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Average PokéStops per square kilometer for counties across the urban-rural spectrum. Density in entirely rural counties (class 6) is orders-of-magnitude smaller than density in urban core counties (class 1).
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The widespread popularity of Pokémon GO presents the first opportunity to observe the geographic effects of location-based gaming at scale. This paper reports the results of a mixed methods study of the geography of Pokémon GO that includes a five-country field survey of 375 Pokémon GO players and a large scale geostatistical analysis of game eleme...
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Along with the increase of big data and the advancement of technologies, comprehensive data-driven knowledge of urban systems is becoming more attainable, yet the connection between big-data research and its application e.g., in smart city development, is not clearly articulated. Focusing on Human Mobility, one of the most frequently investigated a...
Citations
... Pokémon GO 1 [55] and The Witcher: Monster Slayer 2 [68]). Prior research has emphasised that LBG players often play near their home and as part of their daily activities [10,35], and that at least in the Niantic games (e.g., Ingress Prime [52], Pokémon GO, Pikmin Bloom [53], Harry Potter: Wizards Unite [54]), there are overwhelmingly more points of interest (PoIs) in urban populated areas in comparison to rural areas and nature [27]. This, together with early work on LBGs [11], suggests that most play takes place in cities, making the study of LBGs relevant for fields such as urban planning. ...
... Thus, to understand players' lived experiences with the games, we approached the RQ through semi-structured player interviews (N=21). By addressing this RQ, we contribute knowledge to the academic literature on what mechanisms contemporary multiplayer LBGs have for motivating moving about (e.g., [10,35]), and secondarily, on the role that LBGs have in human-nature interaction [64][65][66]. ...
... Understanding human mobility (i.e., when, where, and how people move) is important for countless fields including, but not limited to, population health, urban planning, traffic forecasting, and infectious disease spread [21]. For the same reasons, it is paramount to study new technology trends such as location-based gaming, which impact human mobility patterns and our propensity to move about [10], even if these technologies were still at their infancy. By leveraging such motivational technologies, we may be able to, for example, nudge people to exercise more, reduce their carbon footprint, or mitigate the formation of traffic jams. ...
Location-based multiplayer games such as Pokémon GO are tied to real-world locations. Past research has demonstrated that, consequently, these games influence where players move. In order to explore what dynamics in these games incentivize travel to specific places or areas, we engaged in interviews with active players. We discovered 11 unique game dynamics, which could be positioned under three overarching themes: (1) the playing field, as determined by the placement of points of interest, the players' habitat and their surroundings; (2) the player communities and real life relationships, which motivated and directed the playing; and (3) coincidental motivational support, which highlighted how location-based games offer multi-layered motivation for players to travel to, and engage with, specific real-world locations. Our study contributes to the fields of gamified human mobility and human-nature interaction by elucidating how playful technologies can influence where and when people move.
... Pokémon Go! has greatly contributed to tourism (Woods, 2021). In this context the impact of the game on tourism in the capital city of Chile was analysed, for instance (Graells-Garrido, Ferres, Caro, & Bravo, 2017) as well as geography-related biases and new patterns of mobility (Colley et al., 2017), where it has a potential to educate, in such areas as history (Szlachta Junior & Ramos, 2019) and didactics, as walking and playing had already been applied for educational purposes even in ancient times (Mozelius, Jaldemark, & Hellerstedt, 2020). Moreover, it improves the interaction with society as it enables people to meet up (Paasovaara, Jarusriboonchai, & Olsson, 2017), and thus build social bonds (Vella et al., 2019). ...
This article attempts to determine the educational nature of “Pokémon Go!” game based on user interactions with virtual space and real-life elements. For this purpose, interviews with players in mini focus groups (mini FGI) were the chosen method. Respondents were asked about their interaction with actual objects that are reflected in the game, how they search for information about the locations themselves, and about the educational content in the game space. The players were also asked for their ideas on how to enhance the educational potential of the game, as such opinion of real-life players was deemed notable. Based on the results obtained, firstly, areas of potential educational value that still need to be improved were identified and, secondly, recommendations were formulated how to enhance the educational opportunities arising from the game.
