PC Gamer Wat R U Doin?

PC Gamer, a prominent and reputable games website are providing detailed step by step instructions for how to Spoof GPS Locations in Pokemon Go. (screenshotted intro below, not linking) Simply put, this is wholly unacceptable. A publication that celebrates the videogames medium is not in the business of providing cheating utilities to a mass audience.

Clearly the most disgusting attempt to ride the pageviews trickledown gravy train of scraping and articleifying any content related to this popular launch, it appears PC Gamer are linking to and directly profiting from links to videogame exploits.

Imagine the reaction if they’d provided instructions for an Overwatch aimbot. Imagine the reaction if they’d informed their users for how to undermine CS:GO’s economy by spawning crate keys? Imagine the public outcry they’d receive from the player base, and the legal threats they’d receive from the legal departments of those videogames.

By appearing to advocate GPS spoofing PC Gamer are saying to users “you can now catch all the pokemon, you can now hack all the pokestops, you can now take over all the gyms from the comfort of your living room”. Make no mistake, this is an “infinite ammo” exploit. This is a utility that allows players to level as fast as they can spoof profitable GPS coordinates. This is a utility that allows players to gain items any time they need, both undermining the design of the game and it’s flow around having the right resources, and the microtransaction economy on which it is based.

For every player who now cheats because of these instructions, there are players playing legitimately who will have their Gyms stolen from them by overpowered pokemon from a remote location. These accounts will be banned of course, but the damage is done. PC Gamer have actively participated in harming this ecosystem and damaging a videogame.

Now there are many of you who will dismiss this as “it’s just a casual pokemon game”. But who gets to decide what’s casual, what matters? Pokemon Go is an MMORPG in the truest sense of the word, and PC Gamer have participated in causing it harm. Hope it was worth the pageviews.