ABSTRACT
Increasingly, urban environments are becoming spaces for forms of hybrid play that merge material and digital contexts. Hybridity is of particular relevance to our experience of augmented reality (AR) games such as Pokémon GO, in which real-time pedestrian movement is integrated with mobile location-based functionality and network information. At the same time, mobile touchscreen devices are haptic interfaces that turn our attention to the embodied and proprioceptive aspects of playful media. In this chapter, we consider the coalescence of hybrid and haptic play in augmented reality mobile games, and revisit notions of hybridity in terms of the concept of digital wayfaring. The discussion draws on ethnographic work conducted in Badalona, Spain on the uptake of Pokémon GO by older adults, and explores the benefits of hybrid-haptic play in facilitating intergenerational connection and social and physical wellbeing.
