The Quest for the Perfect ExerGame

On Wednesday evening I attended a session of the Edinburgh Entrepreneurship Club. The speaker was Ewan McIntosh, an educational technology and social media pioneer with a very well read blog. He gave an very informative talk, pointing out that really social media technology itself should be boring, and that it is good, creative ideas and applications that are the interesting bit. Ewan works for Channel 4 and heads up the Scottish (also N.Ireland and N.England) branch of the 4iP startup fund for new social media projects.
I spoke to a varied and interesting bunch of people after the talk. One prominent feature of our conversations was how a large number of people “just don’t get social media”. Obviously there are conceptual issues to convey, but also is it perhaps only now that useful and relevant applications for the population at large are starting to emerge?
As 2008 draws to a close, I am reflecting on all my wide and varied ExerGaming experiences (post coming soon), but there is one nagging issue at the back of mind. When explaining “ExerGaming” to people, they just don’t seem to get beyond the “novelty factor”.
What excites me about ExerGaming is that it offers the potential to do things that could never be done before. No longer need there be a “one size fits all” approach to sport and physical activity. ExerGames can be designed to adapt to an individual player’s level of skill and ability. Furthermore, networked ExerGames enable players to overcome the constraints of physical location and seek out meaningful challenges and competitions across the globe.
Trying to help people “Get it” about ExerGaming is not easy. It requires a conceptual jump in thinking. In preparing for my review I have been tidying up files on my computer and game across a link to a video clip, which to me, totally “Gets it” in terms of doing new things with technology. Enjoy and let me know if it “Gets it” for you…