The Quest for the Perfect ExerGame

I don’t watch that much TV, but last night I caught an episode of “New Tricks” on BBC1. Basically the show centers around a bunch of semi-retired detectives doing some good old fashioned detective work to solve “cold” cases. In order to strike up a conversation with a potential witness, one of the detectives picks up a Wiimote and joins in a shot ‘em up game. He gets right into the game and actually ends up outplaying the witness. Having earned a degree of respect, the witness is forthcoming with vital new information.

Fast forward to the end of the show when the case is solved and it is time for a small celebration. But where is the said detective? Well now he is giving his all on the arcade version of the game! So there you have it, grey gaming on mainstream TV!

Analogue no more, the digital revolution is supposed to herald a new entertainment era with thousands of music tracks no more than a click away. At least that is what I thought until I heard Margaret Robertson’s very entertaining and informative presentation last Monday at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival. The subject matter was her 10 best games of the previous year, three of which happened to be mobile iPod games.

First up was the Nike+ iPod that becomes a coach, personal trainer and all round training companion. The shoe insert senses motion communicates the movement to your iPod which calculates workout data and can upload it to the web. Margaret was full of praise for the product and how it helps motivate her to exercise.

When I spoke to her afterwards, I said that I was heartened by her enthusiasm and whilst it wasn’t a game, it wasn’t that far removed from an “ExerGame”. She was quick to correct me that as far as she was concerned it was a game, but then I haven’t “played” it. But you will see from her  article ”How gaming is running with sport“ that she considers the online challenge and leader board ranking to be a game/competition. 

takes something I hate (running) and turns it into something I love (gaming)

Second up was “Song Summoner”, an iPod game that customizes the game play characters and their powers according to the tracks you listen to.

The final game was “Phase:” aka Guitar Hero meets iPod. Again the vital ingredient that affects game play are the tracks you listen to.

I think you can begin to see where this is heading…………..

Now here is the iPodder’s Dilemma: The choice of track critically affects the various game plays. So a particularly high scoring track might be one of the “cheesiest / heaviest / smouchiest / funkiest / grooveyist / uncoolest” (delete as appropriate) – or not as the case may be. Suddenly the choice of music itself becomes a game. So herein lies the dilemma. Coming soon to a gym near you…

Note: If you choose to exercise whilst using earphones to listen to music, please be aware of your surroundings.

I heard a short news item on the radio on the way home from work regarding a new edition of an english dictionary and the additional “new” words that were included in it. I went to the companion website but a search on “ExerGame” turned up a blank. I then tried an other dictionary site without success until I stumbled on this “Exergame – Word of the Week” 11 December 2007. I know I am a bit behind on this one, but I thought you might like to know that its official!

The second day of the Edinburgh Interactive Festival Conference started with Eyjolfur Guomundsson giving a fascinating insight into the futuristic world of Eve. Both the graphics and the number of subscribers to the game were staggering. Out of the complex game play environment has emerged a fully functioning economy and structures of government.

Next up was a panel on MMOs which gave some useful insight into issues of hardware, software, management, user interface design and authenticity.

Magnus Nilsson then presented the platform offered by Wayfinder for mobile GPS-based games. Slowly, but surely, many of the hardware and network issues are beginning to be resolved.

The main part of the conference closed with an inspirational, whirlwind of a session, by Scott Foe on the “Reset Generation”. He basically outlined the development of mobile casual games and how you ensure that you meet the expectations of the “Reset Generation” who have grown up with computer games.

In the afternoon there was an academic symposium. Richard Bartle gave an informed reality check on both Video Game Design education and Research in the UK. I then left skipped a couple of talks to see what was new in the world of EyeToy. You can see my exploits in my post about cheerleading.

On my return to the symposium, Gianna Cassidy gave an overview of music in games and the psychology behind it. The final round table of the day focused mostly on the educational aspects of game design.

I have just been in a demonstration session of a couple of forthcoming Sony Playstation 2 EyeToy games. They use color tracking of real world objects to play the game. One is “Hero”, an adventure game which involves fighting with a green foam sword. The other is “Pom Pom Party” which requires you to wave pink and green pompoms around to play the game. Since nobody else in the audience wanted to have a go, I stepped up to the challenge. Following on from my ski-jumping exploits, I have now fulfilled another lifetime ambition…

The conference opened with a presentation by Chris Deering on the opportunities in the new digital age. Two issues of particular relevance to “ExerGaming” were the upward trend in games that are sociable and the wireless connectivity (in particular 3G in Europe) for ubiquitous “anywhere” game play.

Next up was Sean Dromgoole who does market research into video games through a large European consumer panel. Interestingly, ownership of the Wii console is particularly high in the 35-44 age group, equally distributed between the sexes.

Then it was the turn of Rod Cousens to give the low down in the British Games Industry. If I understood him correctly, he was saying that real creative talent in games development is quite scare and needs to be nurtured and developed.

