The Positive impacts of Pokémon Go on Player’s Wellness.
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The Positive impacts of Pokémon Go on Player’s Wellness.
Pokémon Go is an Augmented reality game that combines gaming in the real world with a smart mobile application. It entails mapping and tracking technology where the users, most players, venture out to real locations to catch the Pokémon characters. Since its advent, it has been a global phenomenon that is actively downloaded and played worldwide, joining the gaming community’s trend. The players explore out to add to their collection through the hunt for the virtual treasures and monsters. The game was first designed in 1996 by Sothis Tajiri but has since evolved to an AR game that fosters exercises and physical activities. Pokémon Go, unlike the traditional platform-based video games involving less active play, pushes its uses to an outdoor setting of physical exploration, encouraging physical movement and social interactions. This paper aims to discuss the positive impacts of Pokémon Go on players wellness.
With the advancements in technology, there is an increasing effort to incentivize players to participate in physical activities such as mobile tracking application coupled with physical activity trackers which helps player set goals, constantly check progress and obtain direct feedback regarding their physical activity. However, an application such as Pokémon has added the dimension to gaming by utilizing the location tracking parameter to make the application more interactive, gathering more physical activities (Nikou, 2018). The application has since been downloaded over half a billion times, a clear indication of the revolution it’s causing. The Pokémon player interacts with objects that are stationary in the form of gyms or poke stops. Different factors include the spawn rates of the Pokémon’s, such as the proximity to the poke stop by the player. The augmented reality feature encourages the payer to explore a vast area while trying as many Pokémon’s as they possibly can. Notably, poke stops are created by landmarks within the community, such as parks, museums, or even lakes.
According to Nikou et al. ( 2018), he focuses on the negative and positive effects of video games, but categorically discussed Pokémon’s Go and its associated impacts on players wellness, through the in-depth theorizing and the conceptual model of player wells, the study is inclined on Pokémon’s Go positive impacts on player wellness with an emphasis on the emotional wellness, spiritual wellness, physical wellness and intellectual wellness, By playing Pokémon, there have been associated advantages to the players’ wellness. Herein are the positive impacts of Pokémon Go on players (Nikou et al., 2018).
Pokémon Go impacts a player’s physical wellness.
One of the most imperative components of a healthy lifestyle is physical activity. Several efforts have been put to promote the physical activity of the individual. While there are not effective global interventions that facilitate efficient physical activity, Pokémon Go has been associated with an increase in players physical activity globally. With the increased use of Pokémon Go, there have been anecdotal reports concerning the increase in physical activity due to the game’s adoption. According to Microsoft’s research, when comparing Pokémon have significantly increased steps to an average of 10000 steps by players. The application encourages the players to explore real-world destinations to hatch eggs or collect candy, thus walking a stretch of distance and boosting their physical activity. This is dependent on the players time spent while playing the game (Nikou, 2018). When a player sets out to play the Pokémon game, they are motivated to walk more. For essence to be able to hatch the Pokémon eggs, it is determined by the distance covered. To hatch the rare Pokémon egg, known as the Rao, the plyers is needed to completer a higher distance; thus, an individual will be pushed to walk more. This show that Pokémon players are involved in intense vigorous activity.
According to public health professions, innovative gaming technologies, for instance, the augmented reality impacts the health of the players; with the increase in participation in the gaming process, the users increase their physical activity, which is essential as a novel approach towards compacting weight-related epidemic such as obesity. Pokémon Go is a highly structured game with clearly defined goals, a clear structure and immediate feedback. This keeps players engaged and acts as destruction from fatigue, depression, moods and a source of motivation (Nikou, 2018). Additionally, it creates incremental goals that help the players be more motivated to move forward. Furthermore, over time of playing the game, the user grows their abilities and preparedness to navigate high-level exploration. To motivate the players to do more, the game rewards them with medals depending on their various accomplishments, thus pushes them to do more increasing their physical activity.
Improves the player’s intellectual wellness.
