Difference between revisions of "Fitness Game"

Revision as of 03:26, 17 March 2018

A man playing a fitness game.

Fitness Game is a term that is referred to the type of video game that specifically demands players to execute physical exercise as a part of the gameplay. Although notable companies like Nintendo and Konami have introduced the concept of fitness game in 1980's-1990's, the cost for the supporting technology was expensive and its technological capability was still behind to fully grab consumers' attention. However, the introduction of motion control by Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox significantly increased both the features and the efficiency of fitness game, thus became more attention-grabbing and more consumers became willing to get the benefit of exercising by playing fitness game. Some prominent examples of the motion control fitness game include Wii Sports Club^[1], Just Dance^[2], and Nike+ Kinect Training^[3]. Furthermore, the launch of wearable like Fitbit^[4] and Apple Watch^[5] initiated another significant development to the fitness game industry because it can track heartbeat and therefore creates a more interactive and efficient experience for the players; the most prominent example of fitness game that utilizes wearables would be Exantra World^[6]. Seemingly healthy and enjoyable to play, many fitness games have been subjected to ethical issues such as the tracking of one's health information and the credibility of physical exercises.

Before 21st century

Before 21st century, technology was not as advanced as how it is now. However, there were couple notable products that helped opening the field of fitness game. Therefore, not every fitness game was successful. But they still illustrate the foundational stage of the development of fitness game.

Life Fitness Exertainment System

A woman exercising on the Life Fitness Exertainment System.

The Life Fitness Exertainment System is an exercise bike made by a collaboration of Nintendo and Life Fitnesss, a manufacturer of exercise equipment. It was released in the US in 1990's and offered compatibility with the Super Nintendo console. Designed to allow the player to exercise while playing video games, Life Fitness Exertainment System shows similarity with Wii Fit, only the system was produced over a decade earlier. A few games were designed to be used with the Exertainment bike, like Speed Racer in My Most Dangerous Adventures^[7] and Exertainment Mountain Bike Rally^[8]. Although the idea behind this product was straightforward, there were multiple issues that ultimately marked the failure of this project. The first issue was that the model itself was way more expensive than a regular exercise bike; additional electronics that added the gaming feature to the bike turned out to be too costly and therefore was inefficient for the massive production. Also, the model was not durable and often left broken; durability issue is one of the most important for any fitness equipment and thus gave this model a negative view. Lastly, users often found operating the software intimidating not only it lacked instructions on how to utilize the product but users also felt uncomfortable on the fact that they have to master the software even before exercising.

Dance Dance Revolution

Two men playing Dance Dance Revolution on the dancing stage.

Dance Dance Revolution, produced by a Japanese entertainment and gaming company called Konami in 1998, is a music video game series that pioneered the rhythmical dancing game. For the appropriate play, players stand on a dance platform and step on the colored arrows accordingly to the music and visual cues. Once the round is finished, players are judged by how well they time their dance to the patterns presented via game screen and are allowed to choose more music to play to it if they receive a passing score. Dance Dance Revolution has been given much critical acclaim for its originality and stamina in the video game market. There have been numerous arcade-based launches across 20 countries and hundreds of home video game console releases; ultimately, Dance Dance Revolution has promoted a music library of original songs produced by Konami's artists and set of licensed music from many different genres while prompting inspiration for similar musical games.

After 21st century

Beginning from 21st century, especially during 2010's, is when the field of fitness game made a dramatic development due to a simultaneous technological advancement. Throughout the 21st century, many technological developments were made and became a major part of the newest fitness game; such developments include motion control and wearables.

Nintendo's Wii

Wii Console.

Released in November 2012 by Nintendo^[9], the Wii U is the first eighth-generation video game console presented in the video game market^[10]. The Wii U is also the first video game console to introduce the concept of motion control, a technological capability to accurately depict player's physical motion and encrypt such motion into the gaming interface; this feature greatly enhanced the efficiency of fitness game because it can track the exact motion, thus creating a more interactive gaming interface for the players while getting a more efficient and rigorous exercises. Below is the list of Wii games that utilize motion control.

Smartphone and Wearables, and Exantra World

A dramatic technological development of the smartphone and the wearable has been giving a significant influence to the field of fitness game; unlike other gaming consoles/equipments, smartphone and wearables show a great portability and great technological features, thus allowing users to have a more efficient exercise while experiencing high-end technological gaming interface. Although there are numerous fitness app that utilize both smartphone and wearable technology for people to have a better workout experience, there never has been a fitness game that incorporated both technology. However, Exantra World is close to fulfill its conditions for an official launch.

Exantra World illustration.

