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Games That Raise the Heart Rate
The Rocky Mountain News is running an article by Kotaku's Brian Crecente entitled Fit to Play, about the effect that games with a workout component have on the health of the player. From the article: "...five years later and 100 pounds lighter, Jennsen is a video evangelist in the most 21st-century sense of the word, preaching the fat-melting, muscle-building power of video games to generations that have grown up holding joysticks."
So instead of going to the gym and/or buying expensive fitness machines, you buy some peripherial and some game(/other nondescript software) that basically does the same.
Same thing, only cheaper ?
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cheap, good for fitness and very relaxing altogether.
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Collecting resource games like Age of whatever etc will make you fatter. As will the online ones like Fable, NWN etc. I don't see much from online poker, unless your stupid enough to bet on it, then your just doing the nervous sweat.
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We just got into DDR this Christmas. Money is tight at the moment but the next scheduled luxury purchase is now a RedOctane dance mat, the soft $100 one. We have a cheaper one now and it is now ruining my score from false triggering (just sitting there with nobody on it, it fires) and not releasing the trigger correctly. (I'm on the verge of getting the easy AAA's in Light mode and starting to move up to Standard, but the pad makes that impossible.)
I think the key is to avoid the Education Game Trap (it's quite similar); the quickest way to a crappy "educational" game is to take the same-old, same-old and bolt it on to one of the Stardard Generic Game Frameworks. "Answer this math question to advance one space closer to the end." Woohoo, mommy can I please play "Advance The Squares"?
Similarly, I've seen people bolt a crappy racing game onto an exercise bike that in essense consisted of a line advancing forward that you had to stay ahead of, or lose. Woohoo, mommy can I please play "Finish The Boring Task In The Alloted Time"?
DDR isn't trying to make you exercise, but if you expect to play at the higher levels, you'll be sweating.
I'd also love to see a traditional car combat or 'kart' racing game that ran on a bike that you could turn, that used your pedaling as the acceleration with adjustable levels. See, the fun would be the cart game, the exercise the means to an end, instead of the explicit and boring goal.
I thought I didn't like to exercise. Turns out it was the boredom of doing laps that was killing me (semi-literally).
The real world works like this, too, after all, so this should hardly be a shock. Which is more fun, running a mile for no real reason, or a game of soccer, basketball, or water polo? Why do people insist that exercise has to be boring? That's really a relatively recent "innovation", you know. Maybe there's a reason that innovation has coincided with people dying due to lack of exercise?
Get a treadmil and only watch tv/play video games when you're on it.
Touching that damn metal edge is enough to kill an elderly person twice my size - I think it'll do the job.
What about games that just make your heartrate go up from shock or anticipation, such as Doom III or Counter-Strike?
Not what they're after, not really much of a cardio workout, but even so ...
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For an exercise bike to raise my heartrate into the fat burning zone for 10-15 minutes (considered the point when you actually start discarding miniscule amounts of stored fat) and sustain that for a reasonable amount of time... the game had better have real world high stakes. I just don't see it.
If you are genetically inclined to easy fat loss (easy for your heart to enter the fat burning zone), you may have some success with this. For the rest of us, it means getting off our asses and burning the calories through physical movement.
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We started as rank beginners and I'm still a long way from finishing Tsugaru on Heavy, let alone Extreme (I've got DDRMAX2, translate those terms as necessary and I'm assuming it's the same basic Tsugaru I'm thinking of; even so, you probably know what I mean.)
"Extreme" is the name of the 8th mix, where DDRMAX2 is 7th Mix. The difficulty after "heavy" is called "challenge" or "oni".
I only relatively recently noticed how often it is false-triggering during normal use, even on buttons that our feet are nowhere near.
If you put your foot on a back corner (Downleft or sometimes Downright) and it triggers Up, then you have the game set up for controllers rather than for dance pads. In Konamix, DDRMAX, and DDRMAX2, you can turn off "DANCE PLAY" in the options, but in DDR Extreme (U), you can't.
But at the moment, the Cadillac of soft mats will have to do.
I bought the Buick instead of the Cadillac, and I was happy. Buynshop.com has two BNS DX-Xtreme pads for what you'd pay for one RedOctane Ignition pad. They're roughly the same thing, although the BNS DX is a bit more slippery than the RO Ignition, so you'll have to play in bare feet instead of socks.
If you put your foot on a back corner (Downleft or sometimes Downright) and it triggers Up, then you have the game set up for controllers rather than for dance pads. In Konamix, DDRMAX, and DDRMAX2, you can turn off "DANCE PLAY" in the options, but in DDR Extreme (U), you can't.
:-) )
Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, I would have caught that and that isn't it. It false-triggers sometimes even when no-one is on the mat at all. It is pretty clearly a mat failure.
(In fact, I noticed almost immediately that the buttons weren't laid out physically like they are on the controller, which I found strange. I presume there are historical reasons for that.)
Also thanks for the link. You may find this interesting: I am in the market for exactly one pad. My wife has told me, flat out, that she prefers not knowing how much better at it I am than she is. Given some of our other experiences with trying to game with each other, she is probably right. (Amongst the gaming hardcore, I'd rank pretty low. But that's still my category, whereas my wife is in the "owned a Nintendo but didn't play with it obsessively" category; competent, but in head to head with about anything I come out pretty reliably on top, and she's smart enough to know when I've thrown it so that's no option either. I would guess a lot of Slashdotters know what I mean... and no stereotype posts, please
Personally I got myself some Vortz pads. They are like the Red Octane/BNS ones with the 1 inch thick foam but sell for around 2 for $60 on ebay.
I have had them for 6 months and one of them finally ended up dieing. I had modified both to have more foam under the arrows to keep them working longer fairly early in owning them. I started out pretty heavy (330) so that was extra wear on the pads too, but I am now down to 230 so the next set of pads I get should hopefully last longer.
The one nice thing about having 2 pads is the ability to play doubles mode. It is a different experience than singles mode. Trying to go from the left arrow of the left pad to the right arrow of the right pad and everything in between is a different workout.
I can also get AA on some Heavy songs as well, though I end up getting tired on them much easier than Standard mode. I think my personal best accomplishment is finishing Break Down with a B.
In the end it is up to you what you get, but if you can swing it I recommend 2 pads so you can play doubles mode.
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Um, carry on.
I'll tell you, this is a place I would attend daily. DDR is great fun - I've gotten so into it that I built my own studio, but doing it alone isn't as much fun as I'd imagine a health club setting.
I am in the market for exactly one pad. My wife has told me, flat out, that she prefers not knowing how much better at it I am than she is.
Then buy two pads and play the game in 8-panel mode, with the pads duct-taped together in the middle to form a hinge. Doesn't this chart look more interesting than this chart? Even if you don't want to try double, you can still get a single BNS pad for $60 shipped.
I love playing DDR (actually StepMania) for hours at a time though.
Have you tried the so-called East Germany simfile collection?
http://ps2.ign.com/articles/567/567209p1.html
Someone should harness the aerobic power of these dance mats, and produce an MMORPG that has an ACTUAL level treadmill, where you level up your character by running on the spot. The next generation of geeks will still live in their parent's basement, but they will all be BUFF AS FUCK!
I also would like to get my wife to DDR more -- I love it, but it takes practice and she gets frustrated. I don't know a geek that doesn't want to get his wife to play video games with him, so hats off to you. The suggestion of trying to lure her into doubles play is a pretty good idea though. Once you can both do Basic tracks together maybe you'll be encouraged to head down to the arcade and amuse the 13 yr olds on the real platform. Once I had enough home practice, I found playing on the metal stage to be just that much more rewarding.
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