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Wii Can't Replace Actual Exercise
Next Generation notes the results of a study into the health benefits of playing the Nintendo Wii. According to the University of Liverpool research, Wii Tennis can't compare with the real thing. "The result showed that the youths burned 60 calories (in nutrition terms) more an hour playing Wii, a 2% increase in the amount of energy burned versus the Xbox 360 players. The study is quoted as saying that 'these increases were of insufficient intensity to contribute towards recommendations for children's daily exercise,' and that active gaming using the Wii is no replacement for actual sports."
I teach bass guitar at a center with about 15 instructors so we've got about a hundred students coming through. Most of these kids attempt bass/electric guitar for a few months and then give up (this is typical of most instruments btw). I took an informal poll of the other instructors and we haven't noticed any increase in enrollment (or students actually sticking with it) since the introduction of Guitar Hero/RockBand.
While you can become pretty good if you sit down one day and play GuitarHero, while playing an instrument requires a *bit* more dedication/time/effort. However, if GuitarHero took as much time/effort/practice to get good at it as a real instrument, we'd probably see the same dropout rate.