Analysing Pokemon Go

Pokemon Go, though not officially even out in the UK, has become something of a phenomenon. Spawning numerous national newspaper stories and igniting social media conversations, the game's success can partially be ascribed to its link to a long running franchise, and to its relative novelty. Essentially a mobile map app with a bit of a game attached, players take on a generic character, walking through familiar streets and 'capturing' monsters through augmented reality battles.

So how to textually analyse such a videogame? We can apply a number of media frameworks to Pokemon Go, that could go some way as to suggest how it has managed to resonate with so large an audience so quickly.

Pokemon Go allows audiences to actively pursue a number of gratifications. (Image via Game Rant)

Audience

Pokemon Go fulfills many uses and gratifications of its rapidly expanding audience. Arguably the primary gratification is social interaction. Playing videogames is potentially a solitary pursuit, and is has been ever since the home console explosion of the late 1980's. Prior to this, particularly in America and Japan, players would have to visit videogame arcades to play the latest games. This invariably involves meeting people face to face, and in the case of genres such as fighting games, directly competing with other players. While multiplayer gaming is now common, it tends to be carried out over network connections, the interaction between players being somewhat disconnected. Arguably, Pokemon Go, by forcing players out in to the public sphere is a return to the face-to-face, social aspect of the arcade era. Other gratifications from playing the game include increased social status (through catching more monsters!), and gathering information, through being forced in to visiting new places where the player would not normally venture. Finally, here is a definite aspect of FOMO; who wants to be the only person who's not involved in a craze?

Of course, as with potentially any text, Pokemon Go is an example of escapism. But what are audiences attempting to escape from? Richard Dyer's notion of the utopian solution can help us explore this. Dyer suggests that where texts offer escapism, they do so to offer solutions to our own, deeply flawed lives. Pokemon Go presents a world of perfect green fields and fluttering leaves. It's mise-en-scene is constantly positive and uncluttered, and it's setting is tranquil and safe. Even if the street layout roughly collaborates with what you see on screen, it's likely a lot quieter and cleaner than where the player is playing it. Our environment is extremely important for a variety of reasons, from helping to prevent mental health issues, and dictating crime rates. As our society becomes more fragmented, with a greater divide between rich and poor, there is increasing dissatisfaction and hostility. Pokemon Go presents a solution to any problems we have with our surrounding environment by depicting all locations as an idyllic and perfect field of green. In effect this 'fixes' our living conditions. Additionally, by including exciting monster encounters through augmented reality, Pokemon Go recognises the relative dullness of our own lives, and provides a thrilling substitute.

The game expertly offers a double mode of address. On the one hand, the target audience seems obvious; children aged 6 - 12 or thereabouts. The lexisis informal, there is no difficult use of language. The use of primary colours and appealing cartoon characters suggests a traditionally younger target audience, and there is no violent content. However, the game also has a startlingly high uptake with an older audience. The original Gameboy game was released in the UK in 1999, which means, to use a completely unrelated example, if somebody bought the game on it's original release aged 13, they would now be 29. Additionally, the very structure of the game requires a fair degree of maturity. How many 8 year old's would you trust to wander for miles in urban environments, all the while clutching their phone? And this does not take into consideration the necessity of having a fairly modern and expensive smartphone with a dedicated data plan. In fact, it is very hard to work out who is the target audience, and who is the secondary audience!

Representation

Pokemon Go challenges the stereotypical representation of videogame players through the structure of the game itself. In order to progress, you have to walk, preferably as far as possible, as there are several incentives given for distance covered. The stereotypical representation of a videogame fan is that they are inactive, perhaps obese, and antisocial. This stereotype was popularised in the 1980's, when videogames were still a niche activity. Films such as Revenge of the Nerds and The Breakfast Club presented archetypal 'nerd' characters, and were invariably presented as being both sexually unattractive and mainly included in the narrative for comedic value. Videogames have much more mainstream appeal now, but this 'nerd' stereotype still remains popular, especially among those unfamiliar with videogames. Pokemon Go challenges this stereotype by making the fundamental mechanics of the game involve leaving the house, going to new and interesting places, and even meeting real life people (more on that below). It is therefore possible that Pokemon Go will challenge the wider public's perception of videogames as an acceptable and wholesome pursuit.