Exantra World is the first Online Role-Playing fitness app (iOS) that allows players to build their own avatar, so-called Titan, and prompts users to strengthen their Titans by statistically increasing their abilities with virtual points. Once their Titans get strong enough, users can then control them to compete with other Titans. What makes Exantra World highly advanced in technology is its simultaneous utilization of wearable technology and a smartphone; when the user begins to exercise, wearable measures the increase in user's heart rate, analyzes the heat-rate intensity, and sends that data to the game; then the game converts that data into virtual points which the user can later spend those points to develop his or her own Titan and play the role-playing game. Exantra World is currently undergoing a public fundraising via Kickstarter.com and have successfully raised $18,280^[11] and met its initial goal of $15,000 pledged.

Ethical Concerns

One of the greatest concerns facing fitness game is that of health information privacy and its utilization. As wearables are actively playing a role in fitness game, many aspects of fitness game changed largely due to wearables' technological capabilities of easily collecting user's health data, transmitting such data to other devices, and utilizing such data to acquire further information about player's health. Another prominent ethical issue regarding the fitness game is the credibility of workout quality.

Health Information and its utilization

Initially, users played fitness game during late 1990's and throughout 2000's did not have an issue with the sharing of health information as well as its utilization. However, as technological development has reached to the point where fitness games are beginning to incorporate modern technology, sharing and using user's health information became one of the major ethical issue of the fitness game. For example, in case of Exantra World, the player is continuously exposed to the game interface and the wearable while he or she is playing the game; once the wearable have accumulated enough health information about the player, the wearable will then transmit that information to the smartphone device that would convert the player's health information into a virtual points. Example above illustrates the circumstance in which player's health information could be exposed to the entire gaming interface and therefore is not secured. Possible consequences of this would be publicizing one's health information, a data that can be sensitive to a certain user.

Credibility of Workouts

This issue is not as major compared to the issue of unsecured health information, but it fundamentally questions the efficiency of many fitness games out at the market. In real life, a personal trainer has the personal trainer certification, like American Council on Exercise (ACE)^[12] or National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)^[13] to certify that he or she is giving a set of credible and efficient exercises that are personally suited to the client. However, the fitness game does not seem to be the case; there is no certification that give credibility to the type of exercise that the player can do via fitness game. In other words, there is no guarantee that the type of exercises that a player can do through the fitness game is going to be beneficial. Considering the condition that most of the fitness game prompts user to execute cardiovascular exercise, this issue may not be as serious as how this issue is presented in this page. However, games like Exantra World demand users to execute weightlifting exercise and thus the quality of workout presented by the fitness game should be reconsidered. For doing so, users will put more time considering about the efficiency of fitness game in the first place instead of jumping into the game right away and playing the contents.

References

1. ↑ "Nintendo Webiste" https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/23dwBGv7QCFrP08BKcqDpsq-6hxvaaTB
2. ↑ "Just Dance Ubisoft Website"https://just-dance.ubisoft.com/en-us/home/
3. ↑ "Nike+ Kinect Training Demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoM_MNZ5pzU
4. ↑ "Fitbit Wesbite"https://www.fitbit.com/home
5. ↑ "Apple Watch Website"https://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-3/?afid=p238%7Cs2QbmM6cp-dc_mtid_1870765e38482_pcrid_224100368864_&cid=aos-us-kwgo-watch--slid--product-
6. ↑ "Exantra World Website"https://www.exantraworld.com/
7. ↑ "Nintendo Wikia of Speed Racer in My Most Dangerous Adventures"http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Speed_Racer_in_My_Most_Dangerous_Adventures
8. ↑ "Nintendo Wikia of Exertainment Mountain Bike Rally"http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Exertainment_Mountain_Bike_Rally
9. ↑ "Wii U Confirmed Release Date"http://metro.co.uk/2012/01/26/wii-u-confirmed-for-europe-this-year-297126/
10. ↑ "Article about eighth-generation console"http://www.businessinsider.com/nintendos-project-cafe-will-gamers-feel-the-buzz-2011-5
11. ↑ "Kickstarter Website for Exantra World"https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/624726783/exantra-world-fitness-rpg-role-playing-game
12. ↑ "ACE Website"https://www.acefitness.org/fitness-certifications/personal-trainer-certification/default.aspx?utm_campaign=Banner_Ads&utm_content=PT_Career_Guide_160x600#personal-trainer-marketing-download&utm_source=Rakuten&utm_medium=4&ranMID=42334&ranEAID=nuU3r0LI7IY&ranSiteID=nuU3r0LI7IY-z4ahl3I7Oi5OJxyKDUbk1g
13. ↑ "NASM Website"https://www.nasm.org/become-a-personal-trainer?utm_source=cj&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=Bolt+Fitness&utm_content=7356170