The Quest for the Perfect ExerGame

If you are counting down to midnight or wondering why you woke up a 1 second early today (presuming that you are reading this tomorrow), a “leap second” will be/has been added at 00:00 GMT. This is because the Earth’s spin is slowing down and therefore our clocks need to be adjusted to keep them in sync with the Earth’s rotation. You can read more about this problem and how you can help to keep the planet SPINNING in a previous post.

With new developments taking place in the field of ExerGames all the time, it is hard to make any concrete predictions at this time. However, continuing my “Quest for the Perfect ExerGame” in 2009, I will be keeping a particular eye out for developments in three specific areas.

The first area I will be watching is “Networked ExerGames”. Networking ExerGames will further increase their appeal. If a critical mass of players is generated (and that will be crucial)  then you will be able to break free from the constraints of physical location and engage in meaningful challenges and competitions with players of similar ability, no matter where they are. Also, there is the possibility of a social channel wrapper around one or more networked games, team competitions and challenges.

The second area to watch is “Mobile ExerGames”. Already there are some exciting developments in this area including both location-based games and also “Mixed-reality ExerGames” which combine real and virtual worlds (e.g. pedometer step count linked to online game play time).

The third and final area I will be keeping an eye out for is “Home-brew ExerGames”. By this I mean enthusiasts with a soldering iron, a few electronic components and some programing skills constructing their own ExerGames. There are already quite a few interesting ideas with alternative takes on balance boards and the like. Given the low-cost of wireless micro-controllers and sensors, I expect more innovative and exciting developments in 2009.

The phone call from the European Commission was an invitation to come and speak at the EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. I couldn’t make the first suggested date as I would be in Vienna for the ED-MEDIA 2008 World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications. On route to Vienna I managed to take in some of the London Hide and Seek Festivaland experience some mobile location (GPS) games and also an interactive game that was a combination of “Eye Spy” and a Treasure Hunt based on SMS texts. ED-MEDIA 2008 was an enlightening experience and I learnt a lot about using social networking tools in education (and also got a few ideas about using them in ExerGaming). Vienna was a beautiful city to spend a few days holiday and the icing on the cake (literally – it was Vienna) was my poster winning an award and subsequently was a Finalist in the 2008 Handheld Learning Awards.

It was then back to work for a few weeks, despite having only recently finished off one academic year, the next would be starting two weeks earlier due to changes in the teaching schedule. As I was turning my attention to my presentation for the EU Platform, I received a further request to speak at the “Major Moves 2008” conference which forms part of the major UK Leisure Industry Week Trade show.

I couldn’t not take in the Edinburgh Interactive Festival on my doorstep. It provided a wide range of interesting experiences and a window on the wider video games industry in the UK. A holiday in the Black Forest for a family wedding in August was my last chance to pause for breath before a busy Autumn schedule.

Speaking at the EU Platform was a real honour and certainly an experience to remember. Needless to say I made a good few contacts and had several fruitful conversations. I will be watching future developments at the platform with interest. You can view my presentation and read a transcript to see how I tried to sum up ExerGaming and present a vision for the future of a virtual exercise environment  which I have termed a “Personal Activity Platform” which supports and complements physical infrastructure and services.

The “Major Moves” conference was really exciting and engaging. There was a wide variety of health promotion professionals from across the country there to hear about innovative ways to use technology to promote health. I definitely think that the conference was the start of something new in UK health promotion and the impact will be felt for years to come. The conference was a great chance to touch base with Biray Alsac whom I had met physically and Richard Coshott whom I had only met virtually up to that point. I also made a good few contacts and was actually quite surprised as to the range of ExerGame type products and activities already going on in the UK and indeed in Europe. Most likely because a large proportion of the leisure provision is based in the public sector, ExerGaming type activities don’t have such a high profile.

The year drew to a close with several interviews for various magazine articles and my thoughts started to turn towards my plans for the next. At this stage it is a bit of an unknown, but there are some interesting results on psychological aspects of ExerGaming play, an interdisciplinary research proposal on a next generation ExerGame and some commercial engagements.

In summary: I have moved up several levels on my “Quest for the Perfect ExerGame”, but there a still plenty more to go.

Last night I experienced my first “ExerGame Party” when I finally managed to get some thirty-something friends together with a selection of ExerGames. Obviously there is a great social aspect to ExerGames, but it is not something I have yet researched as it is hard to control in an experimental situation. Anyway, last night was a great fun and a very enjoyable experience. We tended to play more balance, skill and coordination games rather than out and out aerobic ones, although there were a few intense boxing matches! Having a random shuffle of music playing the background added interest with the lyrics of “I’m Still Standing” by Elton John being suitably apt for a particularly fast and furious segment of game play. On balance I reckon slightly more calories were consumed than expended. However at the end of the night there was a definite sense of euphoria (a.k.a “Feel Better Effect”).

