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What makes Pokémon Go? Directions & Destinations, 1 September 2016
Dr Tama Leaver, Curtin UniversityDepartment of Internet Studies
Centre for Culture and TechnologyCurtin Institute for Computation
@tamaleaver
Artist: Pawel Kuczynski
Outline1. What is Pokémon Go (and why does it
matter)?2. Augmenting Reality & (Re)Configuring
Space3. Pokémon Go Perth?
I. What is Pokémon Go (and why does it matter)?
What are Pokémon?• Created in 1995.• Originally a Gameboy video game
(96).• Narrative about Pokémon trainers who
collect ‘pocket monsters’ (Pokémon), who then train them and enter Pokémon battles.
• The basic narrative and range of Pokémon now spans games, trading cards, television series, films, comic books, and other forms including the Pokémon Go mobile game.
Who are Niantic?• Software-development company focused on
locative media and augmented reality.• Originally formed within Google, but spun off
as an independent company in 2015.• In 2012 launched the locative-based Ingress
game which added of augmented media to the material world.
• Partnered with Nintendo and the Pokémon Company to create Pokémon Go, launched in July 2016.
Pokémon Go Basics• Users play as a Pokémon trainer
(configurable avatar).• Utilise pokeballs and other tools
to capture Pokémon• Pokémon spawn (appear) in the
‘real’ world.• Pokestops provide extra
pokeballs and other tools.• Teams (Instinct, Mystic, Valor)• PokeGyms allow teams to battle
and conquer their local gym.
Pokémon Go Gameplay
II. Augmenting Reality & (Re)Configuring Space
Standard Complaints about ‘Online’ Stuff …
1. It distracts from the real world’s problems.
2. Invasion of privacy (and/or “it’s silly”).
3. It’s wasting work/ productive
hours.
Pokémon Go is a Physical Game
(Dispelling the gamer myth)
Don’t Play & Drive (spoiler: you can’t)
Pokémon Hunting “frenzy” / “stampede”
Westboro• Westboro Baptist Church • Infamous for promoting
religious hate• The physical Westboro Church
is a pokémon Gym• Gym defended by a Clefairy
pokémon named ‘LoveIsLove’!• Church ‘fought back’ on social
media with their own pokémon decrying “the sodomite Clefairy”
Pokémon Go is a Death Sentence if you are a Black
Man
URL: https://medium.com/mobile-lifestyle/warning-pokemon-go-is-a-death-sentence-if-you-are-a-black-man-acacb4bdae7f#.ue71wi9sa
Re-(re)configuring spaces …
Power / environmental cost?
Accessibility
Physical spaces, physical hacks …
Political Pokémon
(Re)Configuring Spaces …• Augmented reality games combine both
digital and physical spaces and experiences.
• Augmented layers can reconfigure and add to meaning to physical locations.
• Digital layers can change, challenge and confront normal spatial practices
• However, playing in the material world means augmented layers are constrained by the material, cultural and social norms already existing in those spaces
III. Pokémon Go Perth?
1st Perth Pokémon Walk
Reconfiguring Curtin?
King’s Park: Perth Pokémon Central
URLs: https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/comments/4t0btd/this_is_my_park_goes_on_like_this_for_about_10ks/?st=isizi510&sh=dc6ecaf0 / http://soperth.com.au/perth-pokemon-fans-take-kings-park-11576 (Ryan Northover)
The Battle for King’s Park?
Broader social media contexts, too…
Rural experience …
Perth & W.A. …• Pokewalk shows physicality and sociality of
gameplay.• Reconfiguring spaces both highlights and
contests meanings.• Battle for King’s Park is as much about
class and access as about memorials and meaning.
• Rural WA continues to miss out in the online and augmented participation
Conclusion
(Initial) Conclusions1. Augmented reality demonstrates that
physical and digital are always already enmeshed, not separable.
2. Augmented layers both challenge and reveal the normative operations of existing spaces.
3. Pokémon Go is the ‘killer app’ for augmented reality, ushering in many more games and other apps utilising this technology to (re)configure physical spaces.