Getting banned is perhaps the most crucial experience a player could get, and this is also true with some of the fans of “Pokemon GO.” While there is a legit reason behind it, there is still no escaping its consequences. Unfortunately, Niantic banned a player simply due to spending a huge sum of money in microtransactions.
According to ComicBook, a “Pokemon GO” player received a permanent ban from the studio after spending a whopping amount in-game transaction worth $2400. Apparently, there was a reason why the company resorted to such decision.
Here is everything about it in a nutshell.
The ban hammer has spoken
The player in question is named Dave Summers, a resident of Phoenix. Niantic banned him due to his feud with another player and, more importantly, his love for “slightly PG-13” usernames. The only catch, however, is that the studio released the ban hammer after he spent the ridiculous amount in microtransactions. Summers admitted to not being a gamer before, but the mobile game quickly captured his heart. For him, a better way to express his passion towards the game is through in-app purchases. Heck, he even went to San Francisco pier, which is quite far from his him, just to capture a Dratini.
Unfortunately for Summers, his love towards “Pokemon GO” was not enough to convince Niantic.
Sometime in May, he got flagged for having a username VagizardBeater. He, later on, decided to change it to PokeBeaterUpper, but still, he got flagged for it. Not even the PichuPuncherPHX did the trick. Seemingly frustrated, he decided to make things even worse and named his character PichuPuncher69 and PichuPuncher666. This eventually caught the company’s attention and later on decided to put the ban hammer down.
Summers believe otherwise
The “Pokemon GO” player thinks that the flags he received were merely from another rival who wanted him out. He even appealed to Niantic, asking them to avoid the penalty as it had no basis of anything significant. Unfortunately again for him, the studio has. The developers of the game revealed that Summers was banned not because of the edgy usernames, but solely due to him using third-party software.
He was even accused of falsifying his location just to acquire Pokemon the easiest way.
Nonetheless, Summers believes that what the “Pokemon GO” developer did to him was “unfair.” He reasoned out about spending “countless hours” just to grind towards the game’s goal. Of course, he would include in his argument the money he spent on microtransactions. Well, unluckily for him, the studio did not vouch and continued to implement the decision.
