The Quest for the Perfect ExerGame

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.