User blog:2Actimv/Pokemon GO: Why gyms aren't attacked anymore

More than a week ago Niantic announced that they would ban cheaters. That's a good thing of course to do and should've done way earlier actually. I didn't see all the gyms with level 35 players anymore. It was fun that you could battle gyms again and knew that you could hold it without getting the hackers back in it again after a few minutes.

But also a week ago I saw somewhere a post in which somebody explained that also fair players could get banned. From what I remember they just reported the account a few times and it was banned later. Also, it's good that you can send in a note to Niantic that you think somebody is maybe cheating, but the problem here is that a fair account was banned. And to be honest I think this shouldn't be possible and I think everybody shares that opinion. It seems like Niantic didn't even check what was done on the account and whether it would be fair play.

And now I'm back from a very short holiday and I see there's hardly any level 24 player or higher in any gym in the whole city. If you want to know there are around 10 gyms here and I'm sure there are enough players here which reached level 24 already. I even talked with some level 27 players who put money in the game.

No high levels in gyms is already suspicious of course but it could be possible. However another guy said that his account didn't work anymore on some day. He had to start over again, although he said he has been playing fair all the time. And now I'm coming to the point that I don't even want to attack and hold gyms anymore, just because I'm afraid to be banned soon. I'm level 24 now and I've enough Pokemon to attack and hold a gym, but the fun of it is gone now it seems. It seems like some players can't handle that there are better players than them.

And I'm especially afraid now since I'm in two gyms and I saw some other gyms in the city are held by players with a similar name. However I didn't make any second account and I'm definitely not a cheater. Just a few minutes later I saw the two, a boy and a girl, just walking around to catch some Pokemon. I just had a nice, brief conversation with them about Pokemon. So I'm sure they aren't GPS spoofing as well. Though at this point everybody is afraid of being reported just because they're good players. Particularly when there are players with a similar name. Changing names won't solve this though. There will always be another player with another similar name again.

I hope Niantic will see this letter and review what players they banned and whether it was fair to do so. And I hope they'll change the way of banning players. Of course you have to ban the hackers and cheaters, but now you're taking the fun away from every high level player just like me who is walking or cycling around for hours. And I hope I won't get banned in the coming days because of playing the game fair.

If you read this blog post I'd appreciate it if you vote on the poll honestly and leave a reaction in the comments about your experiences and thoughts. Also please share this as much as you can so Niantic will see this and will take action.

Did you experience any problems with bans the last week? Yes, I got banned while I've been playing fair Yes, I'm really afraid of being banned while I play fair Yes, I don't even attack any gyms anymore because of the unfair bans No, I haven't experienced anything and I'm not afraid of being banned No, I didn't reach a high level so far so I don't have to be afraid No, this is new to me