Pokémon Go Players Are Altering Public Map Data to Catch Rare Pokémon
Freeman writes:
Ah, Pokemon Go. The hottest mobile game of 2016 remains a potent force to this day, pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars a year from tens of millions of monthly active players.
Part of what keeps the game fresh is a continuous trickle of new Pokemon. The game began with just the original 151 monsters back in 2016 and has gradually caught up to the current generation of Switch games in bits and pieces over the last eight years. The game is currently in the process of adding monsters from Scarlet and Violet, and that's where this story begins.
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According to a report from 404 Media, some of those players have been adding fake beaches to OpenStreetMap so they could have easier access to the beach biome in Pokemon Go (though the game Go initially used Google Maps data, it apparently switched to OpenStreetMap at some point in 2017). OpenStreetMap contributors have discovered "beaches" that were actually located in residential backyards, golf courses, and sports fields.
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Entire blog posts, wiki entries, and presentations from OSM mappers exist to bridge the knowledge gap, explaining the purpose of OpenStreetMap data to Pokemon Go users and breaking down Pokemon Go game mechanics for frustrated OSM contributors.
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Though many users are "truth-stretching" vandals who create nonexistent parks, beaches, and footways to encourage specific Pokemon to spawn, others become "very careful, trustworthy" OSM users who "make many worthy additions to the map" by accurately mapping out places where OSM's data is patchy or outdated.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.