New video games offer exercise

Video games are no longer the domain of couch potatoes alone.

Innovative new video games… Video games are no longer the domain of couch potatoes alone.

Innovative new video games are getting kids off the couch and giving them the chance to exercise when they pick up — or step onto — the controller.

As the new Nintendo Wii video game console appears in homes this Christmas, it signals a new step in the relationship between video games and exercise — a concept that has become increasingly popular.

“I do see a change [in video game physicality], but it’s going to mainly rest on the success of the Nintendo Wii,” said Jay Stevenson, an employee of Electronics Boutique on Forbes Avenue in Oakland and avid video game player.

Stevenson, who has worked at the video game store for four years, said video games are able to be more physical as virtual reality becomes more advanced.

The physicality of each game for the new console will vary. Games like “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess,” the latest installment in a popular series that dates back to 1987, will feature a lot of movement as players imitate sword fighting by swinging the wireless controller, he said.

At a price of about $250, the console comes with Wii Sports — a game that simulates real physical activities like bowling and tennis and offers a fitness option that rates the player’s fitness. Other games, however, may be less physically intensive.

Before this new commercial development, there have been other active gaming successes, such as the popular Dance Dance Revolution, in which players dance on a floor pad that serves as the game’s controller.

The game debuted in 1998 and has spawned many sequels and imitators. The West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency now uses the game in schools to combat obesity.

The insurance agency has undertaken studies over the last two years that have shown that children who played Dance Dance Revolution every day for 12 weeks were fitter at the end of the study and at a lower risk for diseases like juvenile diabetes.

Emily Murphy, research instructor for the West Virginia study, said the goal of using video games for exercise is to give kids another healthy option, but not to replace traditional sport activities.

“Video games have gotten a bad rap for making kids inactive,” she said. “DDR is just basically another way to be aerobically active.”

Kristie Abt, an exercise physiologist at Pitt, agreed that physical video games can be helpful for making children active.

“With kids you have to make it fun and make it interesting,” Abt said.

She said she witnessed Dance Dance Revolution firsthand when her husband played the game with her niece. He was dripping with sweat when he was done.

Abt said video game developers were conscious of the problem of childhood obesity, and conferences she has attended have exhibited many other attempts at integrating gaming and fitness as an alternative to traditional workouts.

“While we hope they’ll go out and run around and play sports, the truth is that kids spend a lot of hours in front of the TV,” Nidia Henderson, the health promotions manager for the West Virginia insurance agency, said.

After the study’s findings gained some interest, the West Virginia Department of Education decided to use the video games in physical education classes in all of the state’s schools.

All West Virginia middle schools use the video game exercise now, and the department is working on putting them in all high schools.

She added that they had met with officials from Pennsylvania’s Highmark health system about bringing these changes north.

Henderson, who plays the game every day, sees games like Dance Dance Revolution as a part of a larger trend toward more physical video games.

“I expect that, eventually, you’re going to see fitness arcades,” she said.

Pitt already has its own fitness video game, the Dance Dance Revolution clone Into the Groove 2, in the William Pitt Union, where students like Sarah Greenwood, a 20-year-old studio arts major, combine play and working out.

“It’s certainly a physical workout,” Greenwood said, citing the game’s intense workout on her legs and cardiovascular system.

After playing for three years, Greenwood said she is in better physical condition. The game’s expert mode is still a challenge for her. She added that she doesn’t play many other video games.

“I would definitely be more interested in video games with physical activity,” she said.

For those who are frequent gamers, Greenwood thinks games like Dance Dance Revolution will change the stigma of laziness often associated with gaming, but not for everyone.

“It breaks the stereotype, but not everyone is going to play this game,” she said.

Stevenson agreed and said that the stereotype is not completely unfair because many gamers do sit inside playing video games all the time.

“With any hobby, there’s a stereotype,” he said. “We’re not going to lose that. We might gain new ones, but we’re not going to lose any.”