Effect of Augmented reality globally and its consequences
with reference to Pokmon go App.
Anirudh Bomadevar
School of Computing, DePaul University
243 South Wabash, Chicago, IL, 60604
Anirudh901@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Pokmon Go (Game) showed the world how the exploring
the world via Augmented reality opened the door to a whole
new level of Human computer interaction with the game
requiring the person to move geographically in the world.
The phenomenon of how location of the gameplay
culturally with respect to the country it is being played in
and how this impacts the society is being observed in a
large scale in this study. In an effort to better understand the
impacts of these phenomena and provide design implication
for crime prevention and public disturbances as it relates to
Pokmon Go on a global scale in a world of augmented
reality games is explained.
KEYWORDS
Augmented Reality, Pokmon Go, Globalization, Crime
INTRODUCTION
The growth of the Augmented reality has been staggering
as of 2016 due to the growth in technology and how it can
be easily embedded and used in current technologies.
Pokmon Go (Game) showed the world how the exploring
of the world via Augmented reality opened the door to a
whole new level of interaction with the game by physically
moving geographically in the world. This has led to people
moving around in the real world and exploring places
which they would not normally be in. This has led to a
change in social behavior which ranges from simple
exercising to a change in crime patterns.
When a concept of global location based gaming which is
well known in literature gains popularity It opens doors to
all kinds of research and opportunities which are both good
and bad. The location based concept of Pokmon go
revolved on the idea that urban and public areas will thrive
over less populated areas seemed to work. This is based on
the HCI literature which predicted that a widespread use of
games like Pokmon Go would have significant impact on
movement and places of players and non players [7,3].
This has also impacted the rate of crime & accidents for
example ...Within 10 days of Pokmons release, two men
crossed a fenced area in their desperate search of pocket
monsters (characters in the game), and fell off a cliff near
San Diego, sustaining injuries [12].
BACKGROUND
Pokmon Go is a F2P free-to-play game which depends on
location via GPS (Global positioning system). It was
released in a few countries around the world in July 2016.
The game worked on the principle of the player moving
around to different location in the real world in search of
Pokmon by walking to places and battling them and
capturing them. The Pokmon would be present all round
the word in different locations based on the storyline of the
game. Water bodies would let the players capture different
Pokmons which affiliate with water, Tourist spots or
spots with birds would result in finding bird like
Pokmons. The goal of the game is to catch all the
different types of Pokmon.
MOTIVE FOR MOVEMENT
The game also had some Pokmons which were specific to
some continents too. This resulted in players travelling
around a particular area to catch some exclusive
Pokmons. In addition to locations on the map, there were
poke stops (places of interest which are crowd sourced
historical markers) which attracted more Pokmons and
hence the opportunity to catch many Pokmons in one
location. The poke stops can be upgraded by a player using
lures which for a short time period to attract more
Pokmons. These lures would have to be purchased or
found in-game in rare instances. The pokestop has a 5-
minute restriction which leads the player to switch location
and revisit the pokestop again in 5 minutes to get the bonus
items which the pokestop offers.
Walking is an integral part of the gameplay as the game
uses sensors to track the player movement provides bonus
Pokmons in form of eggs which hatch based on the
distance walked by the user. A player has a map in the
game which shows Pokmons within 2 miles of their
location. The Pokmon tend to keep changing location
hence the player has to move to that location quickly to
capture the Pokmon.
There are Pokmon Gyms which allow the user to fight
among each others while supporting the team they choose
when they first start playing the game, Controlling the gym
would result in gaining in game currency which funds
purchases within the application. This need for in-game
currency requires the players to move around and gain
control of gyms in the area they play in. The amount of in
game currency gained goes up the longer you remain
undefeated in a certain gym, this can be accomplished by
having high levels or going out to a gym which is not used
and capture it.
and entertainment related public locations which attract
player[1].
There is also a race based bias in some locations like
Chicago where it was noted that the population density
of pokestops in non-Hispanic environments were less. In
the same study it was also revealed that okay stop
density seems to link more with race and ethnicity than
income even though wrist and income and ethnicity are
associated in their study areas. There we're also
indications that poor places had fewer pokestops
densities or areas within cities which had a higher
income [1,3]

Figure 1. Player near an upgraded Poke stop.