... Even the small media screen of the smartphone, as seen in the popular pervasive game Pokémon Go, presents possibilities for place-specific and activist-driven urban experiences (Paavilainen et al., 2017;Low et al., 2022). The game, which inserted digital Pokémon characters for players to capture within the urban environment, allowed players to make loose social connections (Vella et al., 2019), engage in memory-making within the public space (Mejeur, 2019), enabled the discovery of urban places (Colley et al., 2017), and accentuated health benefits for players through walking (LeBlanc and Chaput, 2017). However, Pokémon Go replicated spatial inequality by leading players toward affluent neighborhoods (Layland et al., 2018), did not emphasize strong narratives of place (Hjorth and Richardson, 2017), and offered players limited opportunities to create unique experiences of "Pokémon Go" (Wang and Kuo, 2018). ...
Emerging from the social disparities of the COVID-19 pandemic and contestations over marginal bodies in space during the global Black Lives Matter movement, Radical Placemaking is proposed as a digital placemaking design practice and investigated as part of a 3-year design study. This practice involves marginalized bodies highlighting social issues through the ephemerality and spectacularity of digital technologies in public space in [smart] cities. Radical Placemaking methodology, as demonstrated through three design interventions, engages participatory action research, slow design, and open pedagogies for marginal bodies to create place-based digital artifacts. Through the making and experience of the artifacts, Radical Placemaking advances and simulates a virtual manifestation of the marginal beings' bodies and knowledge in public spaces, made possible through emerging technologies. Through nine key strategies, the paper offers a conceptual framework that imbibes a relational way of co-designing within the triad of people-place-technology.
... Traces -and here the aesthetic work of artists becomes interesting -are today, as opposed to the traditional maps of the past, part of the production of maps. In new geo-media objects, or locative media, maps also become devices for incorporating and displaying traces left by actions performed in these urban spaces (Colley et al. 2017;Hjorth and Richardson 2017;Montanari 2016): maps become parts of urban narratives and storytelling thanks to traces and tracking. ...
... None of the other location-based games active in the city included the selected area; they all focused on the historical city center and its immediate surroundings. Also, in the belief that the tool affected the practice and the game affected the players' perceptions of place and space (Colley et al. 2017;Humphreys 2017), the final decision was left to the students involved in the activity, because what happens in a mobile game is much more than what you can see in the frame of the screen (Hanke 2021). Pokémon GO was ultimately selected by the students for three reasons: 1) the teacher's influence as an active player; 2) three of the nineteen students were already familiar with the app (two had already played it and one was playing at the time of the activity); 3) it is the most popular and well-known game of its type, with an estimated 750,184 concurrent players (in September 2021; source: https://activeplayer.io/pokemon-go/). ...
This book draws on work undertaken by colleagues involved with
the Erasmus+ project called SoMoveED, or Social Education on the
Move. The broader aim of the project is to develop, implement, and
disseminate innovation in the form of a model of mobile social education in higher education, of which this book makes up one small
part.The project draws together institutions and organizations from
ten European countries (Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Italy,
the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Turkey, and the United
Kingdom), including eight universities, two non-governmental organizations and one social enterprise. Approximately 40 people are
working on the project, including academic teachers and researchers, entrepreneurs, and social activists. The project’s main objective
is to explore and develop ways in which the teaching process can be
organized in motion, outside the university walls, with the participation of stakeholders from outside the academic community (citizens,
representatives of institutions and organizations, activists, people at
risk of marginalization). This model incorporates three important
features into the educational process: (1) mobility; (2) participation;
and (3) inclusion.
... This characteristic means playing is not confined inside a digital realm, but influences and directs players' actions and behaviour in the real world [48,58,61]. The research on locative pervasive gaming has demonstrated that in practice, the games have become intertwined with the active players' daily lives [27], influencing their movement when out and about [17,21,44] as well as social interactions both online and offline [6,76,77,91]. As religious buildings are central points of interest (PoIs) in popular pervasive games such as Pokémon GO [4,89], the games generate interactions between church employees and players. ...
