by Ryan Wasson
I know it’s been a while, but do you remember Pokémon GO? It’s been six years since the first smartphone game that required people to move in order to play had become mainstream. In retrospect, it seems that playing the game was merely a trend that came and went. I certainly haven’t heard anyone talk about the game lately. But Pokémon GO as a game had a greater impact than you might think, even if it was just for a short period of time.
I say this because I recently read a scholarly article published by Adriana de Souza e Silva, Associate Professor at the Department of Communication at North Carolina State University. In her article, she defines Pokémon GO as a hybrid reality game, or HRG for short, where hybrid concerns the connection of both physical and digital spaces. She argues the significance of how Pokémon GO was the latest example of an HRG since the early 2000’s which I tend to agree with. However, De Souza e Silva also argues there are some issues that come with the game, mainly the social and security issues of Pokémon GO.
Believe it or not, Pokémon GO is not the first example of an HRG. De Souza e Silva explains that the HRG format was first experimented with in the early 2000’s. In 2001, a game called Can You See Me Now? required players to find or rather “catch” one another similar to Pac-Man. Each player had a walkie-talkie, a personal digital assistant, (PDA) and global positioning system at their disposal. The PDA showed a 2-D map of the environment and gave players a rough idea as to where to find others.
A similar HRG experience that closely resembled today’s Pokémon GO was Mogi, a treasure hunt game that required players to find objects scattered around the city. I was surprised to hear that the experiences I’ve had with Pokémon GO had already been made, to a certain extent, more than a decade before the game came out.
According to De Souza e Silva, Pokémon GO inherited many of the features from these HRG’s while also adding the feature of augmented reality, something the previous games mentioned above didn’t have. She goes on to say that this helps add to the mobile aspect of the game in that it “promotes a stronger connection with physical space” (De Souza e Silva, 2017). I agree with this and would add that Pokémon GO is an example of a game that is truly mobile since it can be played just about anywhere at any time, day or night.
However, there are some limitations on the game according to De Souza e Silva. One main issue comes in the inability to make social connections since the game space can’t be modified by players or manipulated in a way to socialize with others in the game. I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment. When I saw people playing the game, I never really communicated with others, even if I saw someone playing near me walking down the street. I believe that while, the game promotes a sense of mobility, it isn’t exactly designed to get people to socialize. I would argue the game gives players the incentive to not only have as many Pokémon as possible, but to have the best types of Pokémon as well as having them upgraded to the max, although, don't get me wrong, there is room for debate there.
Another issue De Souza e Silva points to is the issue of surveillance when it comes to Pokémon GO. One of the main problems comes with locational privacy that many players and skeptics raised fears of. According to De Souza e Silva, Niantic Labs, the creator of the game, said they had full access to some user’s accounts, meaning Google could modify user’s email, payment information, etc. (De Souza e Silva, 2017). This was another aspect I was considering when the game first came out as I was skeptical of downloading a game that already required so much information from each of its users. I relented eventually, but the issue is one that can’t be ignored.
My conclusions on Pokémon GO echo those of De Souza e Silva. While Pokémon GO has introduced many to the possibility of experiencing hybrid spaces, the popularity of the game brings to light many issues of locational privacy and data collection (De Souza e Silva, 2017).
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