How is socialization at the heart of Pokémon Go?
You probably have already heard the following sentence:
“Video games turn people into antisocial individuals!”
Even though I strongly disagree with that, because I think that gaming is another way of socializing, the idea that video games build solitary behaviors still remains. However, when you see people playing “Pokémon Go”, it seems like the app proves to those who think that playing video games is anything but a social experience that they are wrong.
Today, there are plenty of articles on the internet about how “Pokémon Go” perfectly masters the gaming’s strings (because it does), or how it reactivates our “inner child” turning us into the Pokémon Masters we’ve always wanted to become.
That’s why, we’re not going to talk about these subjects in this article but about what I think truly constitutes the DNA of “Pokémon”: socialization.
We’ll discuss this theme through three main points:
From your dark room to the city: “Pokémon Go” is different from other video games on many levels, but we’ll see precisely how by using two main symbols of modern socialization the app really positions itself as an “open-to-the-real-world-game”;
“Pokémon Go”: now sponsoring human interactions: the game creates real interactions between people not only on-line through social media but also in real life inviting people to create an important community both on and off-line;
Socialization has always been in the core of “Pokémon”: not only “Pokémon Go” is about socialization allowing people to discover their city and meet new people, but it also perfectly represents the DNA of the brand created through the anime, the cards and the past other games.
Now, let’s have a deep dive into our subject!
1. From your dark room to the city
First of all, there are two important symbols in “Pokémon Go” we can easily notice that are different from the past versions of the franchise.
The first one is the device. For the first time ever, Nintendo decided to separate its “software” (the game) from its “hardware” (the console) releasing a game available on smartphones which are — through their features — the very definition of socialization today. Our smartphones represents “our lives”, we have almost everything inside of them from our pictures of our last holidays to our boss’ number and we are so addicted to them that some people clearly admit that they couldn’t live without them. Therefore, after several years, smartphones became a huge symbol of socialization allowing people to interact with each other and to meet new people through social media.
Then, the real city that becomes our playground. Once again here, “Pokémon Go” is using another symbol of modern socialization: the city. To be more accurate it’s YOUR city you’re playing in, the city you know. Here, you’re not playing in an imaginary world far away like in MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games: “Dofus”, “World of Warcraft”…), you’re in the “real” world! A city is by essence a place of socialization: this is where people are born, where they live, where they go to school, where they work… It contains different kinds of socialization and it builds and sustains itself on it. A city without socialization is everything but a city.
By using two symbols of modern socialization, smartphones and the city, plus the augmented reality technology, “Pokémon Go” strongly distinguishes itself from other video games.
Not only the app uses perfectly these two symbols to allow players to deeply experience the game but it also uses them to push players to move in their city. Here are a few ways the app uses to do that:
To catch ’em all you’ll have to move (a lot): you can catch some Pokémon only in particular places meaning that if you live in the city you’ll probably have to move near a beach or a river to catch water Pokémon. So, if you want to catch them all you’d better move from your comfort zone! To catch them all you’ll have to “discover” the world like Ash did in the anime, but we’ll talk about it later.
You’ll discover your city through “Pokéstops”: if you don’t want to ruin yourself using real money to buy fake money to buy fake items like “Pokéballs”, you’ll have to walk by “Pokéstops” that you can find in several places and that will give you items and even help you to level up faster. Not only these “Pokéstops” help you but they also allow you to know your town better because they are named according to real places.
Hatching eggs is the new “I’m going for a walk”: users are given the possibility to find eggs which contain different kinds of Pokémon from a very annoying Pidgey to a majestic Ponyta. However, the eggs don’t just hatch like that, no, to turn them into strong and beautiful Pokémon you’ll have to… walk! And the distance depends on the rarity of your egg and there are three types of them: the 2KM eggs, the 5KM and the 10KM. Meaning that, if you want a really rare Pokémon you’ll have to walk 10KM so your egg can hatch. Once again, players are “invited” to walk in their city without trying to cheat because if you use your car the game will automatically notice it and your eggs won’t hatch.
2. “Pokémon Go”: now sponsoring human interactions
The first day I’ve downloaded “Pokémon Go”, I was chasing Pokémon with two of my co-workers during our lunch break (very important information) when a guy came closer to us before asking: “Are you guys chasing Pokémon?” The three of us laughed before telling him that we were on a “hunt” and that we just caught an Abra a few meters away. After this unexpected encounter I had other discussions with random people in the street because of “Pokémon Go” and I talked with some of them for minutes!
Maybe you don’t realize how weird it is, but someone you don’t know interacting with you in the streets of Paris is not a common thing at all!
The fact that “Pokémon Go” is able to create interactions between individuals is even more obvious when you go to places known for “farming” (players staying for a long time in a particular place to catch items or specific Pokémon). It happened to me three times lately in places I never used to go to before even though I was born and raised in Paris. What I noticed is that people really play “together”; they chase the same Pokémon, they recognize other players, they talk to each other, they spend time together and what’s really important is that they stay in touch!
“Pokémon Go” appears as a common point between them; as if they were very edgy musicians and they found themselves in a very edgy bar with a very edgy music with other very edgy musicians.
