A University of Oxford Masters level student came to the Pokemon Go community for help and the fans have responded in a big way.
Few games in the world have a fanbase that is quite as interconnected as the Pokemon Go fandom.
The game itself is built on sharing the experience with other players both online and in the real world by encouraging community interaction through huge public events, but also allowing players to trade rare ‘Mon amongst each other over the internet.
So when a budding scientist came to one of the biggest PoGo fan communities in the world it was no shock to see that they were willing to get involved and help out.
Oxford student recruits Pokemon Go community for the
It all started when Anna, a Sociology student attending Oxford, came to the Pokemon Go subreddit for help with a thesis-related problem. In short, they were seeking help for a study on how Pokemon Go affects the living habits of the people who play it most often.
They hope to use that data to simulate what an expanded Augmented Reality program could do if something like the Metaverse was to get off the ground in the next decade.
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“Pokémon Go is our best comparison, so I am studying it to see what happens when people interact with augmented/virtual reality,” they said.
This sparked a wave of support and now there are over 80 comments and waves of people have chimed in to ask how they can lend their support and the number is only growing as the hours tick on.
While there’s only one avenue to help right now, Anna has talked about seeking approval for alternatives so that more people might be able to share their experiences with the game.
For anyone who’s looking to get involved, these are the requirements:
- Confirm you are 18 years old or older.
- Fill in a survey.
- Have a 30-minute text-based conversation (via WhatsApp) about the way Pokémon Go affected your life.
While it might seem like a bizarre scenario on the surface, it does make sense that a group primarily built on collecting data entries on Pokemon would be so eager to assist in a new kind of study for the benefit of science.