My Grandpa and I “Gotta Catch ‘Em All.” A Research Design on Intergenerational Gaming Focusing on Pokémon Go Francesca Comunello 1( ✉ ) and Simone Mulargia 2 1 Department of Humanities, LUMSA University, Rome, Italy f.comunello@lumsa.it 2 Department of Communication and Social Research, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy simone.mulargia@uniroma1.it Abstract. Intergenerational gaming is gaining growing scholarly attention, as it can be considered a means of fostering relationships between younger and older players, a way of overcoming real or perceived differences between generations, a chance to (re)negotiate norms and roles, and a way to question age-related ster‐ eotypes. In this paper, we conduct a literature review on intergenerational gaming and pervasive gaming and present a research design to conduct an intergenera‐ tional gaming study focusing on Pokémon Go. We aim at exploring gaming prac‐ tices, role negotiations, and the presence/absence of age-related stereotypes. To reach our goals, we elaborate and evaluate different research methods and tools, discussing their strengths and weaknesses and designing further research steps. Keywords: Intergenerational gaming · Pokémon Go · Location-based mobile gaming · Augmented reality games 1 Introduction In recent years, scholars have started devoting growing attention to intergenerational gaming practices, while video gaming itself is undergoing a “mainstreaming” process, which is enabled by the diffusion of both specific devices and new gaming practices. Intergenerational gaming can be considered a means of fostering relationships and connections while producing positive emotions for both generations [1]. As underlined in the context of social network games, playing together among family members can enrich the family’s existing relationships [2] and overcome (or positively exploit) real or perceived differences in digital skills among young and older people [3], thus contri‐ buting to playful interactions, appealing to both grandparents and grandchildren [4–6]. In this paper, we analyze intergenerational gaming practices, focusing on Pokémon Go, which has been massively adopted worldwide by both young children and adults. From a conceptual perspective, we rely on literature analyzing intergenerational gaming and focusing on mobile, location-based, and augmented reality gaming, also considering literature addressing the “social side” of video gaming. After exposing our theoretical framework (which builds on literature addressing both intergenerational gaming, and © Springer International Publishing AG 2017 J. Zhou and G. Salvendy (Eds.): ITAP 2017, Part II, LNCS 10298, pp. 228–241, 2017. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-58536-9_19