The lead up to lunch was a truly inspirational session by Graham Brown-Martin and Derek Robertson on “Games for Education”. I have heard Derek speak on a few occasions and he also has some new inspiring story to tell. The first was of six year old children playing Nintendogs in class amongst other things to develop arithmetic skills as they bought and sold pet care services. The children went on to achieve levels of numeracy skills far in excess of those through traditional methods. The second was transition students (primary to secondary school) using Guitar Hero as a way into managing their own rock band and doing creative writing (band biographies), geography (planning of a European Tour) and art and design (band merchandizing).

After lunch Margaret Robertson gave a run through of her 10 most important games of the last year. This was particularly insightful and was very heartening to hear a devoted gamer get excited about a “game” that helps you to exercise! It needs a whole post of its own to cover it – so watch out.

Joh Radoff then gave an interesting perspective of game play over time based on his consumer panel based in the US. Usage statistics for Grand Theft Auto IV showed a huge spike on release and then an exponential drop off. The contrasted starkly with some more social games which had a much smaller spike on release but then continued to show an increase in usage overtime. This is exciting in that it emphasizes the importance of the social aspect of games. It also provides a counter argument to the objection “What happens when the novelty of ExerGames wears off?” Clearly, there is an awful lot more to ExerGames than just a novelty factor, but we must not be complacent.

Next up was a panel on Alternate Reality Games. I had experienced a bit of this at the Hide and Seek Festival 2008. Basically it is early days and things are fairly experimental at the moment. What was clear was the need for a strong narrative on which the whole game hangs.

Kevin Williams then gave a great overview of the whole arcade industry and how a lot of new “ExerGaming” technologies and developments are coming through the arcade industry. These include new more sensitive camera-based motion detection system and immersive wrap-around visual displays. Then there are smart card systems to hold player profile information and preferences to permit movement between games and facilitate payment. Finally there is the networking of arcade games to provide a platform for tournaments.

The day finished by Kevin Higgins giving an overview of payment systems across the globe and how incredibly complex and varied they all are.

Overall, what I took from the day was that there is an awful lot more to video game development that writing code. There is however a real opportunity for “ExerGames” as the video game industry is seeking to reach new players with new types of games.

This afternoon I had a leisurely look round the opening session of the Edinburgh Interactive Festival. It was a chance to try out some of the games before the conference starts in earnest tomorrow. There were a wide variety of genres of games on display including an ExerGame. What seemed at first very out of place was a cookery demonstration, particular as the appetizing smell was one of the first things that caught your attention as you entered the hall!! On closer inspection I realized it was an interactive demonstration of Cooking Guide for the Nintendo DS, part of the “Touch ! Generations” series!

One demonstration game that caught my eye was Sprog by Fishbowl Interactive. It basically involves moving side-to-side with the odd jump on a treadmill to either avoid or collect objects. You could play it either with a joypad or a dance mat. Needless to say I opted for the latter. Not having a problem with my left and rights, it was fairly straightforward at first until it went into “mirror” mode. I had an interesting discussion with one of the developers centering around the both the possibilities and the limitations of the dance mat as a games controller. Clearly the game has a lot of potential and offers an exciting way to explore step-based ExerGaming.

I gather that there is a large sporting event taking place in Beijing, China over the next couple of weeks…Back in June I was interviewed by a journalist for an “Olympics Special Issue” of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s magazine. I was asked about the role “ExerGames” might play in sport and in particular how they might help athletes.

Having seen a video of the USA Olympic Bobsleigh team training on a simulation that was an inch perfect representation of the track (literally as it was based on the CAD design measurements), ExerGames are never going to compete with technical simulations. However I did suggest that they could be used for psychological training of athletes. It would allow them to experience a number of different scenarios in order to increase their resilience and develop coping strategies in response to provocative events e.g. controversial refereeing decision, hostile crowd, change of tactics.

The above point didn’t make it into the article, but rather there is an excellent overview (with more of a UK slant) of the field of ExerGames and where it is likely to be heading in the future. It is a good read and is available online here. Just in case you don’t quite make it to the end, here is my closing quote:

We could see worldwide competitions with grassroots participation because you don’t need multi-million pound facilities or lots of staff. A networked sporting competition would be accessible to anyone with a console and an Internet connection.

Which came first the chicken or the egg? Or in the case of Warner Bros cartoons, the animation or the music? Following on from the silent movies of old, I would have said it was the action, but I would be wrong. In fact a lot of the music was written and performed by Raymond Scott in the 1930’s prior to it being used to accompany cartoons from the 1940s onwards. More recently Scott’s music has been painstaking transcribed by Stu Brown and others for the Raymond Scott Project and was performed a couple of nights ago at the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival.

It was an electric performance, literally, as at one stage the percussionist Stu Brown was playing a piece using an some sort of oscillating synthesizer hooked up to a typewriter! Not only was the performance hand clapping and foot stomping inducing, the sheer energy of “Powerhouse” made me feel like getting out of my seat and running up and down.

On the way home from the gig I couldn’t help but wonder if those “Looney Tunes” were ultimately influential in video games. I’m no musicologist, but the soundtracks of games from the 80’s like “Maniac Miner” spring to mind. So if the right kind of music can have such a “Get up and Go” feel to it, what about an “ExerGame” based on a cartoon capers style chase sequence?