Not only these interactions happen off-line but they (obviously) also happen on-line. Barely a few hours after “Pokémon Go” was released a torrent of Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, Twitter accounts etc., rose from the pixels of our screens, allowing people to build communities where they could exchange information and organize themselves.
Driven by my curiosity I joined one of these groups to understand exactly what was going on behind these closed doors. What I found was quite interesting and reminded me of when I was a teenager and I used to talk with people I didn’t know IRL on forums. Given the fact that “Pokémon Go” hasn’t got its own platform allowing the members of its community to exchange freely (for the moment) users improvise using the “traditional social media” they have in their hands. And what’s really interesting in these groups is that people don’t spend their time alone behind their computers and their smartphones to chat but they also meet in “real life” (some of them even drank together, others had diner…)!
Therefore, the app creates a constant return trip from the app to real life allowing people not only to discover their city but also to create a link with other players.
3. Socialization has always been at the core of “Pokémon”
If you look closer to the universe “Pokémon” has been building during the last two decades you’ll find out that socialization has always been at the center.
Through the anime…
“Pokémon” animated series tell us the story about of a guy, Ash, a teenager who lives with his mother but who decides to become a Pokémon Master and to leave his city. How does that wish translate itself through the show?
Becoming a Pokémon Master is about travelling as Ash did leaving his hometown to discover new towns and new regions of a fictional world. Today, his adventure keeps on evolving, “Pokémon” has 19 seasons and 7 different generations, as if, to catch them all you have to leave the place you were born in to discover new places, new “creatures” and new cultures. Ash wouldn’t have found every Pokémon he found without leaving his city or without going where he’d never imagined he’d go at the very beginning of the animated series. His life looks like a lot to Sisyphus’ myth: every time Ash’s adventure seems to reach to end it’s actually just the beginning of another one, as if life was but a never ending adventure.
Here, the parallelism with “Pokémon Go” is interesting: as in the anime you can’t find every Pokémon in a single place; and for the moment, not every Pokémon of every generation are available on the app. Therefore, Sisyphus and Ash’s destinies seem very close to the players’ destiny.
Becoming a Pokémon Master is also about meeting new people because not only it will allow you challenge them, to learn from them what they learnt from other people and to become better, but it will also make you stronger. In many situations of “Pokémon” Ash wouldn’t have made it if he was alone that’s way he’s never alone. During the first season he was accompanied by Mysty and Brock before they were replaced by other characters as Ash grew up. His adventure perfectly represents how life really goes in the real world: you meet people, you grow up with them, sometimes they leave for different reasons, you meet new people, your old friends come back etc.
Here, once again, we can see how the game is directly linked to the anime: players, as Ash, Mysty and Brock, have to team up to fight arenas, to find new Pokémon, and we have already seen that the game created off and on-line interactions between players.
Through the games…
Socialization is also a big thing in the games created by “Pokémon”.
The theme is strongly present in the games through “trading” allowing people to exchange their Pokémon or their cards with whoever they want. Therefore, past versions of “Pokémon” games has always been about playing with other people.
For example, I remember that for some easter eggs (a hidden function in the game) you had to be two or more to have the right combination to activate them. Some Pokémon were only catchable if you traded with your friends, pushing one more time players to interact with each other.
In the past versions, “Pokémon” used a very human interaction which is trading what you have for what you want. In our “modern” societies, we trade money for clothes, for food or for travelling, and we even trade our gifts without presenting them as a trade (check an interesting book from Marcel Mauss, The Gift). With the cards or the video games the trading system of “Pokémon” is very easy; “you give me something, I give you something back that I think is equal to what you’re giving me and you have the right to accept our trade or to refuse it” Meaning that, interacting with other players has always been in the DNA of “Pokémon” and that “Pokémon Go” is only the logic evolution of what was created in the past.
Here again, like Ash, you’ll have to find strong allies to become a real Pokémon Master!
Conclusion
“Socialization” is the key to “Pokémon Go” as it has always been the case with the cards, the anime series and the past video games. By putting smartphones and the city — which as we’ve seen it are strong symbols of modern socialization — at the center of this game, “Pokémon” reinforces this aspect often stolen away from video games.
The topic we’ve just talked about is only a part of the iceberg at the origins of the success of “Pokémon Go”. However, we’ve just seen that using this very human behavior, which is socialization, has always been something “Pokémon” has been relaying on meaning that it is a strong constant.
“Pokémon” represents today a huge universe, but for the moment “Pokémon Go” only uses 10% of it, and I have no doubt that very soon features will increase the social dimension of this game (trades, battling in team, a messenger platform, adding friends…)
In my opinion, the success of “Pokémon Go” gives us an important lesson about gaming. In an era where social media and new technologies are omnipresent gaming has to be about socialization. With the uprising of Virtual Reality and Augmenter Reality, gaming doesn’t have to be a personal experience you experiment alone in your room without interacting with anyone else. “Pokémon Go” isn’t the first video game to use socialization but it’s success shows us that gaming is way more than pure entertainment today.
Thanks for reading.