Another imperative impact of Pokémon Go is that it increases one’s cognitive performance. A player is actively involved in playing Pokémon for weeks; they improve their cognitive performance and social intelligence through improved concentration and attention levels. Notably, it improves eye and hand coordination, especially for games that require reflexes such as capturing and battling the virtual Pokémon creatures; this boosts the player agility and athleticism. Intellectual development is often achieved through the challenge of cognitive abilities and promotes their intellectual growth (Ruiz-Ariza et al., 2018). Pokémon Go players, when involved in battling, train their motor skills, through this make strategic decisions and influence intellectual stimulation.
Additionally, players improve their dodge abilities during essence gym battles that an added advantage over real-life opponents. Thus, players actively involved in Pokémon have improved intellectual function essential for mental stimulation, thus increasing intellectual wellness. For young users, say between the age of 12 to 15 years, Pokémon Go is a source of intense physical exercise that subsequently improves their cognitive abilities and pedagogical benefits by increasing the players’ knowledge. Conversely, Ruiz -Ariza et al. believes in Pokémon Go’s power to improve linguistic reasoning, selective attention, mathematic calculation and memory retention capabilities, self-control and overall well-being of the player.
The positive influence of the player’s spiritual wellness.
Pokémon Go game is more focused on the belief in the existence of virtual creatures. According to research, they demonstrated the importance of pursuing values and beliefs. The intrinsic values vary from one individual to the next; Pokémon Go’s playing serves as a purpose and meaning to the players. Spiritual wellness is an essential aspect of a person’s life; sometimes, an individual lacks guidance, intrinsic values guide a person to believe in the possibility of virtual reality (Ed, 2019).the spiritual dimension of wellness involves striving to add value and provide meaningful purpose for life. Although in most cases spirituality is often associated with religiosity, its more of find one’s beliefs and the feeling of acceptance of the society through share goas and values. This increases the players self-esteem esteem and countering emotional problems and fosters stress relief.
Impacts the player’s social wellness
Pokémon Go enhances the social wellness of players through social interaction and bonding with other players. There are high chances of a Pokémon player physically running into other players while looking for the Pokémon creatures or meet up at the Gyms or poke stops; most of these meetings are conversations starters for individuals sharing the same interests. This significantly improves the player’s social health. When they venture out to catch the Pokémon creatures, they are involved in meeting new people and increase their interaction with them away in a fewer action’s environment (Nikou, 2018). Notably, these face-to-face interactions foster a sense of belonging through stronger bonds between family members or intensification of friendships. Ideally, physical activity and social interactions are the significant elements that boost the positive correlation with mental health. Social interaction entails the improvement one’s relationship with the community and the society. Some people suffer social isolation and rejection which may result in biological and behavioral outcomes such ad anger anxiety or low self-esteem. by taking part in the Pokémon Go, on builds social acceptance as he or she interacts with the society by taking part in communal tasks.
In a retrospective cohort study conducted by Watanabe et al. (2017), the group studies the relationship between Pokémon Go players and the level of psychological stress. The study was conducted in Japan, and it was concluded that Pokémon Go significantly improved players’ psychological distress compared to those of their non -player counterparts. Thus, Pokémon is effective in the improvement of phycological distress in players. Therefore, Pokémon Go has been adopted by plays primarily in the active community to help relieve stress and achieve other fundamental wellness aspects (Watanabe et al., 2017). While there are numerous critics regarding the effect’s technology tearing societies apart, Pokémon Go brings communities together and healthier. Additionally, they get the chance to explore their neighbourhoods since they are essentially forced to walk to make the discoveries of the landmark through poke steps. So, for those opponents of video gaming claiming that it makes people become brainwashed zombies, the Pokémon Go game reminds them of the social and health benedicts associated with the application.
