Experiencing the unfamiliar through mobile gameplay: Pokémon Go as augmented tourism
Publication Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
3-2021
Abstract
Whilst tourism involves encountering the unfamiliar, digital technologies play an increasingly prominent role in mediating these encounters. Augmented reality applications can cause encounters with the unfamiliar to become relational constructs, as difference is mediated through the familiar interface of the digital. Augmented tourism is a concept through which these mediations can be understood. Specifically, augmented reality mobile games bring people and places together through one, integrative, experience of the world. When played in unfamiliar environments, these games provide an interpretive lens that can shape the tourist experience. I draw on an analysis of 22 in-depth interviews with Singapore-based players of Pokémon Go to explore how the game enables them to navigate and memorialise unfamiliar environments, and to connect with other people through common experiences of play. Combined, these actions constitute a form of augmented tourism that is defined by playful and interactive, but also homogenising, encounters with people and place.
Keywords
Pokémon Go, digital, augmented tourism, mobile gameplay, encounter, Singapore
Discipline
Civic and Community Engagement | Leisure Studies
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Area
Volume
53
Issue
1
First Page
183
Last Page
190
ISSN
0004-0894
Identifier
10.1111/area.12633
Publisher
Wiley: 24 months
Citation
WOODS, Orlando.(2021). Experiencing the unfamiliar through mobile gameplay: Pokémon Go as augmented tourism. Area, 53(1), 183-190.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3198
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12633