Exergaming or exer-gaming (a portmanteau of “exercise” and “gaming“)[1] is a term used for video games that are also a form of exercise.[2] Exergaming relies on technology that tracks body movement or reaction. The genre has been credited with upending the stereotype of gaming as a sedentary activity, and promoting an active lifestyle.[3][4] Exergames are seen as evolving from technology changes aimed at making videogames more fun.[5]
I wrote a post awhile ago entitled “Gaming is Growing – The Psychology of Gaming” (shameless plug, sorry) which suggested real life and gaming are merging. Suddenly this app appears – the literal embodiment of real life + gaming. Can’t wait to see how this plays out.
Gaming isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it’s growing and it’s growing fast. And it’s not just black-t-shirt-and-square-rimmed-glasses-wearing-with-dirty-facial-hair-stuck-in-their-mom’s-basement-playing-WOW nerds. Gaming is invading reality, and everyone is playing:
As of today, Farmville has 83,105,118 active monthly users and Mafia Wars has 25,080,678. Seriously?
Farmville has more players than Twitter has accounts
Two and a half years ago, Disney purchased Club Penguin for $350M – a game which at the time boasted 12 million accounts, 700,000 paid subscribers, and $40M in annual revenue. I’m sure the numbers are exponentially larger now
As of February 20th, PlayStation has 20M users worldwide and Xbox Live has generated $1 billion dollars since its 2002 launch
Not only is gaming not going anywhere; you can expect to see elements of gaming incorporated into just about everything – or so says Jesse Schell, owner of Schell Games and Professor of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University. In his talk, “Is Your Life Just One Big RPG – Design Outside The Box” at the 2010 DICE Summit, Jesse hypothesizes that beyond the fun element of gaming, it’s actually the psychology behind gaming that makes it so appealing.
Here’s Jesse’s talk broken into three parts, and it is absolutely incredible. It is worth the 25 minutes, I promise (thanks to Nicholas for this find):
About Me
In a sentence: I am a creative problem solver.
In an elevator: I help people tell their stories in a meaningful way and inspire engagement through branding, strategy, planning, and digital tools — and I measure as much as I possibly can.
If I were in an elevator and you asked me what I do, I might say (and hopefully not get punched)…
I am a creative problem solver. I help people tell their stories in a meaningful way and inspire engagement through branding, strategy, planning, and digital tools — and I measure as much as I possibly can.
I love people, design, branding, analytics, and helping others communicate effectively. Collaboration, strategizing, listening, finessing, and convincing make me come alive. Helping others articulate and share products and services successfully is absolutely fulfilling.
I’m interested in helping others find the concepts, words, styles, and tools to communicate in a way that both inspires and empowers people to take action, and make a difference in our world (lots of buzz words…but all true!)
Me at work: Associate Planning Director at Tribal DDB NY.
