Exercise Video Games - Fun and Exercise
Somewhere around at the turn of the 19th century people started moving from rural areas to urban areas, and the typical work day changed from toiling all day in the field to being confined to a small working quarter. As we moved towards computers, the amount of physical exertion in our typical work day dropped to almost nothing. And now as the world is struggling with an obesity problem we need some kind of a solution, something that would replace the exercise that we are missing.
The ideal solution would make exercising a side effect, so that we would exercise without forcing ourselves to exercise. The solution is exercise video games; taking something that people already do and love and incorporating movement and exercise into it. The exercise equipment can be anything from a video game console to a desktop PC.
While there were many earlier attempts at exercise video games, the first notable success was Konami's "Dance Dance Revolution" which became incredibly popular and sold millions. "Dance Dance Revolution" is a dance pad game. The dance pad is a roughly 3ft x 3ft pad that lies on the floor and has buttons that the user can press with their feet. The user stands on this pad and presses the buttons to interact with the game. In effect it is a controller that you have to move your legs to use. The dance pad can cost anywhere from $20 for a thin piece of plastic to $1000 for the big metal professional kinds that they use in arcade places. To this day dance pad dancing games are by far the most successful and popular types of exercise video games.
Certain exercise video games utilize existing exercise equipment by re-routing the input from the exercise equipment into the game. An example of this is the TACX Fortius training bike. Instead of just using simple training simulations found in many exercycles, the 'exergaming bike' actually integrates the game controller into the handles. The bike is then hooked up to a PS2, XBOX, or PC and the user can play any of the games that these systems already have. Only now instead of mashing buttons on a joystick, you have to exercise. At a little over $1000 it is pretty pricy, but it isn't all that bad if you compare it with other exercise equipment. Keep in mind that with something like the TACX Fortius what you are doing is trying to add fun to your exercise vs. adding exercise to your gaming, because it is quite possible to play any game that you would use with the bike, without the bike.
A commendable effort to bring exercise video games into the mainstream is attributed to the Nintendo Wii. The Wii's entire purpose is to get away from the already familiar button sort of game controller, to a more interactive game controller, where you would have to swing your arm to make something happen, instead of swinging your thumb. The Wii controller has sensors in it that detect motion. And the games that come out for the Wii use that technology to create games that depend on motion. Some video games that can be used for exercise are: boxing, tennis, bowling,… For example, in tennis you would have to swing your arm for the in game character to swing their racquets.
The Wii, of course, is not without its problems as far as exercise video games go. For one the motions in the game are not reflective of real life, so in the tennis game you wouldn't actually take a swing like you would if you were actually playing tennis. The motions you make are adapted to the game, they do not reflect the real life sport. In reality that means that the game would respond the same if you flicked your wrist or if you swung your entire arm. What that means is that you could sit on a couch and not exert any effort while playing the Wii, which again means that you would have to force yourself to exercise; although, it is certainly easier to force yourself to play Wii than to run on a treadmill.
The Wii controller lacks the precision of the dance pad but opens up new possibilities. With motion detection, games can simulate anything from a sword swing to a tennis stroke. At the time of this writing the Wii can be bought used from Amazon for $400.00 (out of stock in a lot of stores), which is kind of odd since it has been out for close to year. As a final note, the Wii has been tremendously successful in the marketplace.
Regardless of the problems that exercise video games have, the idea seems to be very popular. The fact of the matter is that people like entertainment, and what better way to improve health than to make it into entertainment.
