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.

Questions or Comments?

www.tamaleaver.net@tamaleaver

t.leaver@curtin.edu.au