Social Playfulness—Memorable Family Co-play Experiences with Pokémon GO

Pokémon GO, a very popular location-based augmented reality game, has appealed to a wide range of age groups and encouraged entire families to play. This chapter examines family social interactions in the context of digital gaming through an exploratory qualitative survey study (n = 263) of Pokémon GO players’ memorable experiences. We studied siblings and partners in addition to children and parents to chart the many forms of family interaction around Pokémon GO.

Our results suggest that playing digital games in a family context can facilitate diverse positive experiences and interactions and support family bonding, but this is contingent on a variety of gameplay features. In the case of Pokémon GO, a key element was the playful mindset elicited by the game, in turn encouraged by its location-based gameplay. Pokémon GO can augment everyday interactions by adding a playful layer to them, since it is easily embedded in and combined with other activities.