GamerSize Science-Quest for the Perfect ExerGame

Adrenaline or Epinephrine is a “fight or flight” hormone. Not only does it have a major role in stress reactions, but it is also well known to exercise physiologists. It has significant roles in enhancing the flow of blood to the working muscles and in mobilizing energy stores to support the increased metabolic demand.
In more general terms, the “fight or flight” response is characterized by a heightened level of arousal, a narrowing of attentional focus and an increase in levels of aggression.
Passing through cyber-space, I was somewhat surprised to come across a reference to a patent for a function to control video game play that mimics the above physiological response - a so called “adrenaline feature”. You can read all about in US Patent 6923717.
What it translates into, is that if you bump up the adrenaline level of your game character, then they will tend to act more aggressively, but with the downside that they will be more likely to overreact.
Since in ExerGaming, we are of course concerned with real people physically exerting themselves, we already have a built in “adrenaline feature”. Anybody wish to volunteer some examples of when you have “overreacted” in an ExerGame?

Thanks very much to everybody who took the time to vote for my entry in the the recent Handheld Learning awards. On this occasion it was not to be. Maybe next time…
However, only today have I received an invitation to writer a paper on the research for a new education technology journal!

Any visionaries out there? What will ExerGaming look like in just over 6 years time? Will it replace conventional sports and physical activity? Will it be everywhere or only in specialist facilities? Will it be predominantly mobile? Will it be any place and any time? Will it be super big machines or small wearable sensors? Will it be augmented reality or even virtual reality?

Personally, I tend to think it might be many of these things. It would be great if a group of people could just get out their mobile phone/personal digital assistant/well-being monitor and play an ExerGame right there in the moment. Perhaps even challenging other groups of people across the globe.

Whatever you dream of how ExerGaming will look like in 2015, drop me a comment or two please. I have an interview tomorrow with a reporter looking to do a feature on ExerGaming with a futuristic outlook.

I first conceived the idea of a “Personal Activity Platform” a few months back when thinking about how a player could move between different ExerGames and take a playing profile with them. In my case it would be something like “right arm is better than left so work him more on the left, pretty fit so crank up the intensity, rhythmic coordination is a bit off so don’t make music games too hard“.

After hearing a presentation which described the development of smart cards for use with arcade games I revisited the idea. Ideally, mobile phones would be the platform of choice. I then began to think how you could also tap into the potential supporting and motivating power of social networks.

What you end up with is some form of multifunction tool that helps motivate and track your daily physical activity and also facilitates the playing of different ExerGames.

I included this idea in my talk to the EU Platform last month and suggested that it ought to be considered alongside physical and social infrastructure initiatives to promote physical activity. Furthermore, it could be achieved in a relatively short period of time and for a lot less money too.

Clearly, the idea needs a lot more development, but I would like to ask for suggestions as to what features and functions you think should go to make up the “Personal Activity Platform“?