"[Discussion] The Defender bonus promotes spoofing and thoughts on how to prevent cheating."

#PokemonGO: I’m at level 33 (and-a-half). I have all but Togetic and the regionals and I’m methodical about documenting my high-IV Pokémon. But most relevant to this post, I rarely train. I’ve played every day since day one and to date, I have only battled 180 times and trained 168 times.Among the many flaws of battling, I simply don’t think it’s worth my time or effort to travel around the city attempting to place my 3000+ Snorlax/Rhydon/Gyarados (etc) in a gym, simply to see that they have already been returned by the time I get home. It's frustrating and barely rewarding. The largest Defender bonus I’ve ever claimed at once is 30 Pokécoins.Away from the large city I work in, the suburban city where I live has approximately 5 gyms — all of which have been stagnant at Level 10 for months. I don’t know if it’s a result of spoofing or legitimate playing, but I’ve done a lot of thinking lately about not only gym stagnation, but the spoofing pandemic as a whole and what could actually fix it.I might not be expressing the most popular opinion but the simple solution... reevaluate the “incentive” for holding a gym.This game has made it sufficiently clear it’s not about battling but moving around and exploring your environment. So why is the most important item in the game only obtainable through gyms?As we know, the only way to obtain Pokécoins without spending real money is to hold a gym. This, quite literally, not only rewards spoofers but indirectly promotes it.My suggestion (not perfect but intended to get a meaningful conversation started) is to replace this reward with something that isn’t as coveted as Pokécoins. The daily Defender bonus could be Poké Balls, Lures, or maybe even Incense — just something that wouldn’t be as beneficial to spoofers and consequently detrimental to legitimate trainers.I understand Niantic’s business strategy in not making Pokécoins easily accessible without the user spending money — I personally spend money every month on IAPs for Incubators and Incense — but they should be rewarding the honest people with Pokécoins instead of the spoofers.Sure the daily bonuses are nice, but what if a casual player was rewarded with 1 Pokécoin the first day and 10 for a full-week streak? Maybe you get 10 Pokécoins for every 100 PokéStops you spin with a daily/weekly cap to prevent a different kind of spoofing abuse.The idea is simple and could work any number of ways, but at least a system as such would reward the honest people who actually play the game the way it’s meant to be played. And who knows, maybe it'll deter cheaters.My apologies if this has been discussed already, but in knowing that big updates are upon us (faster than people know), it's worth resurfacing these types of conversations.TL;DR Rewarding Pokécoins for defending gyms promotes spoofing, so instead, use daily bonuses to reward the honest players with Pokécoins. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2jTPDzb