Harry Potter fans take note: With this mobile game, you’ll land right in the world of the young wizard and his friends.
As the name suggests, the game app takes you on a journey into the world of Harry Potter. Due to an accident, magical creatures and enchanted objects are everywhere in the real world. Players must find these and bring them from the human Muggle world back to the Wizarding World. As with the app Pokémon GO, game and reality become one when using the augmented reality mode. The enchanted persons and objects are virtually inserted into the camera image. So, to find potion ingredients and other magical things, you have to go exploring outside and team up with other players. There is fighting and magic in so-called arenas against and with each other.
For Harry Potter fans, it’s a great idea to immerse themselves in the universe of Hogwarts and co. The app makes this possible, so to speak. You constantly discover familiar characters and objects from the wizard’s stories.
The augmented reality principle makes the fun even greater. The game can be compared to a modern digital scavenger hunt. Alone or together with friends, you can always pull out your phone on a walk or on the way to the grandparents or sports club and hold it in front of you with the camera on to find the magical things. Besides, you can always evolve and increase your level of magic, just like Harry Potter did.
The atmosphere in the game is very gloomy. Some of the players fight against creepy magical creatures like witches and vampires. This can be frightening, especially for younger children.
It can happen that while playing, the user does not pay proper attention to the road traffic, as his eyes are always focused on the cell phone display. There could be enchanted creatures hiding everywhere! The game can also tempt you to go to unknown places alone or to run at night . Since the game is constantly evolving with new content, it virtually never ends. Therefore, the app tempts you to want to play on and on.
After a while, the temptation becomes great to get further faster in the game through in-app purchases. Also, the app has a very high data consumption.
On the official website of the manufacturer, there are only links to the data protection and the instructions for use. You will be directed to the respective pages of https://policies.warnerbros.com, where you can read the information in English. By using the app, you grant the providers many rights.
Is your child in the middle of Harry Potter fever and desperate to play the app? Here you are faced with the task of assessing whether your child is aware of the risks and issues raised and is old enough to deal with the somber atmosphere. In addition to data protection issues (especially constant location tracking), this includes whether your child already understands the principle of “augmented reality”. Talk to your child about all of this before exploring the game together.
Agree together on rules for game length, allowed game radius, and in-app purchases. Do not let your child go off on his or her own. Perhaps you will also take a walk together with friends families in search of magical creatures?
Last but not least, always download only the original app (from Niantic). Third-party apps are often infected with malware.
