Disclaimer: I have not played Pokémon Go — I haven’t even seen the App, apart from screen grabs online.
Anyone who knows me knows that the closest thing I get to gaming is building a puzzle while on holiday, or possibly the rare participation in a game of Crazy8s. So it might surprise you to see me writing about Pokémon Go.
The fact that the game is built on real life exploration of the urban environment immediately piqued my interest as an urbanist. For me, an important part of the Pokémon Go story is its John Hanke’s (founder of Niantic, producers of the game) history as a mapmaker.
I’ve seen Derives, story-telling and memorialising apps that are designed to encourage “urban gaming” and pull people out into the public realm for experiences aided or augmented by technology. Jeff Sparrow has already written about Pokémon Go and the situationists, so I am not the first to think of Pokémon Go as a sort of Derive (Update: so has Sam Kriss).
Pokemon Go is without a doubt the most successful/widely downloaded augmented reality urban game to date and, thus, arguably has the potential to impact on how people live in their cities.
In New York City, for example, Central Park has been “taken over” — an interesting turn of phrase for anyone who may be a regular user of the space PPG (Pre Pokémon Go), or anyone who has experienced displacement or is already feeling vulnerable to a new wave of gentrification that is often associated (correctly or incorrectly) with a tech-obsessed generation (the “our neighbourhood was taken over by hipsters with MacBooks in Coffee Shops” narrative). In the context of scarcity of public space, and scarcity of affordable housing, some neighbourhoods might not want the iPhone weilding middle class “discovering their hidden gems” .
Turn of phrase (and implicit warning?) aside, Pokémon Go gamers are saying they’re more active as a result of the game and are spending more time outdoors — in the public realm, to be specific. The New York Daily article also implies that engagement between people from different parts of the city naturally happens when converging on the same location to try catch the same Pokemon (that’s how it works, right?).
Surely, that is all good?
In a city like Cape Town, I cannot help but wonder how far people will push their personal boundaries and spatial prejudices to get a Pokemon — how far into Imizamo Yethu will the white kid from [insert security enclave, sorry “Estate”, of your choice] venture to get his creature (they’re creatures, right?)?
The mental image of white iPhone carrying kids (and adults) running through Khayelitsha to catch fictional creatues is one that evokes so many different and conflicting emotions in me.
And what of black gamers entering mainly white suburbs? We all know how rife racial profiling is amongst neighbourhood watch, private security and police services — as Omari Akil writes “PokemonGo is a death sentence if you’re a black man”.
What will this mean for our story of integration and bridge building and redress? Can this game be used to flip prejudices, or will it merely entrench them when the underlying inequalities persist? Not everyone has a smart phone, data, time and open/“free” access to the public realm, after all.
Is it even fair to ask that question of a game? And who am I to question the efficacy of anything that actually has the potential to get people out of their comfort zones into new localities and into new social engagements?
I suspect Pokémon Go will just become another reflection of the limitations of technology to address social issues. And I’m not the only one wondering about this. Brendan Keogh says it well:
“There is an odd sort of colonialism to flânerie. For the working-class man, the city streets are not a place to be lazily wandered around but a place where work must be done. It’s where they live. It requires some arrogance to presume that this urban space that other people work and live in is yours to be remade into a playful space to be used at your pleasure. The ubiquity of Pokémon Go in urban places raises questions about what sort of digital play is acceptable, and where. You would not play chess on someone’s tombstone, but would you spin one for some pokéballs? Would you flick a pokéball at a Holocaust memorial to catch a Pikachu? Are you even interacting with someone’s house at all if you are standing across the road pointing your phone at it?
One could argue that these critiques — the inequalities of urban navigation, the arguably nonconsensual use of both public and private places — have nothing to do with the game ‘itself’. They are issues of the world that exist ‘out there’ whether we are playing Pokémon Go or not. It’s not Pokémon Go’s fault that American police keep shooting innocent black men. It’s not Pokémon Go’s fault that players might choose to trespass private property or digitally desecrate a sacred place. Niantic just provided the map data, and even the points of interest were chosen by players of a different game. As is increasingly becoming the norm with digital technologies, both the labour and responsibility have fallen onto the end user, leaving the corporate owner with nothing but the maintenance and profits. Airbnb owns no properties; Uber owns no cars; Pokémon Go is just some markers on a map. The politics is someone else’s problem.”
“The politics is someone else’s problem.”
Aren’t they always?
We are only at the very beginning of this story, which will no doubt be nuanced. The critique above is not to entirely discount the potential for positive changes — these might include engagements across difference; the calling to existence of new publics and new communities with an interest in the public realm; just as much as stories of love, and new friendships and surprise encounters.
Here are some stories about how the game is already changing how people engage with the public realm, and with one another:
— People facing their fears and embracing what Brendan Keogh described as the “social nature” of the game (the reddit post is actually about getting into danger, but its the first bit thats interesting: using Pokémon Go to deal with social anxiety — to actually exit the house and go talk to people. Like politics, the dangerous sides of Pokémon Go have little to do with the game itself, creeps and robbers pre-date the game. If you’re getting into danger because you’re running across the road without looking, well thats another (Darwinian) story).
— Parent-child relations: providing opportunities to play, outside, together sure seems an improvement on the all too common kids on tablets, parents on tablets, on the couch scenario of the current era, definitely.
On that last one, I love how the father describes driving “off at the blistering pace of 10MPH”. Apart from the challenges this might present to traffic modelling (generally, the rapid growth of Pokémon Go may present more than a few challenges for urban management), I do love the idea of people slowing down in their urban environments — as we know, slowing your pace (better yet, changing your mode of movement) increases your chances of noticing things about your neighbourhood, stopping to support a local business, or meeting people who may contribute to your safety, sense of community, or even enter into a business or personal relationship with.
Time will tell how a collection of individual moments and engagements facilitated through Pokémon Go will cummulate to either benefit social progress, or reflect our broken cities right back to us in new ways.
Bonus Section for those who have read this far: get-rich-quick opportunities
Since its launch only last week, there have also been some entrepreneurs making money — but be careful, its not always legal to make money in public spaces, so be sure to know your City’s by-laws/ordinances first. Here are 4 ways to make money through Pokémon Go:
- Sell your services (like the $20/hr trainer) playing the game for other people (Paying for someone else to play for you? I’m pretty sure that takes most the fun out of it?)
- Mobile phones need power. Set up a mobile charging station (this guy on reddit has the pricing model down best)
- Set up a “PokeStop” selling data or refreshments at hot spots.
- If you’re already a business owner, Michelle Jones advises that you can “buy an item called a “Lure Module” inside the game which attracts Pokémon to a particular PokeStop for 30 minutes. Use this to attract foot traffic and encourage Pokémon Go players to buy your products by offering discounts or special deals.”
