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COVID-19 as ‘Game Changer’ for the Physical Activity and Mental Well-Being of Augmented Reality Game Players During the Pandemic: Mixed Methods Survey Study

2020; JMIR Publications; Volume: 22; Issue: 12 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2196/25117

1439-4456

Louise A. Ellis, Matthew D. Lee, Kiran Ijaz, James Smith, Jeffrey Braithwaite, Kathleen Yin,

Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts

Location-based augmented reality (AR) games, such as Pokémon GO and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, have been shown to have a beneficial impact on the physical activity, social connectedness, and mental health of their players. In March 2020, global social distancing measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the AR games developer Niantic Inc to implement several changes to ensure continued player engagement with Pokémon GO and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. We sought to examine how the physical and mental well-being of players of these games were affected during the unprecedented COVID-19 restriction period as well as how their video game engagement was affected.