LOCATIONS AND EFFECTS

The location of Pokmon and poke stops started
determining how the player would walk around the city in
the attempt to encounter a Pokmon. Due to the mass
movement to these locations, Businesses in this locations
saw a rise in number of clients and used this opportunity to
make special deals for players which led them to make
more purchases in real life. The rise in the products being
purchased is observed as 46% of the 375 players who were
surveyed responded they purchased drinks, food or other
Figure 2. Map of walking patterns in Chicago.
goods near the location where there were pokestop [1].
This change in movement pattern and how people move
around can have multiple effects. During the initial weeks
after Pokmon gos release players were targeted in
secluded location by luring them by upgrading the
pokestop, this upgrade would lure players trying to catch
Pokmons to secluded locations like parks or car parking
where people would wait to rob players [6,9,10].

Parks in different locations worldwide have different

amount of people present in different time which makes
generalization of making them as locations to catch
Pokmon's dangerous, it would be easier to steal, rob or
hurt the players. India has parks which get occupied in the
evenings till midnight and are populated because the
temperature is considered good. This is not the case when
considering cold cities. [3]
Studies have indicated that there is a several bias present
in Pokmon go which are not only location based but
also based on other location-based gaming. This Studies Figure 3. Location of Poke Stops on the map of Chicago
have shown that there are biases which are
demographically providing advantage for wealthy
communities due to the presence of more commercial
Points on the map Correlate to all the places of Interest and
walking patterns which indicate how there are some spots
within a city which are public places but are not utilized for
walking and are secluded from the public. These spots may
be used for committing crimes vigilance maybe required in
the plays part in this situation. Players may yet visit the
spots to catch Pokmon's and may not use caution, the
game should address this and find a way to stop that from
happening.
The location of the pokestops and the walking patterns do
suggest that the game tries to involve users regular
movement patterns to predict the locations where they
would go to or will be willing to go for playing the game, it
has been suggested that after the release of the game,
people were inclined to switch their travel plan and tweak it
slightly in favor of the game playing locations like Poke
stops to collect bonus or to catch Pokmon [3].
IMPLICATIONS FOR DESIGN
The game's location data was crowd sourced from another
game by the same company called Ingress the data was
processed from Ingress and the pokestops regenerated
based on the user's input from the game. The alternative
Geographic design which is proposed which would lead to
more desirable outcomes would require the following
changes.
Reusing some of the game's elements in areas which the
game is under covered than in heavily covered areas by
reducing time for cool down of pokestops are increasing
the number of Pokmons present. This would result in
players not having to move around two unknown
locations in hopes of finding rare Pokmons.
Using more crowd sourced data in areas with public
spaces using other mapping softwares which would result
in showing patterns of momentum on people which
would identify the number of people which can be
present in one location without disrupting the local
neighborhood.
Searching through other sources such as street view to
identify locations which can be used to automate the
process of selecting areas which are safe for everyone to
play the game in.
Allowing a group of people to co-locate Pokmons to
reduce geographically dependence. For example, if there
are more than 10 people in one location a pokestop is
automatically created.
Using the data collected from these games and the
players movements to be reused and remain open for
other games and App Developers to use to generate
quality content which would not have bad consequences.
The risks of using a smartphone in an urban environment
have been reported in multiple instances and cultures [8].
We have to follow a different approach to ensure safety of
player while using games which are location-based few of
the examples of improvements which can be done are
Acknowledging that players may also be passengers who
might be playing instead of disabling the game when the
user is at high speed.
Notifying the user to stop playing the game when they are
present in areas which are dangerous or busy may lead to
the user paying more attention the surrounding elements.
Increasing the distance across which a user can capture
Pokmons instead of rushing to locations which might
involve them running across a busy Street.
FUTURE WORK AND LIMITATIONS
Survey should be conducted in different parts of the world
and different locations based on cultural differences which
have multiple races, equality and ethnicity to ensure the
game functions remain positive.
Identify locations which are not viable for gameplay such
as cemeteries and non-public locations
TESTING GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS
I recommend that more research goes into defining
parameters which the game is played to prevent putting the
player at risk from both human and non human sources by
testing the game in all environments in different cultures
before making the game open for everyone.
CONCLUSION
The revolutionary technology like Augmented reality may
shape the movement patterns of general public and improve
some businesses in their growth and also give a source of
entertainment to players for generations to come, it may
also have some challenges in trying to identify the cultural
and geographical impact on moving large crowds to
locations where they would not be if it were not for the
games objective. Care should be taken in trying to
understand the cultural differences when planning a game
which has a constant motive across the globe and also
consider the human behavior when such a design is being
implemented.

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