Got approached to input into a piece about it in relation to physical activity
http://www.techinsider.io/pokmon-go-may-fight-childhood-obesity-better-than-the-white-house-2016-7I think it's a good thing, but they didn't include any of my concerns. I was asked...
Could Pokemon Go have any lessons for public policy makers? In what ways?
It should be said, Pokemon Go has not been subject to rigorous evaluation. It may be that any effects it has are short lived; that there are unintended consequences (my son skipped a taekwondo class to play Pokemon Go); the effects may only be there for specific subpopulations that are already well served, and thereby increase health inequality; there may be spatial patterning in effects which moderate the health benefits (through air pollution, etc). As such, I think policy makers should draw on high quality systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials, rather than change policy based on widely hyped games. That said, I think the approach of making physical activity extrinsically rewarding in the short term may promote initiation of behaviour change, and review evidence (Amireault et al, 2012) suggests that motivation and goals are relatively strongly associated with physical activity maintenance. As such, scaffolding the initiation and maintenance of health behaviours until the intrinsic rewards emerge would appear a sensible approach. The relative failure of the developers game that came before Pokemon Go (Ingress) suggests that the fact game leverages a franchise that is held dear by such a wide age span could be responsible for the reported reach of the app. As such, public policy makers may need to learn from Niantic (the developers) and find a loved game world that the public value sufficiently to care about leveling up in that world enough to change their real world behaviour.