Exploring the material conditions of Pokémon Go play in Rio de Janeiro and Nairobi

ABSTRACT

Pokémon Go offers an important locus for understanding how location-based mobile gaming practices interconnect with urban mobility and the materialities of urban spaces. Yet, most of the literature on location-based mobile games overlooks the specific materialities that influence gameplay in Global South cities. These are worth considering, given that Pokémon Go requires players to move through their environment with access to both a mobile smartphone and network connection. These prerequisites pose challenges to players because in some Global South cities players experience difficult mobilities, precarious access to technologies, and inconsistent networked connections. To explore these issues, we offer a qualitative study about Pokémon Go gameplay in two large Global South cities: Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Nairobi (Kenya). We have chosen these two cities because of their similar social, infrastructural, and economic inequalities. Based on interviews with Pokémon Go players, we explore how these inequalities shape the interconnections between location-based gameplay, mobile phone use, and urban mobilities. We found out that players often contend with urban challenges by adopting a number of practices, unique to their local context, to successfully play the game. These practices include collaborating and caring for others during and outside gameplay and adjusting their mobilities to preserve networked connections. Our study contributes an understanding of how players, in these cities, respond to their material circumstances in order to play the game and care for each other. We also offer a framework for understanding location-based gameplay outside Global North contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Mobile technology
• location-based games
• Global South
• materiality
• urban mobility

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.statista.com/statistics/665640/pokemon-go-global-android-apple-users/

2 Cariocas are people who live (and are born in) Rio.

3 https://ca.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sector-Statistics-Report-Q3-2019-2020-.pdf

4 https://inrix.com/scorecard/; And according to Tom Tom Traffic, Rio is in 20th place.

5 https://kenyanwallstreet.com/nairobi-ranked-worlds-4th-most-congested-city/#:~:text=Nairobi%20has%20been%20ranked%20as,city%20is%20about%2057%20minutes.&text=Other%20causes%20of%20Nairobi's%20congestion,used%20as%20public%20service%20vehicles. Importantly, Nairobi is not listed on any of the major indexes of global traffic conditions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adriana de Souza e Silva

Adriana de Souza e Silva is a Professor at the Department of Communication at North Carolina State University (NCSU) and Director of the Mobile Gaming Research Lab. Dr. de Souza e Silva’s research focuses on the creative ways people appropriate mobile technologies, including location-based games and mobile media art. In particular, she investigates how mobile and locative interfaces shape urban mobility and people’s interactions with public spaces, primarily in the developing world. Dr. de Souza e Silva is the co-editor and co-author of several peer-reviewed articles and five books, including The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media Art (2020, with Larissa Hjorth and Klare Lanson), Hybrid Play (2020, with Ragan Glover-Rijkse), Dialogues on Mobile Communication (2016), Mobility and locative media (2014, with Mimi Sheller), Mobile interfaces in public spaces (2012, with Jordan Frith), Net Locality (2011, with Eric Gordon), and Digital Cityscapes (2009, with Daniel M. Sutko). She holds a Ph.D. in Communication and Culture from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Ragan Glover-Rijkse

Ragan Glover-Rijkse is a Ph.D. candidate at NC State University. Her research examines the intersections between mobile media, infrastructures, and space/place. She has a book, titled Hybrid Play (co-edited with Adriana de Souza e Silva, 2020), and her work has appeared in Mobile Media & Communication and Communication Education.

Anne Njathi

Anne Njathi is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media (CRDM) program at North Carolina State University. She currently teaches Communication Media in Changing World and International and Cross-cultural Communication in the Department of Communication. Her research examines the intersection of digital technologies and infrastructures in Africa, digital media, FinTech, mobile communication, and ICTs for development. Her most recent publication is a co-authored book chapter titled Social Media Influencers in Africa: An Analysis of Instagram Content and Brand Endorsements towards the “Research Perspectives on Social Media Influencers and Their Followers" book.

Daniela de Cunto Bueno

Daniela de Cunto Bueno is Health Management Analyst at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation - Fiocruz, an institution of science and technology in health in Brazil. She also has professional experience in Marketing, having worked as Marketing Coordinator in the segments of sports marketing and pharmaceutical industry. Daniela has persued her education at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ - Brazil, where she got her BA in Law, an MBA in Marketing and is currently a PHD student at COPPEAD - UFRJ Graduate School of Business. Her Dissertation research focuses on the controversies of telemedicine.