Starting from July 2016 the phenomenon of Pokémon Go app has been started. People across several countries entered augmented reality to catch Pokémons and pokétops, while competing with other players in the virtual world of Pokémon Go. The game obtained popularity among people who felt nostalgia about Pokémon and showed two major audiences of the game: people of their 20s and 30s (Keogh, 2016, p. 40). Along with the nostalgia and reviling feeling of childhood, the audiences were attracted to simple, social, and flexible play experience offered by Pokémon Go. Although augmented reality, location-based games, artworks, and marketing campaigns have existed before, the success of Pokémon Go in industry can be explained by ubiquity of smartphones and with convergence of brand and technology (Keogh, 2016; Hjorth & Richardson, 2017). Pokémon Go brought videogames based on augmented reality to another level and illustrated how the successful use of existing brand can increase popularity of a game.
Despite ground-breaking nature of Pokémon Go, there is critique of the game concerning the effects of location-based technologies on the privacy of constructions (Hjorth & Richardson, 2017, p.4). Critics accepted technological advancement of Pokémon Go but did not believe that the videogame will last for the long period (Keogh, 2016). However, the game demonstrates how the feeling of nostalgia with the use of technologies brings success to a videogame, provoking the mobile game industry to develop more hybrid reality games.
Defining Characteristics of Pokémon Go Genre
Pokémon Go is an app that can be downloaded to every smartphone and be played almost everywhere. The genre of app is a videogame with hybrid reality. It is based on famous anime series called Pokémon and is the part of Pokémon franchise. The game’s slogan which is “you gotta catch ‘em all” illustrates its core goal of collecting all 150 distinguishable Pokémons. The unique feature of the genre is that players always compete and trade with each other, thereby creating social networks (Hjorth & Richardson, 2017). People are interacting and experiencing collective feeling of nostalgia through Pokémon Go. Due to the augmented reality technologies players associate themselves with the characters of the anime series, so they catch Pokémons and get the perception of pursuing their childhood dreams (Baranowski, 2016). Moreover, most of players complained about the complexity of mobile games that are based on augmented reality and location-based technologies, searching for the simpler game with “easy” engagement (Keogh, 2016, p. 40). Pokémon Go provided simple and flexible engagement for the users, so gaining popularity faster than any other similar game. The game required time to develop and adapt to circumstances.
History of Pokémon Go Genre
Speaking about the history of Pokémon Go, it starts from the anime series Pokémon which was popular around the world. The anime depicted a boy who left home and walks around the entire country to become the best Pokémon collector of the world. Augmented reality gaming allowed creators to make the game as a part of real word, enhancing the popularity of the Pokémon brand (Evans & Saker, 2018). Further the game developed this technology and created more gyms for catching Pokémons.
For example, in 2017, over 100 species of Pokémons were included and additionally 5000 more Starbucks locations became active for users (“Pokemon Go”, 2017). User had more access to continue the game and enhancing their social interactions and physical activity during the surveillance of Pokémons. However, now the locations are fixed and do not intervene private sectors due to the safety measures of other people.
Today, due to the pandemic of COVID-19 where people are placed in lockdown and many public places are closed, Pokémon Go is losing popularity. To overcome challenges driven by the pandemic, Pokémon Go developers included indoor activities and made easy access to premium items (Kumparak, 2020). This illustrates adaptation of the genre of games with hybrid reality to the circumstances.
Evolution of Pokémon Go Genre
Since the start of Pokémon Go the game gained more popularity and has experienced several changes. Firstly, the game is no longer popular as it was at the start. This is mostly because of the pandemic that makes social interactions and movements difficult compared to previous times. Secondly, the game is now a tool for making real friends. Hybrid reality allowed people to interact more with strangers, creating virtual communities that further developed into real friend groups (Majgaard & Larsen, 2017, p. 405). Such transformation of virtual reality into real world suggests about the effects of Pokémon Go on social interactions of players. For some players, the game is no longer entertainment but the way of socialization and expression of their social preferences. Despite the development of technological aspects of Pokémon Go, the game obtained a social phenomenon of being interactive game as well as being a type of physical activity (Majgaard & Larsen, 2017, p. 405). Thirdly, the genre of the game is now associated not just with spending time but also with educational trainings. For example, Bruno (2018) writes about embracing technology and pop culture trend of Pokémon Go in physical education of children. This demonstrates integration of the game with daily life of people.
