LBS Games Highlight Limitations of GPS/APIs and “Cheating”
I can’t get too excited about folks who “check in” to games like Foursquare or Gowalla but are not actually in those check in locations. But, apparently it’s getting to be a concern as more “prizes” for being the mayor appear.
What’s perhaps more valuable is the educational value of this cheating. It highlights that GPS doesn’t work well indoors and that using an API, clever folks can pretend to be anywhere, both valuable lessons for those using geospatial technology!
The problem, with regard to false check-ins, is that the only solid way to do this is to a check-in to your actual GPS coordinates. The problem with this, as Gowalla knows all-too-well, is that it can be hard (and in some cases impossible) to get GPS data while users are indoors. This is a major issue if you’re meant to check-in at a venue, obviously.
