Trendsurfing: Exertainment (The Times)
By David Rown
You're going to love the summer's hot new weight-loss programme. All you do is flick on your Xbox, boot up a video game ... and then congratulate yourself on having helped to solve the global obesity crisis. The gaming industry, zapped from all sides for promoting today's sedentary lifestyle, is firing back by repositioning itself as the fitness fan's friend. Squeeze the odd joystick, it's now promising, jiggle about on a motion-sensitive dance-pad, and before long you'll see the pounds miraculously falling away. And all without ever leaving your living-room.
It's a trend known as "exertainment" or "exergaming", and it relies on the growing sophistication of games consoles to test players with physically demanding tasks. By building entertainment challenges around exercise routines, games designers promise to turn PCs and PlayStations into calorie-crunching personal trainers. Their moment arrived at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show, whose most muscular display was a "cardio playzone" packed with fitness-themed games. Now a California school district plans to install exertainment rooms in all its primaries to replace basketball in the daily workout. "One of the things being blamed for child obesity is video games," explains Sue Buster, the district's junior education director. "So this is fighting fire with fire."
It is a challenging logic to grasp, especially with 14 per cent of California's under-12s officially obese, and their British counterparts panting just behind. Can a computer game, even one that forces players to dance on a wired-up floor mat, ever replace an old-fashioned PE lesson?
Well, for all that it seems unlikely, the best of these games do seem to be helping players sweat off the calories. Recent hit games for PlayStation2 and Xbox consoles, for instance, track the energy burned with each virtual golf putt or dance-pad gyration. RedOctane, which makes the dance mats, claims that regular players have lost up to ten stone responding to the computer's demands. As for our oversized, under-exercised children, the medical world has spotted a "powerful new tool" in fighting paediatric obesity. "What is so exciting about exertaintment is it can overcome just about every excuse for not exercising," claims Ernie Medina, a doctor working with the California schools programme. "Playing games, having fun, in a medium they already feel confident about, is a sneaky way to get children to exercise."
Fitness-based games aren't exactly new: if you had a Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1988, you could have bought a Powerpad attachment on which to dance around awkwardly during your aerobics routine. What's changed is the technology's speed, complexity, visual quality – and price. Ten years ago, a Time Ryder computerised exercise bike, with video-game controls built into the handlebars, would have cost almost £4,000. Today, a fraction of that sum will buy you a dozen bestselling electronic fitness systems - from Kilowatt Sport's Powergrid Fitness track, which forces you to flex a range of muscles in response to screen commands, to Electric Spin's Golf LaunchPad, which you plug into your PlayStation2 and then, with your own clubs, take on the world's toughest courses. You can even avoid the bracing walk around 18 holes.
It does all sound rather exhausting, what with all those buttons to press and cables to unwind. Me, I'm sticking to chairobics, lounging on a sofa raising and lowering heavy glasses of pinot noir. If you could see how red-faced a three-hour training session left me, you'd be in awe.
(The Times Magazine, July 16 2005)
. . . AND READ MORE TRENDSURFING COLUMNS HERE . . .
You're going to love the summer's hot new weight-loss programme. All you do is flick on your Xbox, boot up a video game ... and then congratulate yourself on having helped to solve the global obesity crisis. The gaming industry, zapped from all sides for promoting today's sedentary lifestyle, is firing back by repositioning itself as the fitness fan's friend. Squeeze the odd joystick, it's now promising, jiggle about on a motion-sensitive dance-pad, and before long you'll see the pounds miraculously falling away. And all without ever leaving your living-room.
It's a trend known as "exertainment" or "exergaming", and it relies on the growing sophistication of games consoles to test players with physically demanding tasks. By building entertainment challenges around exercise routines, games designers promise to turn PCs and PlayStations into calorie-crunching personal trainers. Their moment arrived at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show, whose most muscular display was a "cardio playzone" packed with fitness-themed games. Now a California school district plans to install exertainment rooms in all its primaries to replace basketball in the daily workout. "One of the things being blamed for child obesity is video games," explains Sue Buster, the district's junior education director. "So this is fighting fire with fire."
It is a challenging logic to grasp, especially with 14 per cent of California's under-12s officially obese, and their British counterparts panting just behind. Can a computer game, even one that forces players to dance on a wired-up floor mat, ever replace an old-fashioned PE lesson?
Well, for all that it seems unlikely, the best of these games do seem to be helping players sweat off the calories. Recent hit games for PlayStation2 and Xbox consoles, for instance, track the energy burned with each virtual golf putt or dance-pad gyration. RedOctane, which makes the dance mats, claims that regular players have lost up to ten stone responding to the computer's demands. As for our oversized, under-exercised children, the medical world has spotted a "powerful new tool" in fighting paediatric obesity. "What is so exciting about exertaintment is it can overcome just about every excuse for not exercising," claims Ernie Medina, a doctor working with the California schools programme. "Playing games, having fun, in a medium they already feel confident about, is a sneaky way to get children to exercise."
Fitness-based games aren't exactly new: if you had a Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1988, you could have bought a Powerpad attachment on which to dance around awkwardly during your aerobics routine. What's changed is the technology's speed, complexity, visual quality – and price. Ten years ago, a Time Ryder computerised exercise bike, with video-game controls built into the handlebars, would have cost almost £4,000. Today, a fraction of that sum will buy you a dozen bestselling electronic fitness systems - from Kilowatt Sport's Powergrid Fitness track, which forces you to flex a range of muscles in response to screen commands, to Electric Spin's Golf LaunchPad, which you plug into your PlayStation2 and then, with your own clubs, take on the world's toughest courses. You can even avoid the bracing walk around 18 holes.
It does all sound rather exhausting, what with all those buttons to press and cables to unwind. Me, I'm sticking to chairobics, lounging on a sofa raising and lowering heavy glasses of pinot noir. If you could see how red-faced a three-hour training session left me, you'd be in awe.
(The Times Magazine, July 16 2005)
. . . AND READ MORE TRENDSURFING COLUMNS HERE . . .
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