, but par for the course for a developer that pretty much never talks to its fanbase), so he admirably continued his quest anyway. Once again Go continues to enamor the masses despite how poorly Niantic is handling it.

Pokemon Go [Jimmy Derocher via Kotaku]

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