Based on research from the University of British Columbia (2017), involvement in intensive gaming activities such as Pokémon Go plays a pivotal role in understanding a person’s personality trait and how the traits impact one’s behaviours. Being an intensive activity, users are pushed to limits to fosters their collaboration and interactions with others and how well they interact and effectively communicated. Through research, psychologists have supported the ideology that video games play an essential role in relieve of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Pokémon Go plays an essential role in triggering feel-good brain chemicals such as endorphins and dopamine, which foster rapid recovery from adversity and facilitate the creation of a sense of healthy beings. The joyful mood of players lowers the score of depression in players as they exude better coping and management skills.
According to statistics, 39.6% of Pokémon’s game players indicated that they felt better, especially mentally, when they were involved in the gaming. Moreover, 50.5% claimed that they had better physical health following the playing of the game. Although there is no precise determination for causation, Pokémon Go played an essential role in elevating one’s mental health and the development of new coping mechanisms (Ed, 2019). His mental status determines an individual’s efficiency and productivity; when a person has a stable mental state, they tend to be more productive and cordial when dealing with others. However, a person dealing with mental disruptions eludes negative antisocial energy to the people around them. Therefore, mental wellness is equally imperative compared to a person’s physical, spiritual and social wellness.
With the COVID -19 pandemic, the game designer has since made the necessary adjustment to ensure that players of the game enjoy gaming through enhanced virtual social features. In light of this, Oe researched the means through which the gaming realm fostered their users’ wellness and well-being with regards to their mental and physical health. Notably, Pokémon Go updated their system feature, these features still made it possible for player to connect in-game without necessarily through physical connection (Oe, 2020). This additional adjustment has falcated the Pokémon Go customer’s expansion despite the hin; those of the pandemic and lockdowns. This is a clear indication of the importance of this gaming service in impacting individuals’ social, physical, intellectual and mental wellness. This further erases the stereotypes of critics associating digital games to causing adverse effects on the players’ wellness and conversely view the positive effects of these games in positively impacting player well-being and wellness (Nikou, 2018). The power of super complex gaming platforms such as Pokémon Go has seen developers worldwide work assiduously to try and develop successful applications such as Pokémon that try to become an integral part of physical, social and virtual worlds. This is a clear indicator in the enhancement integrative and refined nature of Pokémon Go in health improvements.
Conclusion
Pokémon Go is an augmented reality location-based game for smart mobile devices that utilizes a gyroscope and camera. When layers sent out to the real world to catch Pokémon, they are actively involved in physical activity that stimulates their mental and intellectual wellness while improving the players’ social wellness. The uptake of the Pokémon Go game was unprecedented, as it becomes an integrative health application. Medically, video games make the player happy, especially after they hit targets; thus, happy hormones are released, such as serotonin. Low levels of serotonin are believed to be responsible for anxiety and depression. Furthermore, Pokémon players are happier once they spend time outdoors and interact with nature, which benefits mental health. Pokémon Go has a positive impact on a player’s wellness through different forms either spiritual, mental, emotional, intellectual and physical wellness. With future developments, Pokémon Go redefines its features to meet its users’ needs and enhance its power to foster players wellness.
References
Ed, N. (2019). Pokemon GO and Mental Health. Masters Theses. Retrieved from 4478. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/4478
Nikou, S., Tarvoll, J., & Öörni, A. (2018). Impact of playing Pokémon go on wellness.
Oe, H. (2020). Discussion of digital gaming’s impact on players’ well-being during the COVID-19 lockdown. arXiv preprint arXiv:2005.00594
Ruiz-Ariza, A., Casuso, R. A., Suarez-Manzano, S., & Martínez-López, E. J. (2018). Effect of augmented reality game Pokémon GO on cognitive performance and emotional intelligence in adolescent young. Computers & Education, 116, 49-63.
The University of British Columbia. (2017, December 12). Pokémon Go could help people who struggle socially: Extroverts better at modern video games. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 11 2021 , from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171212102203.htm
Watanabe, K., Kawakami, N., Imamura, K., Inoue, A., Shimazu, A., Yoshikawa, T., … & Tsutsumi, A. (2017). Pokémon GO and psychological distress, physical complaints, and work performance among adult workers: a retrospective cohort study. Scientific reports, 7(1), 1-7.
