The Quest for the Perfect ExerGame

I have now had time to reflect on the workshop I attended at F.A.C.T. in Liverpool, UK at the beginning of the week. The speakers and participants were drawn from a wide cross section of discipline areas including arts, media, technology, social science, health promotion, health care, health science and computer science. There were many interesting and stimulating debates around both practical issues related to the medium of social media and the message in terms of “What is health?”

In terms of the medium, it soon became apparent that there are many barriers that need to be overcome on the health service side if social media is to be utilized effectively. In contrast, arts groups with a social remit are much smaller and more focused organizations that appear much more able to embrace social media.

Significant concern was expressed about “institutionalizing” social media for health purposes and the impact that this would have on its effectiveness. In some ways this represents the difference between prevention versus treatment and also health “monitoring” versus empowerment.

There was also recognition of the problem of the “digital divide” could be further exacerbated by use of social media, however I was a little surprised about the lack of concern about the emerging divide with “Generation Y” due to a lack of engagement on their terms.

Finally, it was encouraging to here some individuals from such a diverse set of backgrounds talking about health-related issues and there was a real sense that “health” in its broadest sense was not the sole responsibility of the health service.

“Liberty, Equality & Fraternity ” is the opening part of the title of my presentation today at the Health and Social Media Workshop today. I chose it to try and convey a sense of how I think ExerGames in the widest possible sense will come to revolutionize physical activity/exercise/sport.

Twenty minutes is not long when you are trying to convey the potential of game-based activities combined with social media to promote positive health behavior. Not only do I hope that I can get the audience excited about playing games, but also that I can find common ground in my quest to create engaging interactive experiences by having a dialogue around performance and interactive arts.

Perhaps I could get the discussion started by quoting Jane McGonigal

“Games are the ultimate happiness engine.”

Last week was pretty hectic and it didn’t help that I was recovering from having run a 1/2 marathon (more about that soon). Anyway, I mustered the energy to get my presentation ready for a workshop on Social Media and Health at the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (F.A.C.T.) in Liverpool, England. The sessions today were are interesting mix of theory and practice around the use of social media in arts engagement and participation. Many of the issues raised about the use of social media are similar to those concerning its use in the spheres of both health and education. There was a real sense that social media is seen by arts organizations as a way to reach out and engage with their audiences. I was struck by the thought that the perhaps relative size of the organizations operating in the arts field means that they are better placed to capitalize on the opportunities that social media affords. They are not too big and bureaucratic that it takes forever to do something, nor are they too small that they cannot sustain their efforts. I am very much looking forward to a full day of sessions tomorrow where the focus shifts to the use of social media to promote health.

How exactly do you define “ExerGaming”? This post has been a while coming in that it has taken me some to try and come up with a coherent answer. In the past I have tended to favor the term “Active Video Games” as being more descriptive of the phenomenon that I was researching. Having now broadened my interests, the simple concatenation of “Exercise” and “Gaming” (or “Game Play”) seems to me to sum things up clearly and succinctly.
However, when you consider that the term “Gaming” is in fact generally held to be taken from “Video Gaming” then it becomes harder to define what an Exergame is. Is it a video game that is controlled by body movement? What about electronic games that require exertion but don’t have a video display component?
I would like to propose an alternative approach to defining “ExerGaming” based on functional outcome rather than game play mechanics. In formulating this proposal, I recalled a while back when I completed the first qualification in training to be a ski instructor. Given that alpine skiing is an adventure sport we were taught that our primary consideration was the safety of our class and that second came the development of technique and our final consideration was fun such that the class members enjoyed themselves. However, the “secret” of being a good instructor was that each pupil experienced fun, had a chance to improve their technique and developed some safety awareness. Put simply the instructor planned technique and fun that order, but the pupils experienced fun, technique and safety in the opposite order.

Extending this functional approach to defining “ExerGaming”, health professionals etc. are concerned are intending to improve health by promoting exercise using a gaming medium.
From the individual player’s point of view, “ExerGaming” is an engaging and challenging game play activity which is facilitated by some physical exertion and is likely to be in some way good for their health.

