Pokemon GO: A Healthy Game for all

Gameplays are very popular among children, adolescents and even adults nowadays in many places in the world. Video games and computer games are a big success regarding screen time spent among people. Recently, mobiles have been used mostly for communication throughout social medias and apps, and games on mobiles haven't been that successful during many years. Mainly, games offered for mobiles were designed for fun and short time, not involving many tasks and skills, also considered "sedentary games" for not allowing people to move and interact that much with others. Since July 2016, a location-based augmented reality game named Pokemon GO came with a different proposal: making people walking or running through different urban places, encouraging users to be more active and interacting with other users. In the game, players use a mobile device to locate, capture, battle and train virtual creatures that appear on the screen as if they were in the same real-world location as the player. The aim of this paper was to analyze how players of Pokemon GO could adopt a healthier lifestyle meanwhile or after using the game in their daily routines. The methodology involved a qualitative analysis involving a sample with players who were invited to complete an online questionnaire to answer specific questions about lifestyle and healthy choices. This study involved 125 players (84 males and 41 females) in the city of Pelotas (South of Brazil) that have played for at least six months the game. It was possible to observe that users have changed many habits, especially regarding physical activity as going more often to practice sports and exercises with friends and family, out of the game. Also, many players said that meeting new users was a good way to socialize and making groups to walk or run together, getting an extra motivation. We conclude that Pokemon GO is one of the first mobile-based gameplay that can be used to promote a healthier lifestyle with a new way of interaction, changing sedentary lifestyles with a big potential to be used in Health Education.