Networked Places And Spaces: Pokémon Go

This visual creative research project will analyse Pokémon Go using de Certeau's theories of places and spaces.

Pokémon Go / Via pokemongo.com

The viral iPhone and Android game application Pokémon Go serves as a pertinent example of Michel de Certeau’s theories of places and spaces, and therefore, of the interaction between network cultures and everyday life.

Nikko Salgado via YouTube / Via i.ytimg.com

With an estimated $3.9 to $4.9 million made on its release day and boasting an estimated 750 million downloads to date (Craig Smith via expandedramblings.com), Pokémon Go has proved to be an exceedingly popular app, allowing users to experience places and spaces in different and new ways.

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First, let’s define places and spaces. According to de Certeau (1984), a space is a ‘practiced place’ (p. 117). Meaning, a static and physical place (and the objects that define it) becomes a space through the movements, adaptations, experiences and stories that occur within it.

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So, how are de Certeau’s theories of place and space applicable to Pokémon Go? Pokémon Go is a location-based augmented reality game that uses player’s mobile GPS system to locate, capture, battle and train virtual creatures.

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Allowing users to interact with one another online and in reality, the gameplay of Pokémon Go relies on interplay between its users and the places within which they chose to operate.

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If we consider our “everyday practices” (such as playing games on our smart phones) to be ‘no longer…merely the background of social activity’ (de Certeau 1984, p. xi), the way in which players interact on and utilise Pokémon Go takes on new meaning.

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The map feature of Pokémon Go has been widely praised for its ability to encourage users to become more physically mobile in order to progress in the game. This feature touches on de Certeau’s (1984) theory that ‘every story is a travel story’ (p. 115), as users literally add to their game’s “story” through travel and experience.

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The dual function of the map tool lies in the way it encourages community interaction. Users gather in various places (gyms or sites where rare Pokémon characters have been located, for example) to which they may not otherwise travel, creating a communal experience, a unique “story” (de Certeau 1984).

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Moreover, users began attending events dedicated to Pokémon Go, with thousands gathering in different community spaces. In this way, ‘users reappropriate the space organized by techniques of sociocultural production’ (de Certeau 1984, p. xiv).

Nerdist / Via nerdist.com

The game’s reliance on location and the subsequent events held have created a fluid, unique space within which users and their interactions with one another as well as their static surroundings hold a unique and new meaning.

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An augmented reality app such as Pokémon Go invites users to alter the ways in which they interact with a place, creating ‘distinct spatial experiences’ (de Certeau, p. 118).

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The ways in which people have strayed from the “traditional” intended gameplay of Pokémon Go illustrates de Certeau’s theory of strategies and tactics.

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According to de Certeau (1984), tactics “poach” on the property of others, they are the methods of consumption that subvert and challenge the strategic methods of dominant powers (what we “should” do). In this way, the users of Pokémon Go utilise the “tactics of consumption”, ‘the ingenious ways in which the weak make use of the strong, thus lend a political dimension to everyday practices’ (de Certeau 1984, p. xvii).

GIPHY / Via gph.is

Therefore, the tactical way by which users have reinterpreted and reinvented the functions of Pokémon Go creates a new realm of spatial opportunity. As de Certeau (1984) describes it: space is ‘an art of manipulating or enjoying’ (p. xxii), where users reappropriate a place and create a unique, networked space.

Leroy Patterson / Via giphy.com

As users drift from the prescribed modes of gameplay, they thus become the creators; they poach upon the dominant “norms” by adapting and manipulating the product to better suit ‘their own interests and their own rules’ (de Certeau 1984, p. xiv). By projecting art onto the mundane, users (often unintentionally) claim some form of creative ownership over a place, inadvertently transforming it into a space.

Nerdist / Via nerdist.com

Pokémon Go was not just the introduction of a new game application, it presented a totally new phenomena and way of interacting with and understanding a place. It encouraged users to experience places in different and new ways, thus creating innovative and interactive spaces.

Pokemon Go Hub / Via pokemongohub.net

In the same ways that tactile, perceptible space is transformed through gameplay, the virtual realm of the game also becomes a “space” for users to explore and manipulate – the game becomes an extension of reality. Therefore, Pokémon Go illustrates Michel de Certeau’s theories of space and place (via an understanding of strategies and tactics), demonstrating a distinctive interaction between everyday life and network cultures.

Reference List

De Certeau, M 1984 ‘General Introduction’ in The Practice of Everyday Life, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. xi – xxiv.

De Certeau, M 1984 ‘Chapter IX: Spatial Stories’ in The Practice of Everyday Life, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 115 – 130.

Smith, C 2017, 80+ Incredible Pokemon Go Statistics and Facts, DMR Stats and Gadgets, viewed 26 September 2017, https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/pokemon-go-statistics/