'Pokemon Go' News: Cheats & Hacks Backfires To Players As Niantic Issues Ban Penalties; Title Needs A Bug Bounty System?

The "Pokemon Go" fever is so intense that most players if not all are addicted to the game. In fact, there are already tons of "Pokemon Go" tips and tricks online. However, it seems that the developers are closely monitoring the gameplay and has started banning players.

According to International Business Times, Niantic has started banning cheaters and hackers with their ban penalties last week. "Pokemon Go" players who play around the fair-play measure is now feeling the penalty.

Unfortunately, some legitimate "Pokemon Go" players were affected by the penalty. One Reddit user and "Pokemon Go" player named Newpokemon1738 posted his experience about being banned despite playing fair in the gameplay.

According to him, he traveled a lot in a few major cities on the east and west coast to visit college friends as he prepares to move for graduate school. He enjoyed "Pokemon Go" so much that he was already at level 26. He attested to playing the game without cheating and couldn't believe why Niantic banned his "Pokemon Go" account.

Another, "Pokemon Go" player experienced the same. Le_Frog-Prince is a military and has been riding all across the country due to his work's demand. Sometimes he traveled by plane and also got banned this week.

Meanwhile, another "Pokemon Go" player was able to play around the "Pokemon Go" gameplay. Per Gizmodo, Netops discovered a way to reach out to Niantic to release eggs. In fact, he was able to remove all the 9 eggs but the ninth account was banned.

Netops used a Python-based API from Github, an Android emulator and a snipping script to carry out his plans. He sent a request to Niantic to deploy eggs to gyms where he acquired the gym ID, which was owned by only one team. See his post here.

Several "Pokemon Go" players were disappointed with the prospect of unbeatable gyms. On Netops end, he said that he only did it as a simple prank. Niantic already fixed the problem.

What Netops did of exploiting "Pokemon Go" opens the issue of bug-bounty reward system. Bug bounties are rewards provided by a company to someone who reported a bug in their software product. Riot, the developers behind "League of Legends" and Google practice this reward system.

Do you agree that Niantic should apply the bug bounty reward system in "Pokemon Go" given the game's popularity? Do you know any friend who plays "Pokemon Go" who is also banned in the game? What is your opinion about the ban penalty? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.