Riding in cars with strangers: A cross-cultural comparison of privacy and safety in Ingress

The Impacts of Covid-19 on Players of Pokémon GO

“…Due to Pokémon GO emphasizing outdoor movement, initial concerns arose whether the game would motivate players to socialize, transmitting COVID-19 in the process [50]. Interestingly, despite prior evidence for players of LBG to place themselves at risk in playing their games [15,59,92], our participants broadly didn't express taking on risky behaviors (particularly related to disease transmission) while playing the game. Participants, such as Sarah [S003] (female 50), were far more likely to avoid risky play out of fear of the ongoing pandemic and concerns for family members.…”

Pokémon Go and Urban Accessibility

“…Niantic's earlier game, Ingress, featured competition between two teams whose play spaces meshed the digital and physical worlds together. Using augmented reality technology, which utilises GPS coordinates on mobile devices (mostly smartphones) to overlay game elements on to existing physical locations, monuments and spaces, Ingress players fought for control of portals which had to be found and visited by teams in the material world in order to be part of that battle (Blasiola, Feng, & Massanari, 2016).…”

“…Niantic's earlier game, Ingress, featured competition between two teams whose play spaces meshed the digital and physical worlds together. Using augmented reality technology, which utilises GPS coordinates on mobile devices (mostly smartphones) to overlay game elements on to existing physical locations, monuments and spaces, Ingress players fought for control of portals which had to be found and visited by teams in the material world in order to be part of that battle (Blasiola, Feng, & Massanari, 2016).Augmented reality play centres on the smartphone as the device which adds the additional layer of meaning, but also, and quite vitally, builds upon the existing layers of a physical place which has its own character, meanings and terrain. The portal sites in Ingress were crowdsourced, insomuch as players within the game suggested each location, and submitted the physical and photographic details, which often meant that sites of cultural and historical significance were the location for portals (Stark, 2016).…”

Understanding Social Interactions in Location-based Games as Hybrid Spaces: Coordination and Collaboration in Raiding in Pokémon GO

“…In recent years, research has emerged that explores how LBGs aect people's social interactions against the social constraints during the Covid-19 pandemic [6,20,22,40]. Related works have focused on understanding the relationship between LBG players and their social interactions from various aspects such as well-being [35,41], safety [7], social connection [25,53,61], etc. Generally speaking, previous studies found that LBGs can both positively and negatively impact people's social life by strengthening their social ties [25], and supporting wellness and physical health [5,35,41] but might threaten their safety and privacy [7,66].…”