Dance Dance Revolution Exercise Study

krf writes "Gamasutra reports that researchers in West Virgina are doing a study on using DDR to fight childhood obesity." From the article: "The study, which is currently budgeted at $60,000, provides each of the selected 85 child participants with a game system, copy of the game, and dance pad."

Comments

Interesting Concept

[kyle90]

It's too bad though, that kids have to be enticed with video games in order to become active. Just go outside! It's like a video game, except with better graphics (and when you die, you really die).

Re:Interesting Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

(and when you die, you really die)

And that's a good thing? Besides; the story sucks, the gameplay is boring and repeditive, and the massively-multiplayer version is filled with griefers.

Re:Interesting Concept

[Temporal]

I play DDR and bike (outside!) regularly. DDR is way more fun.

Re:Interesting Concept

[cgenman]

Kids have to be enticed with activities to become active. "Just go outside" was never about just going outside. It was about going down to the lake, building forts, catching frogs, seeing how far you could throw broken glass, spitting on passing cars, etc. But now "outside" is dangerous. "The lake is toxic." "The glass is dangerous." "That dirt will make you sick." "The drivers are going to run you over."

We've raised a generation of kids terrified of going outside. Of course they don't know what to do when out there: nothing is safe. They don't go outside because there is nothing they can do out there.

Ironically, dancing has also gotten a bad name in the past 20 years. While 100 years ago it was common to send your kids off to dance class, now dancing generally means drugs and hedonism and, well, fun things to protect your kids from.

Re:Interesting Concept

[nunchux]

"Going outside" isn't always an option. It's been twelve years since I was a pre-teen, but I remember well growing up in a pretty typical suburban housing development. There was no nature to explore, only endless fenced-off bacyards. For that matter there was no open space to gather on to play football or soccer (the yards were also very small, the best we could do was play basketball on the driveway.) If you wanted to play a sport other than driveway basketball you had to do it at school or join a regulated soccer or softball league. We weren't allowed to ride bikes much further than a friend's house two or three streets over because we were surrounded by heavily trafficked streets (double or triple lanes with cars whizzing by at 45 mph.) The development had a pool and tennis courts, but minors had to be accompanied by an adult to use them.

The "Leave it to Beaver" days are over and for kids in urban and heavily congested suburban areas "playing outside" isn't always an option. The popularity of video games isn't necessarily a cause of this-- I see it as a side effect instead. And if kids are going to while away the after school hours gathered around the Playstation, it would be nice if they got some exercise doing it.

Re:McDonalds

[ZosX]

Perhaps you american guys should focus on eating less garbage like McDonalds...

I know this was modded as a troll (and it really is), but troll or not, it is true. Americans are some of the fattest people on the planet. Just go to a Walmart and take a rough percentage. Around here in fatland Pittsburgh, I usually average about 40-50% of people being overweight. Convieniently for them the local Walmarts all have McDonalds so they can fatten up after buying cheap crap that was made in china all the while being surrounded by the american flag. Remember, the Walmart logo is a bastardization of the flag with the red, white, and blue and the stars. Isn't the free market grand?

For the record, something like 1 in 5 or 2 in 5 kids are obese in the United States. Don't have the actual statistic, but it is somewhere between 20 and 25% if not worse already. The generations seem to increase in fat percentages.

Also, I used to be fat myself. I weight about 170 lbs on a good day and when I graduated high school I weighed 250 lbs. It took a good year to lose the weight, but after I did, I swore off ever eating at places like McDonalds. I'm now vegetarian (can't give up cheese), and I am probably 100x healthier than I would have been had I stayed with the heart attack diet.

You are what you eat.

Re:Greedy pigs.

[Temporal]

Dude... That's the whole point of capitalism. It's working as designed.

Are you concerned about the physical welfare of children? How much money have you spent trying to improve it?

Re:Pointless.

[Temporal]

The problem is not figuring out what the kids need to do. They need to exercise. The problem is figuring out how to make them do it. Most exercise is boring, therefore kids don't do it. DDR is fun. Is it fun enough that your obese kid will actually play it enough to lose weight? Let's find out!

Re:McDonalds

[rbarreira]

It wasn't intended as a troll, it was intended as advice. Unless you want your children to be more and more unhealthy, you should put McDonalds where it deserves to be...

Re:DDR, Not Just a Cheap Diet Anymore!

[Anonymous Coward]

a ps2 version of in the groove is being developed, which should turn out to be good, if the arcade machine was any indicator

Re:$60,000? Some1 needs to tell these guys about e

[Anonymous Coward]

I was duped by Red Octane myself......BUT......some of my friends later found sources for equivalent pads that cost only $20. We have compared the pads side-by-side, and there is no difference even if you're playing 10 footers - they both have inserts and can be relied on not to slip or tear for a very long time, which is all you can ask of soft pads.

I have a Cobalt Flux now.

Re:Greedy pigs.

[Jerf]

With all due respect, that's not capitalism. Everything you did after hitting the other car suffers from the "broken window fallacy" (google it) and did not benefit the economy; on the whole you did great damage, and capitalism did what it could to minimize that damage.

Under capitalism, you destroyed (most likely) two cars, took a human life (and yes, even under capitalism that's a bad thing; you have prevented that human from ever producing value of any kind whatsoever), and consumed many, many resources put to better use than medical care. (Again, see "broken window fallacy".)

Capitalism minimizes that damage by trying to efficiently utilize resources to the repair, although the medical system is pretty broken in that regard right now.

If you're going to hate it, make sure you understand what it is, not a caricature of it. I can't explain it in a Slashdot post, but for starters you need to understand the idea of capital; it isn't the primary component of the word for show. You destroyed a lot of capital, of all kinds, in your example, for no gain at all. Capitalism doesn't promote that.

Capitalism has problems, but that is not where they lie.

Have you ever tried to eat healthy?

[rsilvergun]

I am right now, and it's hard. I don't mean like, "I really want a cheeseburger" hard, I mean like, how the hell do I avoid trans-fats (i.e. Hydrogenated Oils)? How the heck do I afford 5 servings of fresh vegetables/day if I don't have the time to prepare bulk and I can't afford the premade stuff. Americans aren't fat for just any old reason. We really are getting the stuff cramed down are throats. Junk food's not just cheaper, it's more profitable. Food made with Hydrogenated Oils costs a fraction to make than with butter or traditional oils, and lasts up to 18 times longer on the shelf.

I'm an out of work computer tech, and my budgets gone to hell. I can eat fast food for $20/week. No matter how I run the numbers, I can't eat truely healthy for less than $100/week. This assumes I cook everything myself. Remember, eating healthier isn't just more expensive per meal, it means eating more and more often. 2 Big Macs'll get you through the day, if only digesting the fat calories. That doesn't work with fish and vegetables.

I'm not saying we're blameless. Part of the problem is all the fat asses out there eat the junk. Economies of scale and what not. But once again take hydrogenated oils. What do you suppose are the odds, given the enormous profitability they represent, of Americans getting clued in on just how bad they are for you?

Anyway, yeah, we're a bunch of fat bastards. But it's not as easy to stop being a fat bastard in America as you think.