Pokémon Go: Benefits, Costs, and Lessons for the Conservation Movement

Dorward, Leejiah J.; Mittermeier, John C.; Sandbrook, Chris; Spooner, Fiona

doi:10.1111/conl.12326

Cited by 108 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Thus any projects developed with a particular technological innovation (e.g. a future example might be augmented reality games [50]) would be characterised by the same opportunities and constraints as each other. The risk is that new technologies could be used simply because they are novel, rather than because they are appropriate, and so the technology constricts innovation in citizen science.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The diversity and evolution of ecological and environmental citizen science

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Citizen science—the involvement of volunteers in data collection, analysis and interpretation—simultaneously supports research and public engagement with science, and its profile is rapidly rising. Citizen science represents a diverse range of approaches, but until now this diversity has not been quantitatively explored. We conducted a systematic internet search and discovered 509 environmental and ecological citizen science projects. We scored each project for 32 attributes based on publicly obtainable information and used multiple factor analysis to summarise this variation to assess citizen science approaches. We found that projects varied according to their methodological approach from ‘mass participation’ (e.g. easy participation by anyone anywhere) to ‘systematic monitoring’ (e.g. trained volunteers repeatedly sampling at specific locations). They also varied in complexity from approaches that are ‘simple’ to those that are ‘elaborate’ (e.g. provide lots of support to gather rich, detailed datasets). There was a separate cluster of entirely computer-based projects but, in general, we found that the range of citizen science projects in ecology and the environment showed continuous variation and cannot be neatly categorised into distinct types of activity. While the diversity of projects begun in each time period (pre 1990, 1990–99, 2000–09 and 2010–13) has not increased, we found that projects tended to have become increasingly different from each other as time progressed (possibly due to changing opportunities, including technological innovation). Most projects were still active so consequently we found that the overall diversity of active projects (available for participation) increased as time progressed. Overall, understanding the landscape of citizen science in ecology and the environment (and its change over time) is valuable because it informs the comparative evaluation of the ‘success’ of different citizen science approaches. Comparative evaluation provides an evidence-base to inform the future development of citizen science activities.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The diversity and evolution of ecological and environmental citizen science

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Balmford's et al (2002) observation that children had greater recognition of, and therefore a presumed predilection for, Pokémon characters rather than local flora and fauna is sobering. Indeed a recent study that evaluated the benefits of Pokémon Go echoed the results from Balmford et al (2002), stating that conservation continues to lag behind Pokémon (Dorward et al, 2017). As interactions with wilderness are replaced by more virtual interactions, those concerned about the so-called extinction of experience, (Louv, 2008;Soga and Gaston, 2016) may yet find hope in such under-explored options as putting gaming potential to good use.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Using the Phylo Card Game to advance biodiversity conservation in an era of Pokémon

Callahan

Echeverri

et al. 2019

Palgrave Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Broader realization of both increasing biodiversity loss and pressures on ecosystems worldwide has highlighted the importance of public perceptions of species and the subsequent motivations towards improving the status of natural systems. Several new proposals have arisen in reference to environmental learning, including mimicking popular gaming media. Inspired by the popular game Pokémon, the Phylo Trading Card Game (Phylo game) is one such emerging possibility. It was invented as an open-source, competitive, and interactive game to inform players' knowledge of species, ecosystems, and negative environmental events (e.g., climate change, oil spills, wildfires). The game has now achieved global reach, yet the impact of this game on conservation behavior has never been tested. This study used a randomized control trial to evaluate the Phylo game's impact on conservation behavior (i.e., Phylo condition). This was compared to an information control condition with a more traditional learning method using a slideshow (i.e., Slideshow condition). A second card game was used to control for the act of playing a game (i.e., Projects condition). We found that ecological perceptions (i.e., the perceived relationship of species to their ecosystems) and species knowledge increased after both the game and the slideshow, but the Phylo Game had the added benefit of promoting more positive affect and more species name recall. It also motivated donation behavior in the direction of preventing negative environmental events instead of directly aiding an individual species or ecosystem. Our findings highlight the potential value of this game as a novel engagement tool for enhancing ecological literacy, motivations, and actions necessary to meet ecological challenges.

show abstract

“…Así, por ejemplo, se ha alertado del riesgo de posibles traumatismos debidos a ceguera por falta de atención (Barbieri et al, 2017), así como del aumento de exposición de los jugadores a las enfermedades transmitidas por mosquitos (Oidtman et al, 2016). Por otro lado, también se han detectado posibles beneficios derivados del uso extensivo del espacio urbano al que se ven motivados los jugadores más comprometidos: se ha mostrado la influencia de Pokémon Go en el aumento de los niveles de actividad física (Alhoff, White y Horvitz, 2016;Nigg, Mateo y An, 2017;Wong, 2017) y se han señalado también sus posibles aportaciones a la conciencia de la protección de espacios naturales (Dorward, Mittermeier, Sandbrook y Spooner, 2017).…”

Section: Pokémon Go: Jugando En La Interfaz Físico-digitalunclassified

Reimaginar la ciudad. Prácticas de ocio juvenil y producción del espacio público urbano

Bayón¹,

Amigo²,

Caride³

2017

Revista OBETS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Tras recorrer algunas de las recientes transformaciones discursivas en la comprensión del espacio urbano, este artículo teórico analiza tres prácticas de ocio juvenil, seleccionadas por su especial imbricación con la trama de la ciudad: el skateboarding, el graffiti y el juego de realidad aumentada Pokémon Go. Se pretende así contribuir a la comprensión del papel de las formas contemporáneas del ocio juvenil, y los tipos de experiencia territorial que les son propias, en la reestructuración del imaginario urbano y la producción del espacio público en la actualidad.

show abstract

Pokémon Go: Benefits, Costs, and Lessons for the Conservation Movement

Cited by 108 publications

References 13 publications

The diversity and evolution of ecological and environmental citizen science

The diversity and evolution of ecological and environmental citizen science

Using the Phylo Card Game to advance biodiversity conservation in an era of Pokémon

Reimaginar la ciudad. Prácticas de ocio juvenil y producción del espacio público urbano

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About