Pokémon Go draws computer gamers outdoors
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.029954
New Scientist : Since 6 July an uncommon number of people have been rushing to spend time outdoors. The reason: the release of Pokémon Go, a free augmented-reality game played on mobile devices. Players walk around the real world in order to hunt virtual Pokémon, which are fictional creatures that can be captured, trained to battle, or traded. Even though the game itself is fairly benign, a few problems have already been reported: injuries to players who got so wrapped up in the game that they didn’t pay attention to where they were going and at least one instance of armed robbers targeting a known Pokémon location. But it is unclear whether the game’s designer, Niantic, a former Google subsidiary, has any larger plan for the game, such as using its data to improve location services.
