Pokémon is well established franchise with a history of fun competition between trainers so it’s no surprise tournaments have cropped up all over the world for trainers to show off their ‘mon’s skills.
However, one problem that has been attached to the competitions is the use of modified Pokémon. Essentially, people can use smartphone applications to hack the DS game in question and then subsequently masquerade as its server. This allows it to distribute bulked up Pokémon in order to give the player the edge.
The Pokémon Company has recently issued a statement on the matter – helpfully translated on NeoGAF – deterring hackers by saying these illicit methods can harm the saved game on the cartridge and should anyone be found using what it calls an “illegal Pokémon” at a tournament they will automatically be disqualified and will not be able to compete in any future events.
What makes things even worse is that a cheater could even corrupt the save file of the trainer they are playing against and Nintendo and the Pokémon Company have both said they cannot restore the file to normal.
Hacking into a game to modify Pokémon goes against what the series is all about, so hopefully some enforcement will stop cheaters and encourage people to play the game properly.