Previous research suggests that the experience and practices related to gaming and extended realities, and religion and spiritualism, share similarities. In this study, we explore how both the employees of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (n=156) and pervasive game players (n=98) perceive and make sense of these connections. We approach the qualitative data from the perspective of Durkheim, who, similarly to how game theorists view games, views religion as a multi-faceted system that incorporates the rules, practices and communities that comprise the religion. From the data emerges the following prominent connection as perceived by both groups of informants: systems of (1) shared premise, (2) resilience and restoration, (3) symbolism, (4) extended reality and (5) day-to-day structuring. A numerical view of the data shows that 42,5\% of the participants did not perceive similarities, and examination of these responses suggested that while religion and pervasive games share functional similarities, they are further apart from a substantive perspective.
... As a specific form of crowdsourcing, it can consist of various tasks such as taking photos of real-world objects, reviewing spatial data, recording the movements of wildlife or documenting where paths in the wild lead to. Popular examples of applications that have been built via spatial crowdsourcing include OpenStreetMap (OSM), the live traffic service Waze [37] and the point of interest (PoI) database of Niantic that is used as a backbone for location-based augmented reality (AR) games such as Pokémon GO, Pikmin Bloom, Ingress Prime and NBA All World [7,20,38]. ...
... complexity of some spatial crowdsourcing tasks, it may be feasible to sometimes create entire location-based AR games even around the crowdsourcing problems to motivate participation [28], or leveraging these games as platforms for spatial crowdsourcing [20]. While the academic corpus of literature on spatial crowdsourcing [37,43] and gamified crowdsourcing [29] are both growing fast, the early studies on the Niantic Wayfarer platform which serves as the backbone for games such as Pokémon GO highlight that the system has produced data unequally, favouring rich and urban areas over disadvantaged and rural areas [7,16,20,38]. While some of this is the direct consequence of the chosen the PoI criteria [38], the rest of the influence comes from the crowdsourcing platform and those contributing to it. ...
Crowdsourcing has been recently successfully used to gather rich geo data in location-based games such as Pokémon GO. However, the academic literature has demonstrated that the selected crowdsourcing practices have led to the reinforcement of existing geographic biases, favouring rich areas and urban neighbourhoods over poor and rural areas. In this work, we investigate through two studies whether these biases could be mitigated by improving the crowdsourcing platform (Study 1) and supporting the crowdsourcing tasks with open map resources (Study 2). As an outcome of the first study, we derived 15 recommendations across six thematic areas for optimising the crowdsourcing processes. In the second study, we demonstrated with a proof-of-concept work the potential to computationally improve the point of interest coverage particularly in developing countries and rural areas, and highlighted the potential of utilising open map services to build decision support systems for assisting in the evaluation of the crowdsourced content.
... It has shown that SA regarding the real-world environment decreases when visual tasks are performed in AR [194]. The shortage of SA is caused by increased distraction from the real world because AR requires a high level of concentration [13,78] and human cognitive capacities are limited [194]. It is assumed that a higher cognitive load usually leads to decreased SA performance, which in turn increases the risk of an accident. ...
... It is assumed that a higher cognitive load usually leads to decreased SA performance, which in turn increases the risk of an accident. Limited SA is Introduction also increasingly becoming a social problem when AR applications are used in everyday life, as it can cause accidents [13,78]. For example, collisions with incoming objects or traffic accidents can occur when an AR task requires movement or walking, demonstrating that SA is particularly important for performance and error prevention in safety-critical domains [453]. ...
This research investigates the efficacy of multisensory cues for locating targets in Augmented Reality (AR). Sensory constraints can impair perception and attention in AR, leading to reduced performance due to factors such as conflicting visual cues or a restricted field of view. To address these limitations, the research proposes head-based multisensory guidance methods that leverage audio-tactile cues to direct users' attention towards target locations. The research findings demonstrate that this approach can effectively reduce the influence of sensory constraints, resulting in improved search performance in AR. Additionally, the thesis discusses the limitations of the proposed methods and provides recommendations for future research.
