PokéStops and other spaces of our lives: Co-creation of social spatiality through consumption of Pokémon GO

Abstract

The tremendous Pokémon GO craze got the world by surprise in July 2016. Within a couple of days this location-based mobile game gathered a record-breaking number of downloads and transformed the urban environment into a game board by driving people outside their homes to catch imaginary creatures. Combining the physical reality and imagination, this ‘pervasive’ game can be thought of as a new instance of digital virtual consumption (DVC) that could have an enhanced potential to simulate consumer fantasies.

While there is a decade of research on how the urban environment can be experienced differently through location-aware technologies, most of it is outdated. Furthermore, little attention has been paid to the full spectrum of social spaces following Lefebvre’s (1991) triad that extends beyond behavior in the observable environment. The aim of this research is to help fill those gaps in understanding how consumers participate in the co-creation of social spaces through the next-generation location-based mobile games as a part of their daily lives. Moreover, the goal is to examine how the interface between the ‘real’ and the ‘imaginary’ is being experienced, and what kind of a role gamification plays in the equation.

The research problem is approached through qualitative research methods leaning on the philosophical assumptions of interpretivism and phenomenology, that view the world as socially constructed and only understood through one’s ‘being’ in it. The research lies within the field of Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) that explores the dynamic interplay of consumer behavior, environment and culture through contextual, symbolic and experiential aspects of consumption. Consequently, the aim is to describe the phenomenon rather than to find an explanation for it.

The research identifies three main themes that together describe the experience of co-creating social spaces through game play. These are labelled as I) trusting the community to fill in the blanks, II) negotiation between spaces of play and duty, and III) making the most of both worlds. Together they draw a picture of a constant struggle between the player community and the game over agency in creating the experience; transformation of spaces and places through the practice of ‘mapping’; un-controlled switches between spaces of nostalgia and responsibility due to loss of anonymity in the physical reality; and developing alternative game interfaces to optimally integrate the game into players’ everyday spaces. Furthermore, the findings imply an emergence of a new form of gamification, where the core ‘service’ being gamified is, in fact, an individual life as a whole.