Pokemon GO offers physical and mental health benefits

“Pokémon Go,” a location-based augmented reality mobile game, has been a major success since its July 6 release. Aside from the obvious addictive fun of the game, Pokémon Go offers tangible physical and mental health benefits.

This opinion article was originally featured in PantherNOW and talks about the tangible health benefits of playing the popular mobile game, Pokémon Go.

Check out the article’s excerpt below and click the link if you want to read the full story!

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Maytinee Kramer/Staff Writer

“Pokémon Go,” a location-based augmented reality mobile game, has been a major success since its July 6 release. Aside from the obvious addictive fun of the game, Pokémon Go offers tangible physical and mental health benefits.

Unlike previous Pokémon games, “Pokémon Go” is not for Nintendo’s handheld consoles; it is a free app for Android and iOS devices that compels players to “catch em’ all.”

The game uses your phone’s GPS and clock to decide which Pokémon pop up. In other words, if you’re near a lake, more water type Pokémon appear. If you’re by a park, more bug and grass types appear. The catch of the game is that Pokémon won’t come to you; players have to go out into the real world to find and catch Pokémon, just like Pokémon trainers.

Since it’s release, players have been lumbering up hills, wandering the city streets at night and congregating in various parks. The unintended side effect of the game is that users are becoming more physically active, walking miles and miles each day to play the game is boosting their overall physical health.

The game is great motivation to get users to go out and walk around. Walking is among the best forms of exercise one can get. Just breathing fresh, clean, outside air may improve one’s health and mood.

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Photo Credit: David Grandmougin on Unsplash

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