Genre

Pokemon (1995) displays many generic conventions of the role playing game. (image via Giant Bomb)

Pokemon Go has elements of the RPG genre, mainly through referential codes that hint at the original franchise. This include the title, iconography, graphics, colour scheme and so on. However, the game itself is far from a classic RPG. An RPG, an acronym for 'Role Playing Game', is a widely diverse genre. Pokemon itself fits in to the JRPG, or 'Japanese Role Playing Game' sub genre, characterised by an emphasis on statistics, a more linear narrative, and stylised graphics. A typical JRPG is split in to at least two settings, the village, where the player may talk to characters, gather information and purchase items, and the dungeon, a much larger, maze like location, with mostly unfriendly characters that must be beaten to progress. Pokemon itself was heavily influenced by three games: Dragon Quest for the general battle mechanics. Earthbound for the often quirky, isometric visual style, and the Megami Tensei series for the actual monster collecting element. Pokemon Go strips out much of these essential JRPG mechanics, and replaces monster capture with a simple mini-game, similar to Paper Toss or any number of simple time killing apps. There are RPG conventions in Pokemon Go, but they are made part of the player's actual environment. So the streets where they walk become the village and dungeon simultaneously, and the friendly villagers are now the people you bump in to who are also playing the game. Pokemon Go fundamentally contains many generic paradigms of the RPG genre, but due to the fluidity of the genre, a lot has changed since Pocket Monsters was first released in Japan 21 years ago.

Narrative

Where Pokemon Go starts to get very interesting is through the way in which it tells it's story. In terms of exposition, it wastes no time in giving a brief description of what you have to do. Beyond this, there is very little explicit narrative. Like many video games, for example vs fighters and the 'endless' mode on puzzle games like Tetris, Pokemon Go has a perpetually open narrative. There is currently no way to 'win' Pokemon Go. This has repercussions if we try to apply Todorov's theory of narrative equilibrium to it. Since there is no resolution, there can be no restoration of the equilibrium.  Additionally, there are issues as to where the disequilibrium occurs. Does it happen to your player character the second you touch the screen to start? Or is the equilibrium the player's life before starting the game, the disruption the process of playing the game, and the partial restoration when you inevitably get bored and give up, maybe to play something else? In any case, it's clear the Todorov's narrative triad isn't very useful when applied to such a novel example of new media!

Pokemon Go confuses analyses of narrative by deliberately confusing real world and diegetic elements. (image via The Verge)

We can better understand Pokemon Go through Barthes's semiotic codes. While it is poorly explained, the rustle of grass and the presence of mysterious 'Poke-stops' are examples of action codes. They represent the establishment of an action that must be completed. Videogames often make players jump through hoops (sometimes literally!), and as gamers, we build up an exhaustive list of examples of shared action codes. If a character has an icon over her head, we walk up to her. If an item flashes, we know it is important. If we are suddenly given in-game health and ammunition, then we know something particularly difficult and dangerous is ahead. Pokemon Go is no different in this regard. There are also numerous examples of semantic and symbolic codes. The game's structure, forcing players in to one single area has connotations of friendship, inclusivity, positivity and wholesome exercise, which further symbolically differentiates Pokemon Go from traditional stereotypical representations of gamers. The game makes use of several key binary oppositions, including that of wilderness and civilisation, of cuteness and aggression.

Postmodernist readings

We can apply many other theories to Pokemon Go, Propp's character archetypes, Gerbner's cultivation theory and Hall's reception theory.  In order to fully examine it though, we must also explore the metagame. This refers to the world beyond the game. There has always been a 'meta' aspect to all media forms. Who goes to watch a film without telling everyone how good it is? Who finishes a game without boasting how hard it is (or looking up a solution on the internet when it gets too tough?). Pokemon Go however invites players to blur the diegesis of the game. We have to question, which bit is the game? If we agree with The Guardian's 2/5 review of the game, then we must concede that even if the game itself is limited, buggy and unfinished, the experience really isn't much to do with the game. It's effectively a bit of make-believe that makes going for a walk by yourself or with friends a bit more interesting. By not only casting the player as the protagonist (very common in videogames) but also making your real world location the setting (if augmented), then Pokemon Go at least in part achieves it's immersion through breaking the fourth wall, a postmodern technique where the text draws attention to its own status as a text.

Conclusions

Pokemon Go's success can be put down to a number of factors. It's a pre-existing property that targets two discrete primary audiences. It plays off both nostalgia and the thrill new media. It relies of the ubiquitousness of mobile phones. It provides audiences with many pleasures, including escapism, social interaction and knowledge. It allows gamers to challenge their own negative stereotypes, and provides a unique postmodern narrative experience. This isn't to say that everything is perfect. A number of negative news stories have arisen, including stories of people being mugged, harassed or getting in to inappropriate situations. It will be fascinating to see how the success of Pokemon Go will impact on videogames of all genres, and potentially even the way we communicate with each other.