Man cheats at Pokemon GO with help from drone
The popular mobile game, Pokemon GO has become a phenomenon from the time it has made its debut on July 6, 2016. Pokemon GO game lovers have gone to extreme lengths to play this game, such as walking into traffic and wiping out while playing the game, eyes glued to their cell phone screen.
The free game allows people to catch, train and battle their Pokemon ‘in the real world’ by walking outdoors and interacting with other users. Players can also pick up supplies at real-world landmarks that serve as ‘pokestops’ in the game. However, in a recent update, it is found that a player was cheating while playing the game using a drone.
A young man in Massachusetts duct-taped his Android smartphone to a DJI Phantom 3 drone and and mirrored his smartphone screen on his laptop using a program called AirDroid, in order to play Pokemon GO without having to leave his backyard. Moreover, this man asks on Reddit if this MacGuyvered “Pokémon GO” setup was cheating.
The internet responded with a resounding “yes.”
The setup allowed the youth to explore areas where Pokémon are located without have to make the trek by foot. However, the bad news is that it didn’t work very well. “If I was on data, it would work much better,” the youth told Gizmodo. “The drone can go around 1,500 feet away from me and that is the estimated range of using Pokemon GO on a phone duct-taped to a drone.”
Restricted to the broadcast area of his Wi-Fi, he was only able to fly in a 50-foot radius around the router: with the nearest pokestop a mile away from him the drone wasn’t much help. In addition, the smartphone interfered with the drone’s compass, taking it off GPS mode.
“If you do attempt this, make sure to be in an open area where a falling phone can’t hurt or break anything as well as maintain line of sight with your drone because of the compass issues,” he advised.
Pokémon GO developer Niantic has declared drone use to be legal in its games, reasoning that the smartphone is still visiting the locations even if the person is not. However, location spoofing is against the rules.
Even though Niantic has declared the drone fair, other players were not as kind.
“It’s the fattest fat guy solution I’ve ever seen,” one user wrote.
Others said the drone violated the “spirit of the game.”
Even though distracted users have been a problem, many have praised the game for helping to get off their couches and get some exercise while being social with other players.
Some have even credited the game with improving their mental health, according to BuzzFeed News.
