Pokémon Go and Research

Pokémon Go is sweeping the world. In its first week, it became the most downloaded app in history. The newly released app is shown off here by its developers, the Japanese company Nintendo: https://www.youtube. com/watch? v1⁄42sj2iQyBTQs The game involves collecting virtual characters on your cell phone by walking to catch the Pokémon that have been placed in prominent real public locations, such as parks, streets, and other notable public buildings and spaces. These characters can be collected via visits to these locations (known as ‘‘Pokestops’’) but can also be made to battle with other players’ characters too. Although many of us will not have played the game yet, most will have seen its players walking around us— switching their gaze from their phone to the world around them as they search for their next catch. Uptake of the app has been unprecedented. It has only officially been released, as of July 22, 2016, in 30 countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, and the United States, and has been downloaded 30 million times in the 2 weeks since its release (VentureBeat, 2016a). In this period, it has gained 26 million active daily users who use it for longer periods of time than Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat combined (Digital Stat, 2016). Use of the application appears to increase the daily physical activity of those using it by remarkable amounts (The Daily Dot, 2016; Mashable, 2016). Crucially, many users also fall into those groups that traditionally have concerningly low levels of activity—teens, preteens, and younger men (The Daily Dot, 2016). As such, sustained and regular use of the app stands to improve not only physical activity but also mental health, social capital, and social interactions in these key populations. Pokémon Go is not only popular—it also represents a breakthrough in integrative gaming technology. While virtual collecting and battling games have existed for around 30 years, it is the first widely selling, augmented reality game that is fully immersed into actual geographical space. As the video link above demonstrates, this allows it not only to have an online dimension but also to incorporate actual physical activity requirements for players to be successful and to promote face-to-face social interactions between these players. Seen as an intervention in itself, it incorporates gamification to encourage users to walk at considerable lengths (up to 10 km) to new places, interact with each other socially in public physical spaces, and continue to sustain and increase their activity as the game progresses. It’s easy to be stuffy and dismissive about Pokémon Go. That it’s ‘‘just another’’ video game craze, that enthusiasm for and use of it will wain, or that it’s only for young people with nothing better to do. However, it is the first mass market app that fully transcends the virtual, the spatial, the social, and the physical. It therefore represents a new integrative genre of gaming—which, like social media, speaks as much to the potential of a platform for future different applications than the game itself. This distinctive nature raises interesting and challenging questions for those doing research, notably on interventions into human behaviors, using qualitative or mixed methods.