A study, published in the JAMA Internal Medicine, states that games such as “Pokemon GO” has a positive impact on the health of players. The study analyzed the “Effect of a Game-Based Intervention Designed to Enhance Social Incentives to Increase Physical Activity among Families.”
According to the study, “Gamification” may offer a promising approach towards improving daily health behaviors of players. Such “Gamification” should be designed to influence insights from behavioral economics that enhance social incentives, the study explains. Researchers involved in the study conducted a three-month randomized trial, which was followed by another three months of observation.
AR games good for players’ health
The trial aimed at measuring the number of steps taken by players of Augmented Reality (AR) games over a six-month period. In total, there were 200 adults from 94 families. Some of the families and individuals involved in the trial could level-up and earn points. The rest did not have levels or points attributed to daily movements.
The study showed that the incentivized players went that extra mile to take more steps and earn those points. The enthusiasm fizzled out after the initial 12 weeks. However, the gamified group produced better results than the control group, long after the trial was over. “Pokemon GO” kicked up a storm when it was released in June 2016.
The game has already made more than $1.5 billion and has been downloaded over 750 million times. Even though the game is fast losing loyal followers, it is still played by a whopping 60 million people even today. According to Forbes, that is quite an impressive number of people going out and performing physical activity.
The Halloween event is here
As per the study, this undertaking of physical activity, made possible by AR games, is a good thing. Thus, it could be a great idea for players who have lost interest in the game, to fire up the app once again, and go creature hunting. The “Pokemon GO” Halloween event is also on its way. Niantic has already announced the event.
There are reports that a plenty of great rewards are coming to the game by the end of October. Players should make most of the event and renew their interest in the game. There are so many new scary critters to catch and fill up the Pokedex. Even though details about the event are scarce, players are expecting plenty of Ghost-types Pokemon to be popping up soon.
Dr. Mitesh S Patel of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania is confident about the study findings. Meanwhile, read our article on “Pokemon GO” Gen 3 release date.
