The mobile game Pokemon Go was released in the US on July 5 and became one of the most downloaded apps on Android and iPhone worldwide within a week. Now the game is available in Russia. Psychologists offer their explanations for this sudden «pokemon mania».
We play video games for a variety of reasons. Some people like sandbox games where you can build a whole world with your own story and characters, others are addicted to shooting games where you can let off steam. The Quantic Foundry agency, which specializes in game analytics, highlighted six types of player motivation that must be present in a successful game: action, social experience, skill, immersion, creativity, achievement1.
Pokemon Go seems to fully answer them. After installing the application, the player begins to see «pocket monsters» (as the word pokemon in the title stands for) through the camera of their smartphone, as if they were walking the streets or flying around the room. They can be caught, trained, and have Pokémon battles with other players. It would seem that this is enough to explain the success of the game. But the scale of the hobby (20 million users in the US alone) and the large number of adult gamers suggest there are other, deeper reasons.
Enchanted world
The Pokemon universe, in addition to people and ordinary animals, is inhabited by creatures that have a mind, magical abilities (for example, fire breathing or teleportation), and the ability to evolve. So, with the help of training, you can grow a real living tank with water guns from a small turtle. In the beginning, all this was done by the heroes of comics and cartoons, and the fans could only empathize with them on the other side of the screen or book page. With the advent of the era of video games, viewers themselves were able to reincarnate as Pokemon trainers.
Augmented reality technology puts virtual characters in the environment familiar to us
Pokemon Go has taken another step towards blurring the line between the real world and the world created by our imagination. Augmented reality technology places virtual characters in the environment familiar to us. They wink from around the corner, hide in the bushes and on the branches of trees, strive to jump right into the plate. And interaction with them makes them even more real and, contrary to all common sense, makes us believe in a fairy tale.
Back to the childhood
Childhood feelings and impressions are so strongly imprinted in our psyche that their echoes in our actions, likes and dislikes can be found many years later. It is no coincidence that nostalgia has become a powerful engine of pop culture — the number of successful remakes of comics, films and children’s books is countless.
For many of today’s players, Pokémon is an image from childhood. They followed the adventures of the teenager Ash, who, with his friends and his beloved pet Pikachu (the electric Pokemon that became the hallmark of the entire series), traveled the world, learned to be friends, love and care for others. And of course, win. “The hopes, dreams, and fantasies that flood our minds, along with familiar images, are the source of the strongest feelings of attachment,” explains Jamie Madigan, author of Understanding Gamers: The Psychology of Video Games and Their Impact on People (Getting Gamers : The Psychology of Video Games and Their Impact on People Who Play Them»).
Search for «their»
But the desire to return to childhood does not mean that we want to become weak and helpless again. Rather, it is an escape from a cold, unpredictable world to another — warm, filled with care and affection. “Nostalgia is a reference not only to the past, but also to the future,” says Clay Routledge, a psychologist at the University of North Dakota (USA). – We are looking for a way to others – to those who share with us our experience, our feelings and memories. To their own».
Behind the desire of players to hide in the virtual world lies a craving for very real needs that they try to satisfy in real life.
Ultimately, behind the desire of players to take refuge in the virtual world lies a craving for very real needs that they are trying to satisfy in real life — such as the need to be in contact with other people. “In augmented reality, you don’t just take actions – you can communicate your successes to others, compete with each other, show off your collections,” explains marketer Russell Belk (Russell Belk).
According to Russell Belk, in the future we will no longer perceive the virtual world as something ephemeral, and our feelings about the events in it will be just as significant for us as our feelings about real events. Our «extended «I» — our mind and body, everything that we own, all our social connections and roles — gradually absorbs what is in the digital «cloud»2. Will Pokémon become our new pets, like cats and dogs? Or maybe, on the contrary, we will learn to appreciate more those who can be hugged, stroked, felt their warmth. Time will tell.
1 Learn more at quanticfoundry.com.
2. Current Opinion in Psychology, 2016, vol. 10.