Please support filing proof-of-presence data in game to discourage unfair gameplay
I would like to request Ingress to support the collection and submission of additional data to help identify one's gameplay fairness, including but not limiting to:
- Photos/Video clips captured using the camera of the scanner device
- GPS tracks with much refined resolution
- Voice recordings during the player's gameplay activities
- Wi-Fi access-points(SSID/BSSID) and their signal strengths
- Bluetooth beacons and their signal strengths
- Data generated from the various sensors on the scanner device(acceleration, etc.)
- Other data that may correlate to the specific locations where the gameplay activities taking place.
This data should be send when the player has convenient network access, players failed to send such data in a reasonable duration should be limited/throttled.
When possible, such data should be reviewable by the player community(like in Wayfarer) to catch invalid/spoofed data after removing personal identifiable information(like personal hotspots that may contain the player's legal name). Other players can have the ability to request a certain player to submit such data to Niantic when such player is active in any activity in a certain geolocation in game, but the submission should only be reviewable after a certain period to avoid doxxing.
Comments
I've been to many portals that have regularly been spoofed and not once have I ever given anyone proof of presence. It's not something that I'll ever do either. I have no fear of being banned because I've never cheated in this game. Requiring this type of information feels extremely invasive for a game on a cell phone. Spoofing has been around since day one and will never go away. So this isn't something that I can agree with.
Providing proof of presences isn't much invasive as long as it is the player who is manually sending them(they could have to ability to review the data, and, partially redact the information that is sensitive to them).
As the game is already leaking our geolocation as part of our gameplay activities I believe most players(except for the spoofers lmao) wont mind giving more as long as their safety is ensured and the game is much fairer to them.
For example for a portal that is near an convenience store voice recording data can easily capture the doorbell sound that is emitted when people is entering/leaving the store, with enough data we could easily correlate whether the gameplay activity actually happen is near distance.
Of course it shouldn't be the only factor to determine whether the player has cheated or not, but it can be a reason to increase the number of data type the player is required to send to increase the cost of spoofing.
Really, it's just a game on a cell phone. No need for CIA type analysis just to play a game.
You mean like..... an AR portal scan?
This would require a handful of things:
The first isn't going to happen.
The second is nearly impossible to implement better than what they have.
The third, could happen right now (and used to). There was a time when in areas with a spoofer problem, both sides would regularly ask and receive this sort of evidence between each other, and if someone couldn't supply it in a reasonable time, both sides would spam report.
Yet again, this comes back to "The community used to manage it, and now the community won't manage it yet demands that Niantic do it".
Just... no. Absolutely not. No player is required to provide proof of presence to anyone else. If this is done by some communities it is by common agreement. You cannot enforce this.
If you suspect someone is spoofing, report them and move on.
@Vdragon Any system like this will quickly become weaponized and used as a tool for harassment rather than verification.
In my area it used to be common for both factions to take just-in-case photos when accessing durable portals. It was uncommon for the other faction to request them because we knew and trusted the people on the other faction who typically visited durable portals.
These days most spoofs use throwaway accounts rather than the player's main account. Also, it's hard for me to imagine spoofing a portal that's near a convenience store since convenience stores are by their very definition easy to access.
Too many phones can't do that.
and before anyone adds in
The encrypted AR scans are RAM intensive. They might be able to perform the scans but a crappshoot if it's optimal. It's still a beta.
I really hate they added overclock hacks into the stats
If you implement it like that, say goodbye to Ingress in Europe. Laws etc.
We need an algorithm that would check interactions between players. You just need to ban those accounts that only collect resources, and those accounts to which these resources are then regularly sent.
So if a local agent who has time, regularly farms for another agent, who likes to boom, but doesn't have the time to farm their XMPS, under your idea, would be get banned or flagged? Yeah, sounds like a bad idea. Or you need to further elaborate how this should work.
I don't even like having to have my location set to 'all the time' for Ingress, due to Adventure Sync distance tracking - let alone giving away yet more personal data.
If much of what you propose was implemented, then you would rightfully see active player numbers drop even further.
