Pokémon GO: Mobile media play, place-making, and the digital wayfarer. (January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hjorth, Larissa; Richardson, Ingrid
• Other Names: Hjorth Larissa guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Mobile media & communication. Volume 5:Number 1(2017:Jan.)
• Page Start: 3
• Page End: 14
• Publication Date: 2017-01
• Subjects: augmented reality -- games -- locative media -- mobile games -- mobile media; Mobile communication systems -- Periodicals; 384.53
• DOI: 10.1177/2050157916680015
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2050-1579

Abstract

This special commentary for Mobile Media & Communication seeks to put these divisive debates in context. Through the lens of Pokémon GO, we can understand and critically interpret a variety of issues involved in the politics and practice of playful mobile media. These issues move across debates around location-aware technologies in constructions of privacy (Coldewey, 2016; Cunningham, 2016), risk and surveillance (Machkovech, 2016; Mishra, 2016) to the role of mobile media in commodifying (Evangelho, 2016) and expanding the social, cultural, and creative dimensions of play (Isbister, 2016; Mäyrä, 2012). As the mobile media and game theorists in this commentary highlight, the game sits at the nexus of several technological and cultural trajectories: the playful turn; the ubiquity of location-based and haptic mobile media (and apps and games); innovative game design; the effects of digital mapping technologies; the intertwining of performative media games and art; our individual and collective memories of playworlds and transmedia universes; the increasing importance of issues concerning privacy and risk in public spaces; the ongoing augmentation of place and space; and the politics embedded in this hybrid experience of the lifeworld.