... In Hong Kong (HK), the demographic that mostly uses and owns smartphones involves young people, with nearly 92% over the age of 10 (2). Internet services, online entertainment, games, telecommunications, and social connections are all possible via multifunctional smartphone devices (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8). The psychological and physical health of smartphone users who play online games remains an active area of public health research (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15). ...
... Location-based games (LBGs), a mobile technology enabling people to experience immersive game environments, provides augmented reality environments in which digital images are layered onto reality (16,17). Pokémon GO is an augmented reality game with an LBG component (4,18,19). Players participate in a virtual environment through their smartphones, in which they hunt for and catch digitally animated characters. Real geographical locations, tied to virtual environments, are a distinctive characteristic of LBGs. ...
... Nonetheless, individual health can be beneficially affected by games that encourage healthy lifestyles (38). Patients suffering from pain have reported the utility of LBGs in distracting them from their discomfort (4,39). Depression, social anxiety, and other psychological disorders experienced by players can also be alleviated through game engagement (40,41). ...
Objectives: Several physical, psychological, and social health consequences are caused by smartphone users’ addiction to games. A location-based game (LBG), Pokémon GO, recently garnered significant attention from young people. This study aims to explore their experiences with this game and motivations for playing, investigating their perspectives on the game’s implications for themselves and the public health of their communities.
Methods: Ten qualitative focus group interviews were conducted. Young adults, aged 18–25 years ( n = 60), were recruited in Hong Kong. Data were analyzed using a thematic approach.
Results: Five themes emerged: 1) missing out or self-regulation, 2) childhood memories of Pokémon, 3) extending virtual-reality exploration, 4) spending more time outdoors walking and exercising, and 5) getting together with others and social interaction.
Conclusions: This study showcases the motivational factors of young adults and their cohorts in societies worldwide. LBGs may impact players’ physical and social activity levels, and behavior. Nonetheless, certain negatives were identified (i.e., addiction and behavior resulting from a loss of self-control). These negatives deserve health practitioners’ attention and future studies should explore possible public health interventions
... Users may also encounter super-realism, which enables them to engage in several activities in environments that closely mirror those found in reality. The Metaverse portrays bleak visions of the future even though it can develop into something engaging for some sectors of society (Colley et al., 2017;Tong et al., 2017). This is evident in how it conceptualizes the digital world, configures users and their social relationships, and ignores social and ethical principles (such as integrity, truthfulness, and loyalty) (e.g., freedom, respect, responsibility). ...
... Unfortunately, many values essential for social health regarding community participation and a sense of belonging are not practiced in today's digital world. VR might cause significant user behavior changes, affecting society (Colley et al., 2017, Tong et al., 2017. ...
Metaverse is invading the educational sector and will change human-computer interaction techniques. Prominent technology executives are developing novel ways to turn the Metaverse into a learning environment, considering the rapid growth of technology. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, people have grown accustomed to teleworking, telemedicine, and numerous other forms of distance interaction. Recently, the Metaverse has been the focus of many educators. With Facebook’s statement that it was rebranding and promoting itself as Meta, this field saw a surge in interest in the areas of computer science and education. There is a literature gap in studying the Metaverse’s role in education. This article is a systematic review following the PRISMA framework that reviews the role of the Metaverse in education to shrink the literature gap. It presents various educational uses to aid future research in this field. Additionally, it demonstrates how enabling technologies like extended reality (XR) and the internet of everything (IoE) will significantly impact educational services in the Metaverses of the future of teaching and learning. The article also outlines key challenges, ethical issues, and potential threats to using the Metaverse for education to offer a road map for future research that will investigate how the Metaverse will improve learning and teaching experiences.
... As some media theorists have suggested, there is evidence that games such as Pokémon GO may act as catalysts for large-scale changes in people's 'destination choice' or 'trip distribution'. In other words, such games have the potential to motivate 'people to do something they rarely do: substantially change where they choose to go' (Colley et al., 2017). Lammes and Wilmott (2016) have explored the way location-based games, such as Zombies, Run!, effectively turn maps into 'navigational interfaces and gameboards', an observation that can also be applied to Pokémon GO. ...
