Having completed the current level, I am beginning to turn my thoughts to the next. My working title is “ExerGaming 3.0″. As I looked out to sea last night, I was struck by the vastness of the Pacific ocean. So unless it involves a Swimming ExerGame, there are very many possibilities. What do you think? 
My coast to coast journey across the US started in Baltimore in the east and finished in Santa Monica in the west. I completed the last three miles west, on foot of course, to reach the Pacific. It was a beautiful evening and as the sun was setting in the east, the air was heavy with sweet floral scents.
My goal was Santa Monica pier. It was almost 10 years to the day I had stood on the very same pier on route to a conference in San Diego. As a teenager in the 80’s (might explain a lot), Santa Monica resonates strongly with me for a number of different reasons. As I walked past an arcade, one of Bruce Springsteen’s hits blasted out into the night air and the memories came flooding back.
Yet I was even more struck by the fact that 10 years previously, I would never in my wildest dreams believed things would have worked out the way they have. There in front of me were a couple of DDR’s set up at the entrance to the arcade. Some people stopped to look, others passed by, but for me it was a whole lot more.
I continued on to the end of the pier and took some photos of the setting sun and looked out to sea. I had arrived at my destination and completed the level…
I returned back along the pier as it was beginning to get dark. It appeared as if the setting sun was the signal for the performance to begin. A small crowd began to congregate round the DDR stages as the performers took to the floor. They moved with skill and vigor worthy of any athletic performance. Clearly they were physically exerting themselves, but it was more than just exercise, it was at another level entirely.
Today I had the privilege of having lunch with Jenova Chen, Video Game Designer extraordinaire. Jenova’s MFA Thesis was entitled “Flow in Games“. Why I hadn’t thought of being “in the zone” in relation to active video games I’ll never know. However, Lisa Hansen very helpfully prompted me to explore this area. Indeed, it was when I was playing a Snowboarding ExerGame that I experienced a period of “flow”. As I shifted my weight side-to-side over the board, the immersive graphics of the game responded to my every move as I sped gracefully down the mountain. Suddenly I was totally and utterly in the game. My most vivid memory from my own sporting experience of the flow is a slow motion action replay of 1 hour 8 minutes and 21 seconds running round a forest in northern Sweden in 1990. Quite a long time to be in “the zone”!
I was keen to meet Jenova because his work provides pointers as to how to increase the likelihood of the player reaching the “flow state”. One key issue is that the game needs to be able to adapt to the skill and ability of the player. I had been considering exactly the same issue from the direction of physical exertion.
So we talked and we ate and we discovered common issues and themes. Our desire to bring video games/ “ExerGames” to a wider audience and make them a richer experience was very much to the fore. Jenova impressed upon me more than ever to not loose sight of the fact that they are all fundamentally “Games”. I shared a variety of applications including rehabilitation therapy, all with the intention of making physical exertion more accessible to more people.
We parted, having both having learnt much form our encounter and very much intending to continue the conversation.