G4H 2006: The State of Exergaming
Posted by Peter Smith on 06-09-28Dr. Ernie Medina, has the title Exergaming Evangelist, and he is amazingly passionate about the topic. He reminds us that it is common practice to blame games and tv for obesity, but while this is true we don’t people blame reading. The real enemy is exercise is boring. If you can exercise with a fun, social, game. At Beaver Medical it is common for people to play Dance Dance Revolution in large groups ranging in age from child to senior. The games have a lower perceived RPE, an increased self-esteem, competition, etc. They have tournaments and high score boards in their facilities. They have now expanded to create the XRtainment Zone, a family fitness center that specializes in providing games for health in a gym environment. They even use the games as a way to bring people in and then teach them nutrition and perform research to validate the game interventions. Expect them to have Wii’s, just maybe not on launch.
ResponDesign, the creators of Yourself Fitness followed up by bringing us back to reality. The talk kicked off with Yourself Fitness no longer being in stores and there is no sequel in the works. While ResponDesigns has an uncertain future there is still strong support and need for the exergaming space. They also feel having compelling software is what is required to get people to exercise and to solve the obesity epidemic.