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Pokemon Go Players Are Vandalizing Real Maps With Fake Data To Catch Rare Pokemon
Tuesday May 7, 2024. 02:02 AM , from Slashdot
The OpenStreetMap user who noticed the fictitious beaches immediately connected the dots: Pokemon Go, the mega popular mobile game where players catch Pokemon and can engage in different activities depending on their geolocation, introduced different 'biomes' like beach, city, forest, and mountains. Each of these have a different look, and critically, some specific Pokemon will only spawn at specific biomes. Wiglett, for example, only spawns at beaches. Some video game sites quickly noticed that Pokemon Go's beaches were appearing in real world locations like golf courses, sports fields, and other places that are not real beaches. Pokemon Go uses OpenStreetMap for its map data, and is how the game knows players are near certain points of interest. The OpenStreetMap user created a filter of OpenStreetMap that surfaced instances where 'new mappers' added beaches to the map, revealing a number of clearly fake submissions. It's not clear how often Pokemon Go updates the game with data from OpenStreetMaps, but in theory the people who are manipulating the data would have easier access to the beach biome the next time it does. The OpenStreetMap thread goes on to identify one repeat offender who added dozens of fake beaches. Some are near bodies of water, like lakes, rivers, or docks, and others are landlocked schools, parking lots, and random strips of land. If there was any doubt that some of these changes are being made by Pokemon Go players, the same repeat offender also marked the map with his handle, as well as a poke ball. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
https://games.slashdot.org/story/24/05/06/2113229/pokemon-go-players-are-vandalizing-real-maps-with-...
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