Pika Pika? Pikachu! : En kvalitativ spelanalys av de socialt uppmuntrande designelementen i Pokemon Go.

This paper is about how the location based game Pokemon Go motivates players to play the game outdoors and defining the games design principles and how they encourage social interaction between players. The paper has made use of three different qualitative data gathering methods, a brief ethnographical field study, semi structured interviews and an analysis based on theoretical frameworks used for conducting research about video games. Players were found to play outside for three reasons, the freedom of using a smartphone to play location based games, Pokemon Go’s location based game technology that creates rewards that are given to a player if they complete tasks done outside and the games feedback to reality via the avatars movement correlating with the physical movement of the player. Pokemon Go was also found to only encourage social interaction with other players through indirect means. The game does this by putting players outside and making it very easy to recognize other players, and through the use of lures, Pokestops and Pokegyms, the incentive to approach these other players and engage in some form of social interaction increases. The game functions primarily as a catalyst as well as a safety net for social interactions, where players will recognize each other and initiate an interaction using the game as a basis for conversation