The launch of augmented reality game Pok\u00e9mon Go has been a resounding success for Nintendo and app developer Niantic.<\/p>\n
Reports suggest it to be the most popular mobile game in US history<\/a><\/strong>, with the number of daily active users at times surpassing Twitter, Facebook, and Tinder<\/a><\/strong>. But one of its most interesting features is not within the game onscreen at all.<\/p>\n Based on the 20-year-old Nintendo franchise, the aim of the game is to walk around real-world locations in order to capture \u201cin the wild\u201d Pok\u00e9mon generated in the game.<\/p>\n Using a smartphone\u2019s camera, the augmented reality app allows players to find the Pok\u00e9mon superimposed onto real spaces, with the aim to catch all the Pok\u00e9mon in predefined geographical locations.<\/p>\n Additional bonuses come through checking in at \u201cPok\u00e9stops\u201d \u2013 smaller geographical landmarks that the game defines as significant.<\/p>\n A visit to a caf\u00e9, pub, or bakery for example could see you rewarded with a number of items to make it easier to \u201ccatch them all\u201d.<\/p>\n Playing Pok\u00e9mon Go myself I have been fascinated by the element of urban exploration the game encourages, particularly around those familiar places now marked as Pok\u00e9stops.<\/p>\n Wendy Joy Darby, in her book Landscape and Identity, argues that<\/a><\/strong> \u201cplace is indubitably bound up in personal experience\u201d.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve lived in Norwich all my life, for example, and I\u2019d like to think my personal experience means I know the city quite well.<\/p>\n Yet even I have found myself surprised at some of the locations the app has identified as culturally or socially significant in some way.<\/p>\n Walking around and viewing Norwich through the game\u2019s augmented reality, I\u2019ve found myself discovering the city anew.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve stopped at things I\u2019ve seen before but never really considered: paving slabs decorated with cakes<\/a><\/strong>, sculptures I\u2019ve often walked past<\/a><\/strong> but never really looked at.<\/p>\n And some things I\u2019d never laid eyes on, such as plaques celebrating remarkable people<\/a><\/strong> or interesting architecture<\/a><\/strong> that I\u2019d encountered only by being led on detours by my quest for Pok\u00e9mon.<\/p>\n