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Photo taken by Shannon
Pokemon Go is the new craze on the streets and regardless of the negative publicity it has gained so far on social media, it has proven to be helping people improve both their physical and mental health.
The game was developed by Niantic and released first in New Zealand, Australia and the United States on 6th of July 2016 and in the UK officially on the 14th of July by The Pokemon Company. Just six days after its release, the mobile game had millions of downloads with more than 21 million active users.
The game itself is GPS based which means that the players can use their location to catch Pokemon and actively engage in the game.
Ever since Pokemon Go was released on the market, it was free to download and play it, people went on a craze; chasing and catching Pokemon wherever they could find them. The problem was, that they were not focusing on their surroundings and as a result many accidents and even worse, deaths, occurred.
However, this game has helped people deal with social anxiety or depression and at the same time make them walk more than they would normally do in a day.
Zoe, 33 who works at Brunel University, said:
“I have been playing the game for just three days now I have already walked along the canal from Uxbridge to West Drayton in order to catch Pokemon.”
The game features three different types of eggs, which require a walk of 2km, 5km, or 10km in order for the egg to be hatched into a Pokemon- the longer the walk, the more rare the Pokemon. The challenge and also curiosity of which Pokemon the players may get once the chosen distance is completed, motivates them to walk and exercise while playing the game.
Sam Burton, 22 who has been playing the game for ten days, said:
“I have already walked 40 km, my friends and I can spend over 6 hours a day walking around and catching Pokemon. I feel like I’m in a better mood, I’ve accomplished something and I get satisfaction from playing the game. I was born in the 90s so having given the chance of playing Pokemon again in such as way, it is like I re-live my childhood.”
Pokemon Go encourages the users to exercise and socialise, as there are three different teams a user can be part of and form groups in order to go and catch Pokemon. With the thermometer hitting 30 degrees in London, everyone was at the parks walking, playing and enjoying the sun.
Dan Patch, 20, who has been playing Pokemon Go for nine days now, said:
“Before I started playing, I used to drive everywhere to avoid walking but in the past 9 days I have walked 20km and I am out all the time with friends. Pokemon Go is a game that has helped me socialise more and connect with people while at the same time exercising and having fun.”
However, Pokemon Go is not the first virtual reality game, which was created. The success of this game is mainly because it is about Pokemon, something very familiar and popular amongst younger generations according to Chris Cox, Games Design Lecturer at Brunel University.
Mr Cox also said:
“Niantic Company, which created Pokemon Go, had made another game called Ingress, which is incredibly similar to Pokemon Go but it was not as popular because it didn’t have the legacy behind it.
Everybody loved Pokémon because it was easy to understand. It was colourful, the character design was amazing and it was heavily marketed.”
In social media, Pokemon Go seems to have more positive than negative aspects according to the ones who play it. It is a game that brings people together, gives them confidence regarding their mental health and gets them out of the house. It is still early days in order to see what the future may hold for this game but based on the fact that in the very first days of its release the company was making 1,27 million pounds a day, it seems that is going to be a long term trend. Users “Gotta Catch ‘em all” so until then, Pokemon Go is their revisited childhood.
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