# Pokemon Go and mental health



## gooblax (Jul 9, 2017)

The first few months after Pokemon Go launched (July 2016), there were a lot of online articles about potential mental health benefits of playing Pokemon Go (PoGo).

For those who managed to miss all the hype about it last year, PoGo is a mobile game developed by Niantic based on the idea of being able to catch and battle with Pokemon (translation - pocket monsters) in the real world. The Pokemon franchise is huge, and a lot of the initial hype revolved around the nostalgia from earlier Pokemon games and the anime series.

Like almost all the games, the Pokemon Trainer starts out by choosing their 'starter pokemon' from a choice of three (or technically four) then goes out into the world to catch 'em all - complete their Pokedex (encyclopedia of all the pokemon they've seen/caught) - and train their pokemon to compete with others. The difference with Pokemon Go is that you physically have to go out and about to progress in the game. The app uses the GPS on your mobile device to track your physical location with respect to locations of interest (Pokestops and Gyms) and locations where pokemon pop up.

The main arguments for PoGo and mental health are that it encourages activity/exercise, and encourages socialisation.

On the exercise front, to make any sort of progress in the game you need to go outside.1 The majority of pokemon spawns are in areas of high mobile phone activity, and the majority of Pokestops and Gyms are in city areas. You could just drive between these points, and lots of people do. But early on Niantic implemented a 10.5 kph speed limit to be able to interact with any of the game features. The benefit of walking is staying below that limit and being able to interact with the game consistently. It also encourages going out and exploring new places; a lot of parks and reserves have been mapped as "nests" - areas where a particular pokemon will consistently spawn. If you're missing a certain pokemon from your 'dex or need a stronger one, a nest is a great spot to check out. The nests migrate every two weeks, so even if you don't need the nest pokemon one fortnight it's worth heading back to find out what the next one is. There's also the biomes and region exclusives, which encourage travelling out of your local area and even intercontinentally if you have the means to do so.

For socialisation, the idea is that people will get together when catching pokemon and battling Gyms. Early on in the game you pick a team - Valor (red), Mystic (blue), or Instinct (yellow) - this is your team for doing gym battles and putting your Pokemon into the gym to hold it. If a competing team has a high-level gym, you can take it down much quicker if you're in a group of other trainers rather than going solo. And you use far fewer resources (potions and revives) while trying to do it. Recently they changed the gameplay - gyms aren't so important now that Raids have been introduced. A Raid is a ridiculously overpowered pokemon that you can battle in a team, and subsequently try to catch a lower leveled version of that same pokemon. Some of the easier raids are solo-able, but you definitely need a duo, trio or bigger group for high level ones.

I have been playing since getting the app to work on my phone, which was about 3 days after game launch. By no means am I a dedicated player - I'm only level 30, my pokemon are pretty weak, I have only a rudimentary knowledge of type advantage, and haven't even maxed out my storage and bag limits. But I have played at least for a couple of minutes every day since then. They introduced a daily Pokestop spin bonus and pokemon catch bonus around November 2016, with a 7 day streak bonus on top. I have not missed my streak since that was implemented, even if it's meant dragging myself out in the rain at 11pm to my nearest stop which is only 1 block away. A year on from game launch I haven't seen any of the socialisation benefits and its impact on my exercising behaviour has definitely dropped off, but it does still get me out of the house once a day for that bonus.

Note:
1) Assuming you're not GPS-spoofing to pretend that you're in a location that you really aren't. This is against the Terms of Service and Niantic is working on banning/limiting accounts of people who do this.


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## David Baxter PhD (Jul 9, 2017)

Interesting.

I know nothing about the Pokemon craze other than what little I read in news feeds. It just seemed to me like another of those brief game crazes, like electronic pets, pet rocks, and cabbage patch dolls, but I freely admit I did not research it at all.

The only other thing I read were stories about the precipitous crash in revenues for the parent company, Niantic. I don't know a lot about that either; honestly, my take on that was that it shouldn't have been unexpected - fads or crazes typically rocket up for a short time until everyone who wants to has tried it and then just as quickly fall out of favor and rocket back down. It is typically a short market.

What I see from your post is the social element that I did not previously understand. Games which require or promote this build online relationships and that does tend to make the game less a flash in the pan and more enduring.

I think there can be some interesting implications of such games for socialization with people who find socialization difficult, either due to mental health conditions or due to social isolation as a result of geography or any form of disability.


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## gooblax (Jul 10, 2017)

I agree that there was no surprise in the initial drop-off of players and revenue as the craze died down.

PoGo still has a relatively large player base - in terms of online communities for it that I've heard of, the biggest global one would be on Reddit. Local ones are typically Facebook groups or on Discord servers. A lot of the collaboration is about sharing tips and information. The game updates have changed everything from pokemon move sets to entire game mechanics, so that has prevented (or at least eased) some of the stagnation in the game and kept some people interested in talking about it. Niantic also don't tend to provide any detail in their update notes or announcements - the "mystery" also keeps people keen to share what they've learned through trial and error. And everyone appreciates being warned of bugs/features that will ruin gameplay.

