Pokevision creator appeals to Niantic to reverse tracking ban

The man behind Pokevision has, via an emotional open letter, urged Niantic to open the service back up to trackers.

Niantic recently ordered Pokevision and similar services to cease operations, claiming in a letter to fans that this was primarily to improve server stability. However, at the same time it removed the game’s own in-built tracking service, meaning players now effectively have no method with which to track Pokemon in their area.

Now Pokevision creator Yang Liu has in an open letter to Niantic’s John Hanke claimed that this decision is harming the game’s long-term potential.

Detailing his personal history with the game, Yang states that the surprise success of Pokemon Go has for many re-awakened old ties to the franchise and created something truly special.

People absolutely fell in love. But then, you broke it all too quickly,” he stated. When the game broke every few hours or so and wasted our lucky eggs, we stood patiently, excusing the huge growth and thus, strain on servers, as the cause. We were happy to wait it out with our fellow trainers knowing that it’s worth waiting for. No one got mad.

When the in-game tracking ‘broke,’ we all stood idly by, patiently, waiting for the game to update and fix.

We made Pokevision not to ‘cheat.’ We made it so that we can have a temporary relief to the in-game tracker that we were told was broken. John, at SDCC, you said that you guys were working on ‘fixing the in-game tracker.’ This made everyone believe that this was coming sometime soon. We saw Pokevision as a stop gap to this? – and we had every intention in closing it down the minute that Pokemon Go’s own tracker restored functionality.

As almost three weeks have passed by, the in-game tracker is broken. People had a temporary solution in Pokevision, but we knew, and everyone else knew, this wouldn’t be permanent. We didn’t make Pokevision to spite you, Niantic? –?we made it so that we can keep everyone playing while we wait patiently. We want to keep sharing our Pokemon stories with everyone else.”

Yang also revealed that Pokevision, amazingly was prior to its deactivation attracting 11m daily users and had over its time welcomed 50m unique users.

When we closed Pokevision out of respect for your wishes, and at your requests – one of which came directly from you, John – we trusted you guys fully in allowing the community to grow. I literally cannot express this more? – ?we just want to play the game. We can handle the bugs every now and then, but please at least tell us you guys care,” Yang continued.

After disabling the in-game tracker and Pokevision, the ratings on iOS and Android Google Play store went from 4.0 stars to 1.0–1.5. I am only one person, I admit that my sole opinion is not important, but what about the countless players begging for the game to be restored to its former state?

You won’t be remembered for the profits you made, you’ll be remembered for the world you changed through Pokemon and all of the lives you made better. So when millions of players are expressing their feedback to changes, is it not worth it to listen to what they have to say? In its first few weeks, Pokemon Go has already enhanced millions of lives in unimaginable ways. It has so much potential to continue changing the world. Wouldn’t you, Niantic, want to see just how much good you can do with Pokemon Go? – is that not more valuable than anything else? I sure think so.”