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First Gaming Fitness Arcade Opens in CA
Turismo writes "In an effort to convince teenagers to exercise, one entrepreneur has started a 'fitness arcade' in California that lures teens with movement-based videogames, WiFi, and study lounges. Should kids be getting even more exposure to media when they workout?" From the Ars Technica article: "When asked whether incorporating gaming into a workout routine was sending mixed messages to adolescents whose free time is often consumed by video games, instant messaging, and TV watching, Ferrell said that the approach Overtime Fitness is taking was necessary. 'In some ways, we're waving the white flag,' he admitted. 'But if we went the opposite way, they would be far less likely to jump in.'"
Who goes to the arcade and gets drenched from playing DDR for hours... This seems like a good idea.
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
They don't need media arcades to excercise! They need their damn parents to kick them out of the house and go throw a goddamned baseball!
Why restrict access to this club to kids? I'll bet there are plenty of adults who'd pay to use a gym like this. In fact, if my gym plopped me in front of a treadmill and a DDR machine, I know I'd go for the DDR machine.
This is a great idea, I have no idea why no one has done this before. Konami's Mocap Boxing even counts the calories you work off (although I have no idea how accurate the tally is) and gives one hell of a workout. Now if they figured out a way for me to play World of Warcraft while working out, I'd be the most fit guy in the world.
I've been after my gym to get something like this. For a while, they had some of the cardio machines equipped with Internet access, but the gear was from a dot-com that went bust. They have TV, but that's boring, and working out usually doesn't align with the TV schedule.
There was an arcade game called "Sky Cycle" about ten years ago, with a stationary bicycle. If you pedaled harder, you gained altitude. But all you could do was pedal along a canned route and pop balloons. Something like that, but more aggressive, would be fun as a piece of gym equipment. Tie it into a game like "Crimson Skies". Offer multiplayer mode, so you can have dogfights at the gym. Even in single player, though, Crimson Skies is fun. Now that would liven up cardio machines, which are, let's face it, boring.
Who goes to gyms? Middle-aged people, now. Thirty years ago, the average age at gyms was 18-23. Now it's 46. It's the same people working out. That's part of why we're seeing teenage "wide loads". We need more fusions of gaming and gym equipment.
pinball can give a workout as well even more so if the tilt is set real low.
"Should kids be getting even more exposure to media when they workout?"
Umm, the problem isn't too much media exposure, the problem is kids aren't working out. This is using a potential problem(media exposure) to solve an existing problem(not enough to nil exercise).
Should kids be getting even more exposure to media when they workout?
That's not even relevant now, they aren't working out! I say anything that gets the kids in the gym is a good thing.
"I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability."-Oscar Wilde
beats any cardio program I've been given at a gym. It just costs too much. This is a great idea. Yeah for unlimited DDR games!
If the government had ANY, I repeat ANY sense at all, they'd look into this, and support or fund, to stem the apparent obesity epidemic the media is reporting on among America's youth. Is there? Really?
/kindly waiting for armchair psychiatrists to break down my association issues ...
As a multi-relapse former gym member, this interests me a whole lot more than my local Gold's Gym. I don't know if its the entertainment or gaming aspect of it, but this seems like it would be more enjoyable, from a physical exercise aspect, than hitting weight rack, machines, or mass cardio class. I prefer a little more mental stimulation when exercising, and the visual aspect that some of these exercises provides would probably fill that.
I know I'm speaking for my preferences here, but ask yourself this: why would we not want something that we get exercise from and a little enjoyment/fun out of??
Hmmm.... kinda like sex.
They should makes MMOGs, Battlefield 2, etc. physical too. ;)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Exactly. These are kids that probably wouldn't get any exercise otherwise.
and a practice dummy to use it on!
But it would be nice if you had to charge up the game console by running a bit, or have some interactive Tae Kwon Do (blue belt) before you could play Tetris.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I get sweaty playing DDR and that boxing game with the 3lb "gloves" and that sword fighting game with the 5lb sword. Throw in some old Nintendo running pad olympics, and I think you've got a business plan!
I used to own Konami shares - the Konami firm actually owns a chain of sports gymnasiums in Japan, and I could easily see them expanding DDR with some Wii games here and doing quite well. It's a fairly profitable component of their business, not counting the gaming machines (Mah Jong and gambling ones) they also run here in the US.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Um, maybe thats because PE (Physical education)/Gym has been in decline for years? I don't know how it is in other high schools but when I was in high school 4 years ago, we only had to take 1 year of PE/Gym. Oh and that 1 mile timed run we were 'required' to be 'tested' on? Most of us failed or didn't even finish.