Unfortunately PoGo hasn't come up with a good solution for geographical isolation or physical disabilities. Since the entire game is based on regions of high cell phone activity having more pokemon spawns and cities having more landmarks (used for stops/gyms), high population density areas always win. People who are based in rural areas might have 1 gym and 1 stop in a neighbouring town, vs. people in major city CBD's who can spin 5 stops by the time they get to the end of their block. If no one's around to compete over a gym or collaborate in a raid then it doesn't make it much fun for the rural player. If the game wanted to be true to the anime and the rest of the games in the franchise it really should've gone the opposite way, but making it difficult for the majority doesn't earn money. People with physical disabilities/illnesses that affect their ability to move at a walking pace will also struggle to progress in the game, unless they have alternate means of transport from stop to stop... ideally within the CBD and in parks if they want to maximise collection of items and strong pokemon.


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## gooblax (Jul 25, 2017)

I actually tried my first in-person meetup for Pokemon Go tonight. They released two legendary pokemon (potentially only for a short time, or at least the current frequency of them is only for a short time), and you need a team to have a chance of catching one. So I decided to try to find a group of people to meet up with, to at least have one attempt. We had just enough people for one of the legendaries and defeated it. I didn't manage to catch it afterwards, but a few people did.

It was a bit awkward, but wasn't too bad all things considered. It's something I'd consider doing again if I had a reliable form of private transport - as it was, public transport there and back cost me about $6 and it was only to a neighbouring suburb. However I'm considering quitting the game. Without a team and without adequate time during daylight hours, I have no chance of catching the legendaries and therefore no chance of completing my pokedex. So what's the point? Grinding away and forcing myself outside for one pokestop, barely playing, just getting nowhere and achieving nothing in the game, with no one to even share the experience with.

Has anyone else played this game? Or is still playing?


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## MHealthJo (Jul 26, 2017)

I still do when I have time or when there is an event. I definitely don't necessarily think about whether I will ever complete it or not, haha, I am an extremely not hardcore type of person in that way.  I think it's cool that you met up with people,  that's super scary for many (probably most) people, I think every time we terrify ourselves we have crossed a horizon and we gotta pat ourselves on the back.


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## gooblax (Jul 26, 2017)

MHealthJo said:


> I still do when I have time or when there is an event.


Ah nice. Have you tried any of the articuno or lugia raids? Do you play with other people or solo?


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## MHealthJo (Jul 27, 2017)

I have not yet! Maybe tonight or this Friday... Generally just on my own or with hubby, but there are also big parks that can be counted on to have players in certain spots at certain times, so hopefully they will be there... And Facebook has groups in many cities and localities to check whats happening, some of them have Messenger always getting updates from people. Or regular lure parties or parties to try to get Lapras etc... Agh, we have been busy with other things lately and out of the loop! The committed players still seem to be active for sure though.


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## gooblax (Jul 29, 2017)

Good luck with any raiding MHJ. 


I really don't know about continuing to play. I went out today with a bunch of people from a facebook group and tried 2 raids, and failed to catch both. I stayed for a 3rd raid but there were too many people and I couldn't get into the lobby so that was disappointing. Articuno is around for 1 more weekend day, then goes away to be replaced by a different legendary which is there for a week, then the next one there for a week too.

The whole group raid idea just doesn't suit my play style. It's downright annoying having to pass up legendary raids because there's no one else playing. I don't want to dedicate the rest of this weekend and the next two, trying to play a game in a way I don't really want to play it, just to get a chance of catching the legendary birds. But I've played this game every day for a year. Every time I walk anywhere, I get out my phone to spin the pokestops along the way. I tried walking home without playing and kept forgetting that I didn't need to get it out of my pocket to spin a stop.

Maybe I need to quit multiplayer games altogether, and just stick to things where I'm only competing with myself.


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## MHealthJo (Jul 29, 2017)

It's so true that when games offer a multiplayer element, it doesn't necessarily mean you get that circumstance where things are lining up nicely and working really well for players to get the right experience. Oh man, this takes me back to the years (sigh! YEARS!!) of having to listen to hubby loudly rage while experiencing the not-very-good servers and multiplayer experiences on Halo games. Oh my goodness I'm glad that era is over.


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## gooblax (Jul 29, 2017)

@MHealthJo haha I'm pleased that you've escaped the multiplayer Halo rage era too.

I've decided to forget about Articuno. And will reevaluate for Moltres and Zapdos on following weekends. I'm feeling disproportionately upset about this game mechanic, but there's no point in forcing myself to play a game in a way I don't want to play it. Not ready to quit the game entirely, but it's still on the cards. It just sucks. I know it's dumb to feel this upset about it, but I do.


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## MHealthJo (Jul 31, 2017)

Nah, it's definitely a bummer to invest a lot of time and energy in something and then get turned off the experience, especially in a type of game where a player might be really committed to the 'full completion' aspect or angle. Boooo.  

Well, hope something really good catches your attention again soon! Fun is very important.


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