Pokémon is, as of today, the highest-grossing media franchise in human history. It offers something for everyone between video games, trading cards, merchandise, and many more. The latest game in the Nintendo intellectual property might have, however, gone too far for some. After a game that you play while outside (Pokémon GO) and a game you play while brushing your teeth (Pokémon Smile) the latest game in the franchise wants to take away the only moment left when one cannot play Pokémon, sleeping. Pokémon Sleep is a mobile game that does the unthinkable, it gamifies sleep.
if you told me this a few months ago, I wouldn't have believed you…
But my friends and I have actually been taking Pokemon Sleep seriously and every morning we would post our sleep trends and what Pokemon we "caught" and encountered during our sleep 😅 pic.twitter.com/fNSLBOb2Is
— Dangle 🐻❄️ (@DangleMeme) July 23, 2023
Echoes of the past
“Big Brother is watching,” wrote George Orwell in his hit book 1984, he there delved deep into the themes of surveillance and the impact of future technologies on society. Just like the big brother, Pokémon is now present in every moment of our lives. But, unlike the big brother, the Pokémon eye remains vigilant even in sleep. Ah, what would I do to hear Orwell’s comments on how we today engage in this of our own choice? I make no exception, I “played” Pokémon Sleep for a little over a week now and I feel it has already entered my daily routine. But is it as Orwellian as it sounds?
The game is more nuanced than it may appear at first sight. How you sleep actually affects the game which is interesting and creepy at the same time. The way of playing is placing the phone, preferably face-down and while charging, next to you in bed and just falling asleep. Pokémon Sleep will track your sleeping phases and noises you make through the night and generate a set of Pokémon that “gathered around” when you wake up. The Pokémon will show up depending on how much time you spent in each phase of sleep. From the second night onward your sleeping pattern is compared to those of the previous nights to generate them. You can also feed your Snorlax during the day to find better Pokémon (This resets every week).
Conclusion
The game seems innocent at face value, it rewards you for going to sleep at the same time every day as well as for having gathered enough sleep each day according to your age, which is as useful to adults as to children nowadays. The data doesn’t seem to get stored for too long or analyzed, but with recent data breaches and anti-consumer practices in the market, we can never be sure.
I personally never could shake off the feeling this is weird, especially when seeing the recordings of the sounds I made at night presented to me in the morning and thinking how potentially those of millions of people were in the hands of someone. Sleeping monitor apps existed before, but never they had been presented this way. Pokémon Sleep undoubtedly presents an innovative concept that takes gaming to a new realm, but it also raises important questions on privacy and security. Perhaps we should just embrace the big brother.
YouTube: How To Play Pokémon Sleep
Photo credit: The feature image is symbolic and has been done by Christopher Isak with Midjourney for TechAcute. The screenshot in the body of the article has been taken by the author for TechAcute. The artwork in the body of the article has been done by The Pokémon Company and was made available as part of a press kit.