So there you have it, except that this functional definition might now be considered too broad. For me the key is the phrase “engaging and challenging”. Carefully designed ExerGames have the potential to match an individual player’s skills and abilities no matter what they are – something which is not easy to do with conventional exercise and sporting activities.

Mobile ExerGame Tourality featured this evening on a prime time TV Gadget show. There are four different game modes and games are created online via a Google Maps based application and then uploaded to the community server for play. Using a location aware phone specific coordinates are “captured” and points accumulated. A mobile data connection is used to update players in realtime.

January is not quite at an end and already one of my predictions for 2009 has come to fruition!

I have just finished rather an intense period of grant proposal writing. Phew! In making the case for support, one of the issues that arose was the impact that it would have on Health Promotion research and practice. In essence the proposal was about developing a new model of health behavior that would lead to forms of health promotion intervention supported by mobile technology. The best acronym that I could come up with was a “C.A.T.” – Clever Application of Technology.
Now CATs come in all different shapes and sizes, some are domesticated and others are in the wild, but just how many Health Promotion CATs have you spotted? Okay, an informative and resourceful web presence is a good use of technology, but it is pretty much standard practice now. So I don’t think it would really count as a CAT.
I had a hunch that there are really not that many Health Promotion CATs out there so I decided to try and track some down. Once I finally managed to get hold of an electronic copy of the conference program form last year’s International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity’s (ISBNPA) annual conference, I got out my virtual binoculars and searched for anything to do with “technology”.
Sightings were scarce to say the least and I only managed to spot 5 CATs in the whole program of over 300 different research presentations! The thing is, 4 of them (of which one was my own CAT) constituted the symposium “Active Computer Games as a Tool to Promote Physical Activity Among Children”. The other remaining CAT that I caught sight of was on the use of GPS to map physical activity patterns in a rural New Zealand community.
So there you have it, only 5 CATs were spotted at last year’s ISBNPA conference and 4 of them were about ExerGaming! Whether you think of it as 4 out of 5 or 8 out of 10, it was a strong showing for ExerGaming CATs. But more significantly, if this is a barometer of the Health Promotion CAT population in general, it indicates that for the time being at least, they are still pretty rare creatures.

A recent magazine feature on the top 50 Fitness Gadgets ranging from electronic devices through to high tech clothing that would obviously help you on your way to any New Year’s resolutions to take some/more exercise and get fit/fitter, has got me thinking.
“What would my top fitness gadgets be?” After pondering the question on and off for some time, I decided that my choice of gadget(s) would have to do some extra that was that little bit special – some added feature or function that you couldn’t get any other way. As my thoughts turned to narrowing down my list, there was something I couldn’t just put my finger on. Then it came to me – what they were about was “Electronic Awareness Raising (EAR)”.
So in raising my awareness whilst exercising of my speed/distance and heart rate, one of my top fitness gadgets has to be an advanced sports watch (in my case a Garmin Forerunner 50).
My other choice of top fitness gadget goes to the Nintendo Wii Fit. Here’s the rub – it is not to do with increasing my fitness – but rather raising my awareness of when I am NOT exercising. Somehow that small, slightly irritating, anthropomorphic character that monitors your progress has got inside my head. I know it is only a computer program responding to when I do and don’t exercise. And I know that it knows that I know that it is only a program, but somehow I have become very aware of when I am NOT exercising and that I should do something about it!

As a new year dawns, and resolutions beckon, I trust that we can all make the best that we can of the opportunities afforded by ExerGames as a stepping-stone to starting and maintaining a physically active lifestyle.

If you are embarking on any new physical activity, remember to warm-up and cool-down and don’t over do it as unaccostomed exercise can cause muscle soreness.

At the start of 2009 my “Quest for the Perfect ExerGame” continues. I am definitely much further forward than I was at the beginning of last year, however there are still many more levels to progress through. May I wish you a Happy New Year 2009 and thank you for your continued interest.

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.