Since it is almost holiday time, here is an interesting seasonal story. It follows on nicely from my Definition of ExerGaming Part 1. In order to both enhance their green credentials and save money, children at a school in the south of Scotland are using pedal power to light up their school’s Christmas tree. The aim of the “game” therefore is to try and keep the lights shining by taking it in turns to sit on the exercise bike and pedal. The teacher behind it all built a project around it and the pupils learnt about the physics of electricity generation, the efficiency and cost of production (mathematics) and also the reduced environmental impact (ecology). You can read the story and watch a video clip here.
It is just a pity that the pupils didn’t also learn about the expending of calories in humans and the health benefits of regular exercise. So what about a self (human) powered ExerGame?

The prelude to the start of 2008 was a very inspiring and informative lecture given by Drs Steve Cole and Charlyn Belluzo of HopeLab. The majority of their presentation focused on the development and evaluation of the video game Re-Mission for teens and young adults with cancer. What really impressed me was the theme running throughout that technology can open up new ways of doing things, if only we would care to imagine them and dare to try them. Despite that, judging by the questions at the end, it was evident that the majority of the relatively small audience “just didn’t get it”.

At the start of January 2008, the only definite date on the calendar was an ExerGaming Symposium and the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity’s (ISBNPA) annual conference in Banff, Alberta towards the end of May. As I began to make travel arrangements, the call came out for the Games for Health conference in Baltimore, Maryland at the beginning of May. Perhaps I could combine the two? But what would I do for the 12 days between, apart from travel west? If I wanted to sit on a beach I would have to head south! So the idea of a putting together a series of research visits began to take shape and I set about applying for funding.

February seemed to pass by fairly quickly, helped along by my training for a half-marathon. At the same time a project concerning rehabilitation exercises using the Wii Tennis game was coming to the end. Also, if I was going to be away for most of May, then I had to get to work on adjusting my teaching schedule. Towards the end of February, I heard about the possibility of a preview copy of the forthcoming Wii Balance Board.

March came round and the conference sessions and funding for May were all confirmed. Now I had the small matter of sorting all the bookings and travel arrangements, finishing the term’s teaching, planning the next and running a half-marathon (new pb a shade under 99 minutes!). A good feature in the Animation World magazine detailing my research and previewing the forthcoming Games for Health Conference was a boost.

Time for a few days off at the beginning of April. Travel arrangements were in hand, but no sign of the Balance Board. Nothing for it but to reserve a couple at a local out of town toy store. My final module with our graduating students was one on health promotion and physical activity. I couldn’t let them leave without experiencing a practical session in the form of an “ExerGaming Arcade”! I “practiced” my conference presentations on the students and pitched their last practical class as a once in a lifetime opportunity. The arcade was all set up the day before, minus the Balance Boards. The day of the European launch dawned and as the store opened at 9 am I collected two broads and headed into work. At 10:40 am we started the “ExerGaming Arcade Experiment” and began collecting data!

The beginning of May kind of crept up on me with a few last details to sort out before I left for the States. It was kind of warm even at 9 pm when I arrived in Baltimore. Indeed, I spent the next few weeks taking a case load of warm clothes across America which I never wore! I even made to the beach in Ventura and a swim in the Pacific. The Games for Health conference was a great experience and my research was well received. I made some great contacts and was able to share a good few ideas.

Then it was off via a bustling Washington to Tampa, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Redlands. Along the way I met a great bunch of interesting and varied people, all with their own particular angle on ExerGaming. I couldn’t begin to describe it all in this post, so you will have to read all about it here. What I can say is that the people whom I met all “got it”. But as we talked, it quickly became apparent that current ExerGames were barely scraping the surface of what was possible when you dared to dream about new ways of doing things.

It was an early start for the flight from Los Angeles to Calgary and I had a warm jumper in my carry-on just in case. We were barely in the air when the pilot told us that it was 6 degrees in Calgary. Chatting later on, a steward informed me that they had only stopped skiing in the Banff area the week before! I arrived at the conference hotel to be greeted by a dramatic vista and fresh snow on the mountains! I soon met up with my fellow symposium presenters and we finalized the details of our session. It was well received although there was some healthy skepticism about what was so special about ExerGaming other than a “novelty factor”? Clearly we have our work cut out. But perhaps there is a bigger issue in the way technology is shaping and changing human behavior?

I had a few days to “chill out” (literally!) in Banff before heading back to Scotland. It was back to my desk with a jolt! Most of June was spent marking exams and attending exam boards. I also had to start thinking about my classes for the fall as my institution was going to be changing the term dates and teaching periods. It was therefore welcome relief when somebody phoned me from the European Commission…to be continued…

In summary: Care to Imagine and Dare to Try what might be possible with “ExerGames”.