Gameplay as Exercise

Interactive Feedforward for Improving Performance and Maintaining Intrinsic Motivation in VR Exergaming

“…Shaw et al found that an exergame increased enjoyment and motivation compared to conventional cycling exercise, and that the use of an HMD compared to a 2D screen led to further improvements [75]. Although exergames can be enjoyable, they are often not vigorous enough to replace traditional physical activity; "a biking exergame design requires a precise balance between interaction design and exercise physiology in order to be both engaging and beneficial to health" [36]. Game mechanics that encourage players to exercise at a higher level of intensity through rewards were found to be effective in increasing exertion levels and enjoyment [47].…”

“…Exergames can be effective in motivating players to exercise at light-to-moderate intensity [4,35,59,67]. There is some evidence that exergaming also holds promise for motivating exercise at a high intensity [36,47,58,88]. However, motivating players to work at high intensity in an exergame remains a challenge, as hard exercise often reduces pleasure [7,23,66].…”

Game on: a cycling exergame can elicit moderate-to-vigorous intensity. A pilot study

“…However, many commercially available exergames simulate traditional exercise which may not be motivating for people who do not already enjoy exercise. 14 In addition, studies on different exergames indicate that they at most elicit moderate exercise intensities, 11 15-17 which can limit their potential as a viable alternative to improve cardiorespiratory fitness. Furthermore, many of the studies investigating exercise intensity during exergaming have been limited by only using heart rate (HR) as measure of intensity, which can be disproportionately higher than oxygen uptake (V O 2 ) during exergaming.…”

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

“…One example of a combination of the use of exercise equipment and gaming is the PedalTanks game, where an exercise bike is used to control a multiplayer tank game [42]. A user study where the PedalTanks game was played 132 times over three days by 8 participants showed that the game scored better on both subjective enjoyment and degree of physical activity compared to moderately paced walk [7]. There are also other similar exercise bike games made such as PaperDude [43] and a game combining an exercise bike, VR and Kinect [44].…”

“…Physical activity promoted through exergames has many benefits such as lower risk of early death, coronary heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type-2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, colon cancer, breast cancer and reduced symptoms of depression. Most existing exergames can classified into the two categories of games to stimulate to general physical movement of the player [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] and games for elderly or patients to improve physical strength and balance [10][11][12][13]. Further there are exergames that explores the borders of the physical and virtual world [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”