I would totally dump Bally's and join an adult version of this if there was one nearby! DDR takes some time to get into, but now that I play mostly heavy (most difficult) mode it is better exercise and way way more fun than an elliptical machine. I do have pads at home but I hit an arcade about once every week or two to get out and enjoy the real thing. I only hit Bally's once a week but I would go at least twice as often if they had DDR!
If you're interested in following this issue, let me humbly recommend my blog.
Disclaimer: yeah, that was a blatant plug.
I play Nerd-Folk!
When asked whether incorporating gaming into a workout routine was sending mixed messages to adolescents whose free time is often consumed by video games, instant messaging, and TV watching, Ferrell said that the approach Overtime Fitness is taking was necessary."In some ways, we're waving the white flag,"
How is that sending mixed messages? People multi-task today. This is the same as how Lance Armstrong or Mr. Nine-To-Fiver will go running with his iPod while listening to an NPR podcast. The only difference is the demographic and the focus of the media. I go running (almost) daily while listening to music, it gives me a chance to listen to my friends' and I's music and concentrate on it with little else distracting, a far cry from attempting to listen while driving or at home with roommates, spouses, and IMs. Same could go for gaming. Just keep on moving and keep on gaming.
Shouldn't You expect more from your DJ?
being thin and disassociated is better than being fat and disassociated.
Also, since staying thin is healthier than being fat/out-of-shape, the next generation can stay disassociated even longer!
Darwin's theory should kick in a few generations later adding helpful mutations like a couple of extra legs that can run a treadmill right next to you while you sit on the couch playing GTA 3000.
certified elipsis abuser
Having played hockey for 12 years and boxed, I can say that the arcade boxing game that requires the player to hold two boxing gloves that weigh a pound or two each and duck/dodge and throw actual punches. I was sweating and out of breath $2 into it. That workout is well worth $2. I wish I could remember the name of it. I think this would easily work, and if I had any mad skillz I'd bust some moves on DDR.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Another data point - marathoners tend to be a lot older than you would expect. As in an average age in late 30s or even 40s. The racers are younger, but the people out for fun are not.
There are some reasonable explanations. People in their 30s want to do it before they turn 40, people in their 40s and 50s start to see heart disease in their peers and see it as an investment in their own health.
But I have to wonder how much of it is because of relatively few 20-somethings being interested in distance running.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
I've seen the mocap boxing and the police game where you have full motion control, but i haven't seen the sword fight game. Do you know the name of it? I want to do a google search and see what it looks like.
A real (or potentially real) problem I see with this idea is that a large number of DDR players are *ahem* stompers that stomp down on the arrow (as oppose to harder stepping, or the always favorable light stepping on the new and sensative arrow sensors), eventually(over time, or if absaolutely hard enough immediately) damaging or jamming the sensor, and damaging the arrow itself. The places that implement this with DDR need to keep a lot of pad parts and some people that know good pad maintainence around to keep up if this is a problem.
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
Good point. Also, if it brings in all types of people, you're going to get into the issue of sweat and dirt messing up the controls of most of the games. I think the DDR Arcade mats will be about the last thing to go after the boxing gloves get ruined from sweaty, grimy gloves that some little puke didnt clean up, or the bicycles get broke by a large individual, etc. This could spawn a whole new market, if arcade game companies started making entire lines of Exercise Gaming Equipment? Now all the drones I see at the gym will look even more like zombies...
It sounds like some of the ideas that I had while working on my Master's degree. Ultimately I wound up making Tetris Weightlifting: http://www.tetrisweightlifting.com/ -- similar to this center, pretty much everyone who tried it enjoyed mixing games w/ exercise.
I used to go to a Gym called Q years ago and they had bikes with cable TV/CD players on them, bikes with networked racing and a trail riding games where you could ride through a town and up a hill and the bike would increase resistance to similate the hill (the bikes leaned to turn and you had a small dpad and buttons for other functions), etc, step climbers with games on them (one of them you piloted a plane putting out fires, one searched for treasure in the ocean, etc.) It really was more motivating to keep exercising.
I was thinking:
Fuck the brats. I want to go to one!
the one where kids play virtual-reality games like "rake the leaves" and "mow the lawn" instead of actaully going out in the backyard and doing chores?
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
There's a shooting arcade game called Rescue 911 that forces to player to duck, dodge, and basically not get killed by physically moving about. I know that some boxing games that make you move back and forth and 'throw' punches to KO the opponent are sometimes pretty physical too.
The Rescue 911 was definitely worth the 75 cents to play.