Pirates of the Burning Sea Unable to Sign Up at This Time Please Try Again Later
In the offset part of this three-part series on stalking and harassment in Pokemon Get, I discussed how my Pokemon GO stalker has managed to stay entirely anonymous, which makes it harder for me to escape him. In all my many interactions with Niantic's support squad, customer service has repeatedly stated information technology could tell me nothing near what, if anything, information technology had done to protect me in this ongoing situation, specifically considering of its obligations to the privacy of my stalker.
Information technology would accept been nice to hear that this person had been identified by the company, warned about or disciplined for his abusive behavior, or notified of any potential in-game rules or real-life laws that had been broken. Merely I've since learned that Niantic doesn't even track the relevant data or obscures it for initially legitimate purposes. Niantic takes a lot of data from yous, and though it doesn't sell individualized data, information technology sells our anonymized data in bulk to partners. Personal information that is public in the game all the same enables stalking, simply the company offers no practical assist once that stalking has begun.
Rounding up sheep and enabling wolves
Every bit a result of the stalking situation, I eventually relented and accepted a name change from Niantic support, as described in my guide to dealing with this type of harassment. I didn't desire to do this because I was concerned the stalker could so take my name and possibly impersonate me, which isn't out of the realm of possibility every bit I have a pretty skilful reputation in my community – information technology isn't uncommon for me to accept a gym and take people arroyo me to chat, peculiarly people who know me and are playing in the area via machine.
But Niantic told me that names could not be taken past other players, merely reclaimed by me. In fact, Niantic's own help page said throughout my ordeal that reverting your proper name is possible, in bolded text. The "an" fifty-fifty implies that you can choose from amidst multiple previous user names, making it seem similar name changes could be used as a good tool to brand a stalker less sure of who his target may be.
To note, aside from contacting the police and irresolute my trainer proper name, support reps never offered me whatever advice on dealing with the stalker using their game to harass me – non even practical advice such as "get out the area if you experience unsafe," "modify your daily gameplay habits," "do not immediately return home if you believe y'all are being followed," or any other advice you might become (good or bad) from a basic Google search.
I empathize the legal implications at play here, but if your game is going to ask people to fight over a maximum of 50¢ a twenty-four hours, and from previousgames you know it causes meat-space conflicts, going forrad with stalker-enabling features probably means your back up team should have some kind of de-escalation or problem-solving advice to protect your players.
Against my better judgment, and after week of getting conflicting answers about the process, I accepted that name modify. All the same, this was but because I idea I could revert my name once the trouble was solvedandbecause I was told that I could use the in-app setting option for the name change, and that support could assistance me if I needed farther assistance. This volition be important later.
I was safe for nigh a week, and the things I changed were maybe even more extreme than what I outlined in my safety guide. For example, non just did I change where and when I played the game, I as well changed howI played. Despite it being one of my favorite activities, I practically stopped fighting at gyms and but dropped off if there was space. I put in poor defenders. I actively chose pokemon I had not used fifty-fifty for kicks under my old histrion name. I participated less in in-game events, or at least played solo and anonymously. I had inverse things up enough that while I was certain the stalker had tried to target me once or twice the previous week, he likewise was lashing out at any unfamiliar player that potentially could have been me. The game lost a lot of its appeal, merely at least I was safe.
Or I was, until I was conspicuously was spotted in real life while playing in an quondam spot while running errands. On this one day, the stalking immediatelystarted up again, in existent-fourth dimension while I was on foot doing errands. While I did non physically run across who information technology was, the same signals he'd used to previously evidence me he was post-obit me appeared in real-time. (My stalker used gyms for targeted harassment via non-standard play, using the base Pokemon Gogame to ship a bulletin noticeable enough that neighbors have told me when they see the shaving and gym-colour modify and asked if I was OK.)
I reported the situation to Niantic once over again and went to the local security station. Nothing was washed that mean solar day. Niantic, as always, said zip for hours despite my attempts to document every bit much as I could in instance something happened earlier I could get to the security station.
When Niantic anemically replied that information technology "can't exercise annihilation," I asked nearly the potential of changing my name over again. Initially, it was denied, despite my frantic, detailed texts. However, figuring it was like most customer service in America, I merely resubmitted the ticket in the hopes that a different client service agent would practice it. And within Niantic's ranks, I did successfully detect someone who understood that my proper noun change request wasn't for fun but for condom – but the representative forced the name modify on me without following one stepof the safety guide above.
Niantic employees should know that being in a gym is 100% not the time to do a proper name change. Any histrion seeing your character in a gym can see the old proper noun change to the new 1, either in real-time or during/after a battle. I specifically tested this on multiple occasions beyond multiple name changes with a friend and confirmed it. Changing my name the second time, while I had been in a gym, had zilchevent on helping me regain any sense of privacy.
I complained to Niantic almost the "new" way information technology went about "granting" the name change and information technology denied the ability to let me modify my name at will. I kept in contact with back up daily for 18 days. On that 18th mean solar day, Niantic did grant me another proper noun change but made the same, criticalfault. And then one time again, I made my complaint, only for back up to again strength a name change on me while I was in the middle of playing – which only fabricated the stalker look for me more oftentimes throughout the day.
This wasn't one or 2 support members. It is team-broad. I fifty-fifty gave client service reps large windows of opportunity with which they could practise the name change, and they still essentially outed me in public, repeatedly. If my stalker were looking to physically harm me from the first, he would accept been able to do it with minimal effort and retribution, largely thank you to support'south incompetence. It's why I now continue cocky-defense force items on my person, non just in my bag.
Effectively, what Niantic has washed is created an appealing, accessible game for casual players, but since in-game currency tin exist earned merely through territory wars, at that place's an incentive to attack other players. Add to this mechanics-mismatch the fact that the same system can be used to find and track targets in real-life, which volition not be dealt with by Niantic even if those malicious players threaten others, and the company has engendered an environment primed for not simply toxic behavior merely full-blown stalking. You could contend thatPikmin Bloomis amend due to the lack of disharmonize, simply its core gameplay mechanic, spreading flowers, enables real-time route creation, making stalking in that game infinitely easier.
At this point, it has become apparent that Niantic simply is unable and unwilling to exercise annihilation about meatspace problems originating from its games until things are bad enough that forcefulness law enforcement must human action against the company. I'm grateful for the concern of some people in and outside my local community who have too shared stories virtually how they have dealt or are dealing with stalkers in Niantic games considering they have helped me more than than the studio has.
Because of this, I decided over a week ago that I'd revert my proper noun in hopes that the stalker would simply keep to target me and only me until he got bored or would escalate things enough that the police might act. Unfortunately, not only has Niantic once again made me fight for results, only the published results near proper name reverts which I requested are being denied and changed equally I publicly questioned the company's support team'due south unwillingness to enforce its own policies – and I'll accost that further in the third and concluding installment of this series.
Massively OP's Andrew Ross is an admitted Pokemon geek and expert ARG-watcher. Nobody knows Niantic and Nintendo similar he does! His Massively on the Become column covers Pokemon Get as well as other mobile MMOs and augmented reality titles!
Advert
Source: https://massivelyop.com/2021/12/28/massively-on-the-go-how-pokemon-go-support-fails-mmoarg-stalking-victims/
0 Response to "Pirates of the Burning Sea Unable to Sign Up at This Time Please Try Again Later"
Enregistrer un commentaire