Whilst I'm happy to give up some data in order to play Ingress, I'm not happy for even more to be handed over.
More can be done on NIA's side to tackle cheating and spoofing. It is just they don't like putting in the adequate resources to do so. Or acting upon requests for further investigation - for which a quick check will usually highlight if someone is up to no good.
How about Ingress being 'tied' in some way to the phones IMEI number, one phone one account.
I know people have more than one phone but it would discourage casual cheating.
@BlackOmegon That would be an impediment for parents whose kids use their phone to play.
"Damn, my phone broke"
"Oh well, new account."
"Oh sweet, the new model phone is out!"
"Oh well, new account."
"We need to go into the desert on Sat modem, switch to your stripped down, no notifications phone with minimal passive data usage"
"Sure, just booting up my 2nd account"
I don't think this is what you want...
You're assuming that Ingress has the necessary permissions to access the IMEI number. I don't think it does.
You are also assuming IMEI can't be spoofed...
Spoiler: it can.
I'm more surprised Niantic used MAC addresses before they were randomized.
I'm pretty sure European laws don't make manually sending one's own data to the third-party illegal. The idea is to disproportionately increase the cost of gameplay between regular players versus spoofers by enforcing data submissions that are easy/safe/comfortable to collect and submit for the legal ones.
I highly disagree with your argument, if you could accept submitting your precise, real-time geolocation data during the regular gameplay activities in Ingress or any other geolocation-based AR games you should have even less problem submitting other data that has lower relevance to your personal identifiable information(PII)/safety.
This won't help.
1) Generally the problem is that kamikazi account can do enough damage before stopped,and is also anonymous enough. Registered somewhere far-far away,and possibly even renamed later,running supersonic.Upleveled a bit like legit player to bypass CAL.
2) Imagine a person with enough backpacks (hidden,ofc),with almost zero hacker/glyph per week/month,just riding and smashing. And again,and again. Infinite loot.
3) Wifi/bt can be turned off outside(simple economy of few battery percents). 3rd party gps tracks are absolutely not a clue.Turning camera/audio without user permission(not about OS restrictions,just about mechanics) - then ingress will be spyware and possibly deleted from stores,also audio can be muffled enough to contain nothing useful.
I think that answer is Niantic anticheat that should be updated.
Wifi/bt can be turned off outside(simple economy of few battery percents).
Doesn't matter, the game can request the player to manually turn it on when PoP assertion is needed.
3rd party gps tracks are absolutely not a clue.
The game can function as a tracker, no need to have a third-party application. Also, different scanner devices have different GPS locating behavior which can be fingerprinted and matched to determine whether the user is using the real hardware during their gameplay activities, which is extremely helpful.
Turning camera/audio without user permission then ingress will be spyware and possibly deleted from stores
The game CAN properly request such access from the user, not an issue.
audio can be muffled enough to contain nothing useful
The game can require multiple factors for PoP assertion at the same time, audio is just one of the possible factor.
You seem to think this is worth the development time, only to create the most invasive data collection app/game in the google/apple stores.
Not happening, sorry, time to move on. You're grasping at straws and the level of permissions needed to achieve what you want would require breaking multiple privacy terms of service app stores have with developers.
Go try and run a business, your eyes will be opened wide.
All of these ideas can be faked by a mildly dedicated user, and will be intrusive and offputting to a legitimate player.
Easy to subvert, annoying to comply. Worst outcome for everyone.
A novice that I brought to the game won't enable Adventure Sync because if enabled, it tracks your location in background. I believe they would delete this game immediately upon installation if it asked them to access mic/camera/etc with a statement that it's "to prevent unfair gameplay".
You're grasping at straws and the level of permissions needed to achieve what you want would require breaking multiple privacy terms of service app stores have with developers.
Please elaborate on the exact term this approach will break, otherwise this argument is just nonsense.
There are already many AAA games that implement anti-cheat that may be considered privacy-wise invasive to part of the users, prior acts already exist.
Nearly every single one of those AAA games still has active cheating