"Pokemon Go" is apparently mostly played by extroverts, as a study suggests. This has broken up the stereotype of video games being generally for introverted people. Additionally, games can actually help people who are struggling socially.
In line with this sort of mentality from video game developers, video games can then be used to help people socialize more and help those who have social anxiety by giving the game more features which encourage social activity. "Pokemon Go" is certainly no exception, and it has even become a good case study for some psychological studies pundits.
Adri Khalis from the University of British Columbia is one of the leading authors of the said study involving the psychological effects of video games. Khalis has suggested that since "Pokemon Go" requires people to be outdoors and interact with the environment, introverts will be compelled to go out and reconnect with the world in order to catch their favorite Pokemon or battle others, making friends in the process.
This reward mentality can then be utilized by the game developers and studied by experts in order to make people with social problems engage more with other members of the society. "This counters the prevailing stereotype that gamers are socially awkward. Rather, we think that modern video games, such as those involving augmented reality, have a lot of social aspects and therefore require players to have good social competence to do well playing them," said Khalid.
Still, Khalid's tests, which involved dozens of participants playing "Pokemon Go," have revealed that people who excelled in the game the most are extroverted people, while introverts have problems being self-conscious outdoors while playing the game. However, Khalis and his team are now looking into solutions on how to make the game more accessible to people with social problems.
This news comes along with the reveal of the game's new augmented reality plus (AR+) feature might be able to help people who struggle socially to face their fears with their Pokemon. The Pokemon will now appear on the phone as if they were there in actual scale. This means players will be able to sneak around them or even walk up to them. This could also make social interactions more engaging and generally fun since the Pokemon are now somewhat there with the players.
