CMU School of Drama


Sunday, September 07, 2008

Carnegie Mellon’s ETC developing new genre of calorie burning video games

Pop City: "That’s the idea behind a Carnegie Mellon University graduate research project that combines the best of two highly popular games to get kids burning energy, not just tapping and waving. “Winds of Orbis” is an interactive video game that combines a “Dance Revolution” floorpad and a Wii remote to help children get in shape."

10 comments:

Aaron S said...

It's about time. Our society has become lazy as more and more people seek digital recreation as a substitute for actually doing something. It's sad that games must be developed to make kids exercise, but whatever works to slow the decline of humanity into lazy blobs I'm all for.

Anonymous said...

It's definitely an interesting idea and I'm sure it's effective as long as the kids don't get too hot and start drinking sodas and eating while playing, but honestly is this what our society has come to? I don't mean to be annoying but honestly there is virtual everything now. Instead of actually going out into the real world kids have to venture to the digital realm of instruments and sports when they could just do the real thing instead and I'm sure it's a better payoff at the end of the day. But whatever yay lets go sit on the couch and go virtual.

Anonymous said...

This article makes this genre of video game seem too radical. I am not a huge proprietor of video games in any way, but I am still aware of the different games that exist that can serve as "calorie burning". The article mentions Dance Dance Revolution, but refuses to acknowledge that WiiFit came out only a few months ago. After that game, this seems like something that has already been done.

Sarah Benedict said...

Although I understand the complaints about "is this really what the world has come to" I applaud these games creators. I love that they have accepted reality, instead of it annoying them, and tried to find a formidable solution. Yes, maybe one of the downsides of the new age is everything being virtual, but it doesn't seem unreasonable that this is the result - we have access to all this technology, and information why shouldn't we be using it? Change is hard for everyone but at some point we just need to start adapting, and I think this entertainment based exercise program is a great start.

Anonymous said...

What's up vitamin D deficiency? Go outside.

Very cool that ETC is trying to provide new UI and control systems, but seriously? Exercise as a video game? Go play baseball. Then you don't have to spend tons of cash on the DDR pad/Wiimote/system/game.

This article also fails to mention that the working poor are also face the highest rates of obesity. How on earth are you supposed to target obesity if the working poor can't afford to feed their family anything aside from McDonald's?

Laura Oliver said...

I agree with Bart on this one. I think the marriage of recreational technology and attempts to get kids active is a very basic hypocrisy. I get annoyed every time I see an ad on TV encouraging kids to go outside, not because of the sentiment but because it is clearly not in TV's best interest to get kids off the couch and they know that.
Additionally, there is a lack of imagination that goes hand in hand with the lack of (especially outdoor) activity that has me worried for kids just a couple years younger than myself

Chris said...

I guess that anything that can get kids (and adults for that matter) to exercise is a good thing, but what happened to the "kids, go out and play for the afternoon". In this fast -paced world, we hardly get the opportunity to spend time enjoying nature (thank god for tree drawing HW). Everyday during the summer I love to go for a walk down my hill and back after spending the day couped up in a dark theater the whole day.

As I said, the technology is there and we have to adjust. Exercising inside is not the worst thing to ever happen to humanity, but I would like to think that running or going for a walk is more healthy because you get exposure to the sunlight and the fresh air that you will not get in an office, school, or bedroom.

Go outside and enjoy nature!

Anonymous said...

Why must everyone blame video games as the root of all society's ills? Fifty years ago it was comics and fifteen years ago it was TV. These things go in fads.
That said, yay the ETC. The description of the gameplay reminds me of the time I tried to play SSX Tricky with a DDR mat. It doesn't particularly work, but you can play old RPGs or anything that involves the DPad instead of the analog stick quite well. It makes it more interesting.
Of course, I think I must be the only person in the world to have tried this.
Another thing of note is that most of the "Revolution" games (DDR, Karaoke Revolution, etc) have calorie burning modes, where they estimate the workout you're getting from participating. Burn calories by singing? Fine by me. : D
Additionaly, Japanese game makers have tried more original lines of attack to try to get kids outside. A series of DS games actually ship with solar sensors and your characters level up based on how much time you spend outdoors.

Anonymous said...

I do believe that the game is intended to supplement video game time and not outdoor time. Imagine a kid that spends 5 hours sitting playing a game and 2 outside. The intention is to change that to 3 hours sitting playing a game, 2 hours actively playing a game, and 2 hours outside.

Also, the goal is completely different than that of wii fit. The wii fit is an exercise game all the way, it is a collection of sports minigames. This seems to be a full cohesive adventure experience that uses active controls.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, ditto everything Sarah and anonoymous said. The Wii Fit comment by Joe Israel is silly, because this game isn't at all similar to Wii Fit and in reality will make you sweat and move WAY more than wii fit. I've seen this game in action and and it's really neat what they're doing.

Also, one of the developers that introduced the demo made it clear that they have no disillusions of replacing outdoor activity, but rather changing habits that would otherwise be done indoors (ie., sitting on your butt and not moving at all).

And the reality is, rmcausland, that not all kids like baseball or competitive sports. It's pretty clear that this game doesn't threaten those traditional outdoor activities. Using your example, if Kid A likes baseball, he's going to play baseball.. But if Kid B feels intimidated or uncomfortable with baseball and would never consider trying it, wouldn't you rather they play their indoor videogame in an active manner than sitting down? Lighten up, people!


There's a great article on the teams outlook here: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3692/combating_child_obesity_helping_.php