Exergaming - An Interview With The CEO of Gamercize

Fitspott is excited to present our first of many upcoming interviews that will cover a variety of topics and issues facing the health and fitness industry.  For our first interview we have selected Richard Coshott, the CEO of Gamercize UK.  

 

Gamercize is an exergaming company that uses the attraction of video games to develop motor skills, and to help build the confidence to participate in physical activity. 

 

An interesting article came out in Forbes recently questioning whether or not exergaming, specifically the WiiFit, is just a passing a fad. The article acknowledged that actual health benefits could in fact be achieved, only if (the magic word) a person maintained their exergaming regimen over a consistent period of time. The article pointed out the reason why so much skepticism surrounds exergaming is that historically, most people do not sticking to these programs consistently. 

We asked Richard several questions that we believe will significantly impact the fate of exergaming. Here is the first of this two part interview series. 

Fitspott: What technological developments do you believe will help promote a more natural, free range of movement for an exergamer, resulting in an increased similarity to an actual exercise session?

 

Richard: The building blocks of 3D cameras and motion sensing technology already exist with examples in the form of sports analysis equipment. Some of this technology is already finding its way into exergaming and, although very expensive, gives great realism as a by-product of the heritage.

 

A challenge in the area of virtual reality sports and exercise comes from turning high cost low volume specialist technology in to low cost generic home units. Any useful home unit will also need to be highly entertaining with compelling games in order to be viable. I think we can learn a lot from the video game industry here. The majority of console games now are built around core engines, on which the actual game can be built at a fraction of the cost compared with going back to a blank canvas for each new title. Without this reusable element software companies will not be keen to invest development effort in producing titles with much lower returns.

 

This commercial consideration is also true for hardware; No software company will put large amounts of effort into single-game motion sensing hardware and be able to survive as a business. The key development for the exergamer is to make the motion sensing hardware generic, to allow a great many types of sports and exercise software to be developed. More processing power will allow recognition of more object types and more subtle movement, so we might have to wait a while until the generic hardware is available.

 

Fitspott:  How can we increase the chances that an exergamer will adhere to a long term virtual exercise program and not lose interest after the novelty wears off?

 

Richard: Sustainability is the essential factor that lets a program of exercise deliver health and fitness benefits. It does not matter how many calories you can burn an hour, what matters is how many calories you do burn, week on week, month on month. How to keep exergamers engaged to this level, after any novelty factor wears off, is the hot question that's been quizzing the rest of the industry for some time.

 

The problem is exercise is not sustainable for most people. This is evident from the global obesity crisis we are in. The term exergaming puts “exercise” first but my attitude is different; this is reflected in my company’s name, where we put “gaming” first. I think that if the exergaming is to deliver health and fitness benefits to those people that don’t find exercise appealing or have too little free time to fit in gym or outdoor activities, then gaming is the key.

 

I recognize that to create a title as compelling as the existing gaming industry is highly unlikely. Gamers change the game they play most of the time about 7 times a year, in the same way you don’t watching one movie all year. To beat the existing gaming industry every couple of months is impossible for fitness themed exergames.This is why Gamercize supports the existing gaming industry titles instead of trying to compete with them.

 

Sustainability of video games is in no doubt; in fact gaming is even likened to an addiction in certain circles. Gamercize is sustainable because of the fact we uniquely support every console and every game. We tap in using minimal interaction; move and play, stop and the games pauses. This keeps the minds focus on the game and not on controlling the exercise effort.

 

Stay Tuned for part 2 of this interview series.

 

Related Posts:

 

EA SPORTS Active - Will 2009 Ring In The Mainstream Adoption of Exergaming?

 

Fighting Youth Obesity By Making Fitness Engaging and Interactive

Using Technology to Make Fitness Fun 

 

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