'Pokemon Go' Latest News: Playing Augmented Reality Game Makes People Happier

A new research published revealed that the widely played augmented reality game "Pokemon Go" is very helpful to players. Aside from the exercise that it entails, it makes players happier.

A research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison underlines that aside from walking, players of "Pokemon Go" are also happier people. It can be recalled that when the game was released in July 2016, several researchers worldwide was also launched. Players scattered on parks, sidewalks, searching for the pocket monsters, which became an instant phenomenon. These studies took on varying topics including players' attitudes and characteristics as well as the effects of the game to them.

Although there were studies that centered on the increase in "Pokemon Go" players' increased activity level, the UW-Madison studied focused on the psychological effects says JSonline. The product of their research was published in the Media Psychology journal. It points out that players of the augmented reality game are more positive, physically active, and friendly for the first few weeks of the game. The research only studied the first few weeks of users' behavior.

According to Science Daily, the research is based on a survey conducted to 400 people three weeks since the game was released. It includes asking questions pertaining to the respondents' social and emotional lives as well as their level of activities before they played the game.

There is 40 percent of the respondents who are playing "Pokemon Go." The result showed that these respondents are experiencing positive emotions specifically, nostalgia. They are also more active as the game involves brisk walking, to say the least.

Researchers are undergraduate students Alanna Pebbles and grad student Irene Sarmiento as well as Professor for Communication and Arts, Marie Louise Mares. James Alex Bonus, a graduate of UW-madison even joined players while playing the game to evaluate its effects. According to him, although there were lots of negative news about players trespassing, or meeting accidents, there were also those who are enjoying the game. Currently, Niantic claims to have 65 million regular players playing "Pokemon Go" and over 650 million app were downloaded.