The UX Psychology of Pokemon GO

Game design, gamification, physiological triggers and behavioral research of the mobile game Pokemon Go!

Pokemon GO had a huge impact and popularity all over the world. Everyone played it! 10 years old kids, fans of the original old games and even the businessman in suit was seen in the wild catching Pokémon.

The promise of Pokémon in the “real” world and that each and every one of us finally can be a Pokémon Trainer is a dream that began in the ’90s. But the popularity of Pokémon GO may not resonate or appear logical to onlookers. It has been both described as weird and as a craze.

Why did Pokémon GO blown-up in popularity? Why is it so addictive? And why were the internet and the media going crazy with Pokémon GO?

Here I’m going to explore the mobile game Pokémon GO from a Game design and physiological point of view.

Sounds interesting? Then read on friend!

What is that?

Psychological Behaviour: Motivating-Uncertainty Effect

We start with a concept of the Random Rewards system. This works with surprising the player when completing certain tasks in the game and that triggers the reward system in our brains. It’s exciting to not know what the next Pokémon you see could be. A lot of Pokémon GO is about making the brain feel special for feeling lucky. It’s about finding a rare Pokémon or getting a special Pokémon from an egg that you have spent time and effort into for it to hatch, revealing a random Pokémon. If the player gets a rare Pokémon, the brain gives a boost of the ‘feel happy’ chemical Dopamine.

Uncertainty makes the process and effort put in to get the reward to feel more exciting, and we care about the process more than the result. This is used to make a task that’s a little bit “boring”, such as taking a walk and making that effort rewarding with some uncertainty-generated excitement.

Pokémon GO does this a lot since the game is all about walking outside, exploring and randomly finding Pokémon throughout the neighbourhood. You can’t be sure what new cool Pokémon you might run into.

Uncertainty creates more positive, exciting experiences. We get excited by the unknown.

Pokémon eggs are obtained by going to Pokémon stops and then hatched by walking a certain distance. 1km, 5km or 10km to get different random Pokémon's. After the effort of walking a certain distance the Pokémon egg hatches! The effort we put in boosts the rewards value. This means that if you already knew what Pokémon you were going to get, you would not put the same effort. If you knew that the Pokémon egg would hatch another Pidgey (a very common Pokémon), you would probably not hatch that egg.

The uncertainty of what Pokémon might be found when exploring is more powerful than certainty in boosting motivation towards the goal, making us work harder and enjoy it more in the process.

Read more about it here: https://www.coglode.com/gem/motivating-uncertainty-effect

There might be new Pokémon on the next street!

Psychological Behaviour: Temptation Coupling

Ever wanted something you can’t get? Pokémon Go plays with our minds in this way.

This concept is called ‘Temptation Coupling’. It has been seen that we get more motivated in doing something hard when tightly coupled with something tempting — like taking a walk in Pokémon GO to catch Pokémon. By making it possible to only catch Pokémon when we are walking around or sitting by a Lure (it will make more Pokémon appear by that spot) it makes us put in the effort and time to play the game.

This makes us put in the extra effort of walking further to see what kind of rare Pokemon can be in the area just up ahead. We humans also don’t want to abandon something we have put time and effort into, because that would mean that the time and effort was wasted. That’s why we are more prone to stick with games, projects or things we have worked on for some time.

Read more about it here: https://www.coglode.com/gem/temptation-coupling

Gotta catch ‘em all!

Psychological Behaviour: Zeigarnik Effect

Research has shown that we humans desire of completeness and especially aesthetic designs that suggest unity. We also feel that incomplete experiences feel ‘unresolved’. A row of medals with just 1 spot missing or having 99% completed missions in a video game for example.

This is called the ‘Zeigarnik Effect’ and it’s about that incomplete tasks are easier to remember than successful ones. The Pokédex (The system to list all Pokémon in all the Pokémon games) is a great example of this. To fill out the list of Pokémon you have to encounter and collect them all.

This is even the Pokémon games slogan: “Gotta catch 'em all”.

We all love lists. But the best part of having a list is to make the mark that the task has been solved. To see that our list of Pokémon’s as incomplete is going to be nagging on our mind.

Read more about it here: https://www.coglode.com/gem/zeigarnik-effect

Friends and social fears

Psychological Behaviour: Fear of Missing out

Let’s take a look at the social driving forces of Pokémon GO. The social aspect is a huge part of the appeal and why Pokémon GO got so popular. The social part is important because we want to feel that we belong among friends.

Rumours about game tips and good places to find Pokémon are flying around on social media and at meeting spots with players. Since the game gives very little information about the game mechanics and how the Pokémon’s skills work, it has given room for players to exchange experience and information to their friends. The community is building and sharing together to further build on the social aspect of the game.

There is another important thing that has made Pokémon GO this popular. It is called F.O.M.O and stands for “Fear of missing out”. This works with the fear that you might be missing out on social interactions, that you missed the “thing” everyone is talking about, which might exclude you from future social interaction because you can’t be a part of the activity or the conversation.

This is why everyone on social media and news sites talks about Pokémon GO.

Everyone want’s to show that they “get it” and are in on the discussion.

Read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out

Nostalgia: “Oh I loved that when I was a kid!”

Psychological Behaviour: Nostalgia Effect

One of the biggest reasons why Pokémon GO became that popular is because it’s exactly that: Pokémon!

The promise of being a Pokémon trainer and to find and catch Pokémon in real life has finally been fulfilled! The future is here! Well, sort of…

Nostalgia can foster social gratification, increases pro-social behaviour and makes us want to reconnect to those memories. Now that Pokémon GO is easy to get on any mobile phone, we want to reconnect and play with our friends to share nostalgic memories. We want to share the things we enjoy with other people. Nostalgia can also amplify and create greater social deeps around products.

I do need to bring up the one other big aspect that new research suggests about Nostalgia. That is that reminiscing about the past can make us want to spend more money. Pokémon GO did have Micro transaction in the game, for miscellaneous items you could buy if you wanted to. It was no need to buy them to play or progress in the game. But for example, the Lure item could help you and your friends find more Pokémon's when sitting in the same area. Since the game was very social and had a Nostalgia connection, this must have been a good source of money.

Read more about it here: https://www.coglode.com/gem/nostalgia-effect

Final words

This is what keeps us playing Pokémon GO. Exploring old memories, sharing the joy with new and old friends, and reliving the nostalgia of Pokémon in a new way.

I sure hope to see what more this will bring to other games and what other ways we can make mobile games exiting. The augmented reality aspect of the game gave it something interesting and the success of the game shows that people are willing to make the effort of walking around in the world with games, to bridge the gap of game and reality.