Not that people seem to be in need of any extra-reason for playing Pokémon Go, but in case someone is indeed looking for one, there exists an excellent reason. For researchers have associated health benefits to such games.

As for Pokémon Go, it leads to substantial amounts of physical activity in players many or most of whom probably won’t intend it otherwise. Tom Baranowski, Professor of Pediatrics from Baylor College of Medicine in Texas suggests the term ‘stealth exergame programming’ for this phenomenon.

The study which appeared on the Games for Health Journal website notes that creating active video games(AVGs) using a combination of AR technology, geocaching and other innovative techniques has potential heath implications, both on the personal and public spheres.
Researchers derived many of the lessons from GPD-based Pokémon Go in which players walk-sometimes for hours as they chase Pokémons-the animated creatures which lie at the heart of the game.

As per the paper’s authors, game developers will be able to make use of the findings of researchers so that the information can be used to create new games that will not only be fun to play but also promote beneficial physical activity.

Pokémon Go tracks a player’s location using GPS and overlays animated monsters which can be hunted in a particular location on a mobile screen. The monsters thus captured could then be trained for battles. The immensely popular game has already broken many records. Globally, it’s used on a daily basis twice as much as the Facebook app.

Image credits: ibtimes.co.in

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