Developing Compelling Repetitive-Motion Exergames by Balancing Player Agency with the Constraints of Exercise

Abstract

Participation rates in repetitive-motion exercise programs, such as programs for muscle-strengthening and physical rehabilitation, are low. Exergames show promise in encouraging people to exercise, but it is challenging to build compelling games around repetitive exercises. Games involve players making meaningful choices, but repetitivemotion workout programs are rigidly structured, making it difficult to find opportunities for such choices. As such, there is a struggle between providing players with meaningful choices and meeting the constraints of the exercise program. We discuss methods for enhancing agency in repetitivemotion exergames while still meeting these rigid constraints. We illustrate these methods through Brains & Brawn, a novel strategy card game for muscle-strengthening. Playtesting with eight participants demonstrated that players experienced agency during gameplay, were incented to exercise with correct form, and showed favorable attitude toward the game.

StrengthGaming: Enabling Dynamic Repetition Tempo in Strength Training-based Exergame Design

“…We are not the first work to incorporate gamification with strength training. Richards et al [21][22][23] proposed three game design methods to overcome the problem of lacking agency in repetitive-motion exergames. Agency refers to the "ability to act within an environment" [21], and the more agency a game achieves, the better the experience.…”

Evaluation of the Game Exermon – A Strength Exergame Inspired by Pokémon Go

“…The first game is Balance of Power, which is a tugof-war style game implemented with the Kinect, while Bundle is a playground-inspired chasing game implemented with smartphones. Brains & Brawn is strategy card game for muscle-strengthening inspired of games like Heartstone and Pokémon [26]. Playtesting the game demonstrated that players were incented to exercise with correct form and showed favorable attitude toward the game.…”

“…Further there are exergames that explores the borders of the physical and virtual world [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Exergames focusing on muscle strengthening in general, which are not used for physical treatment are underrepresented in the literature on exergames, although there are some examples [23][24][25][26].…”

Design Features in Games for Health

“…Behavior Change Theories-Other researchers have focused on the application of health and behavior change concepts within games and gamified applications. Behavior change theories have influenced both the design and evaluation of serious games, particularly those focusing on health promotion and illness management (e.g., tobacco prevention [22], exercise [28], nutrition [19], physical therapy [39], and medication adherence [44]). Recent arguments against the application of purely cognitive models of behavior change (e.g., Transtheoretical Model [38], Health Belief Model [27]) point out their overemphasis on the individual [45] in modeling behavior.…”