The chief behind Pokémon GO sees a danger in virtual reality and points out the advantages of his game.
In an interview with Gameindustrybiz, Niantic CEO John Hanke talks about virtual reality. He believes it is dangerous because it is too good. People could spend a lot of time with it, which would be bad for society in the long run.
Already, Hanke has concerns that his children play so much Minecraft and that it is a great game.
Virtual reality keeps players indoors, while augmented reality brings players outdoors into nature, which is significantly better and healthier.
Virtual Reality is Too Good to Be Healthy
“We are human beings, and a lot of research has shown that we are really much happier when we get movement, when we spend time outdoors – especially in nature. It is a problem for us as a society if we neglect this and spend all our time in a VR world like in Ready Player One,” says Hanke.
Ready Player One is a dystopian sci-fi novel that is about to be adapted into a movie. In 2044, humanity lives in a bleak real world and escapes into a beautiful fictional one.
More augmented reality games should be developed
Hanke therefore encourages developers to focus on augmented reality, like his game Pokémon Go. Such games lead players outdoors.
Augmented reality has huge potential to positively influence people. Aspects that could be beneficial for the health of players. This research can be applied to all augmented reality games. Such games could motivate people to be more active than they otherwise would.
Part of his motivation for developing a game like Pokémon GO, Hanke says, was to get his own children out of the house more often.
Pokémon GO: Team to be doubled
In the long run, Hanke believes that virtual and augmented reality do not have to be mutually exclusive. At some point, they could be combined into a single thing and merge.
Furthermore, Hanke says Niantic plans to release Ingress in a new, updated version, and they also want to double the size of the team working on Pokémon GO. For the future, they plan new events and more social features.
The Pokémon GO app fulfilled a promise in the summer of 2016 that we were given as children. Instead of controlling a trainer, we can now be a Pokémon trainer o...