Controversies
Nevertheless, there are several controversial views on Pokémon Go and other similar videogames of this genre. Pokémon Go was often criticized for application of location-based technologies, as this created ricks of intervention to private sectors by players during the game (Keogh, 2016, p. 43). Players were engaged with the game and forgot about privacy of certain construction when catching Pokémons. Another controversy of videogames with hybrid reality is associated with physical activity of players. The study that examined 359 peer-reviewed articles has found that videogames with the technology of augmented reality, particularly Pokémon Go, are significantly corelate with physical trauma and different injuries (Pourmand et al., 2017). It also suggests that along with physical trauma, there are psychological and behavioral disorder with unique patterns that are linked to specific gaming platform.
Furthermore, ethical concerns about the merge of digital visualized objects into reality are crucial for some critiques of the game (Liberati, 2018). Players may lose the line between virtual world and reality, so creating difficulties for other people who do not play the game. Another concern is related to the economic inequality that is enhanced by the game, as not all people have smartphones and opportunity to collect Pokémons across the locations.
Youth Culture
Despite such controversaries, Pokémon Go has achieved popularity among middle-aged people and younger generations. Indeed, youth culture played a significant role in increasing the popularity of Pokémon Go game. Due to the advancement of mobile technologies, it is now easier to create trends among adolescences (Vanden Abeele, 2016). Social media platforms that are actively used by younger generation are crucial in reinforcing pop culture products. Pokémon Go started to gain popularity after several posts in Twitter and Instagram that depicted exited people playing around and catching Pokémons (Isbister, 2016). By posting thoughts and images about Pokémon Go, people increased interest towards the game and started to play it.
Moreover, youth culture is driving force for the mobile game industry, as they are one of the major targets of this market. Younger generation dictates trends for the industry and selects what they like regarding their interests. A market that knows how to attract youth will succeed. Mobile game developers are expected to investigate how to make videogames more flexible for adolescences. It was found that the interaction of youth with mobile phones should be as simple as possible to draw their attention (Vanden Abeele, 2016). This is forcing mobile game developers to create more games with the focus on the needs of youth.
References
Baranowski, T. (2016). “Pokémon Go, go, go, gone?.” Games for Health Journal, 5(5), pp. 293–294.
Evans, L., & Saker, M. (2019). The playeur and Pokémon Go: Examining the effects of locative play on spatiality and sociability.Mobile Media & Communication, 7(2), 232–247. Web.
Hjorth, L., & Richardson, I. (2017). Pokémon GO: Mobile media play, place-making, and the digital wayfarer. Mobile Media & Communication, 5(1), 3-14.
Isbister, K. (2016). Why Pokémon Go became an instant phenomenon. The Conversation. Web.
Keogh, B. (2016). Pokémon. Mobile Media & Communication, 5(1), 38-41.
Kumparak, G. (2020). How Niantic evolved Pokémon GO for the year no one could go anywhere.TechnoCruch. Web.
Liberati, N. (2018). Phenomenology, Pokémon Go, and other augmented reality games. Human Studies, 41(2), 211-232.
Majgaard, G., & Larsen, L. J. (2017). Pokémon GO: A pervasive game and learning community. In European Conference on Games Based Learning. Academic Conferences International Limited, 402-409.
‘Pokemon Go’: See new evolution items and Pokemon evolutions.(2017). Science Times. Web.
Pourmand, A., Lombardi, K., Kuhl, E., & O’Connell, F. (2017). Videogame-related illness and injury: A review of the literature and predictions for Pokémon Go!. Games for Health Journal, 6(1), 9-18.
Vanden Abeele, M. M. (2016). Mobile youth culture: A conceptual development. Mobile Media & Communication, 4(1), 85-101.