It hasn't been a month since Pokémon GO was released, but it has already gone through so many highs and lows. Niantic recently released the game's first major update, but while it brought enhancements, it also resulted in more frustrations as the Nearby Pokémon feature was disabled.
People took to the internet to vent about their frustrations with the game, including Yang Liu, the creator of PokéVision. In lieu of the Nearby Pokémon feature, PokéVision was designed to alert players as to which Pokémon are in their vicinity via a website. Sounds like a neat quick fix for a problem, right? Unfortunately, Niantic didn't think so, sending cease-and-desist letters not just to PokéVision but to other third-party Pokémon GO trackers as well.
Writing in Medium, Liu shared how Pokémon figured in his childhood. He's always loved the franchise since the day he learned of its existence, but like many adults, has tucked away this love as a mere childhood memory. After all, you can't just broach the subject of Pokémon when you're an adult without getting odd stares. However, that all changed with Pokémon GO, and for that Liu only sang praises for Niantic.
"You've simply captured all of our hearts with Pokémon GO, Niantic. But then, you broke it all too quickly," he said.
Liu also addressed John Hanke specifically, quoting what the Niantic CEO said during the San Diego Comic-Con that the company is working on fixing the in-game tracker. The PokéVision creator reiterated that their website was not made to cheat the game. Rather, it was a stop gap until the game's very own tracker could be fixed, intended to be shut down the moment it is no longer needed.
While it was live, PokéVision saw 50 million unique users and 11 million daily.
Liu admits that PokéVision does give a certain level of advantage to its users, but questions if that's a bad thing. According to him, just because a player found a Pokémon via PokéVision doesn't mean they're going to play less. Just ask the millions who have their own fair share of Zubats and Pidgeys!
"In its first few weeks, Pokémon GO has already enhanced millions of lives in unimaginable ways. ... Wouldn't you, Niantic, want to see just how much good you can do with [it] — is that not more valuable than anything else? I sure think so," he said.
