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Description
Background: Pokémon Go is a location-based augmented reality game developed for mobile devices in which users are encouraged to travel (walk, run, drive) to different physical locations to catch virtual creatures called Pokémon (Xian, et al., 2017). This thesis investigated if in fact this game is changing users’ traveling patterns by analyzing GPS tracking data from the Pokémon Go mobile application, the data were collected by a research team led by Dr. Crespo from the School of Public Health at San Diego State University (SDSU). The study trial started on January 26, 2018 and ended on March 02, 2018, where 30 participants were recruited following a set of requirements and they were randomly divided in No Play group (n=10), Play at will group (n=10) and the Goal Oriented group (n=10), from the 4 weeks of the research, on weeks 1 & 2 the participants were asked to wear the tracking devices and maintain their normal routine to collect a baseline, and for the weeks 3 & 4 they were randomized into the 3 groups and asked to play the Pokémon Go game (following the criteria of each group). Methods: This research is part of a main project in which the first phase was to gather participants to collect the information (players’ behavior, movement, trajectories, and experience with the game) and the second phase was to analyze the data through different disciplines and areas of research. This study was evaluated by a Geographic Information Science (GIScience) point of view, utilizing different geographic methods such as descriptive analysis, difference in land uses, kernel densities, differential mapping, tracking and proximity analysis, the results from before and after using the game were compared. Discussion: The findings of this study could suggest that the Pokémon Go game changes users traveling activity, it can be noted more changes in activity if the user sets a Goal and it’s being monitored, the Play at Will group suggests that the game is engaging at the beginning but after the hype, the motivation for playing starts to fade, so it would be considered to be useful on a short-term basis. The No Play group randomly coincided in selecting active people so it was difficult to analyze the reason of an increase in their movement patterns or the Play at Will could also coincide in selecting un-active people. The Pokémon Go game could represent a fun way for the users who seek improve their health to change their traveling patterns and might increase their physical activity without thinking on the time spent doing it, by analyzing the Land Uses, the users are more likely to be taken to recreational open spaces to help develop or maintain a healthy lifestyle.
