As a games journalist pup, I saw my waist size steadily grow.
Tapping my way through review after review, PR lunch after lunch and post work drinking
session wasn’t exactly the best combination to maintain 32inches around the
torso. Unfortunately the quarterly out-of-office football challenge didn’t do
much for the other months of abuse. Sound familiar anyone?
Having dragged myself away from this lifestyle for several
years now but still maintaining a definite interest in gaming I find myself
writing this column with the motivating combination of experience with both video
gaming and one-2-one personal fitness training – it’s been an interesting
journey and now new technology brings me back to my old grounds; it’s great to
be back!
It seems as though there’s a shake-up on the horizon and as
gamers such as myself originally adopted the ‘Neanderthal with Controller’
position, the morph to a more active gamer seems not too far away. Nintendo
seem to be one of the liveliest movers at getting more than our minds
circulating, the announcement of Wii Fit certainly put a smile on my face and
made me think of writing this in the first place. With previous visions of,
let’s be honest here, quarter-pounder children and adults racking up the calories
in front of consoles over the world, we’ve finally got at least some indication
that things may be tipping in the opposite direction.
The balance board technology looks fun and in cases where
gamers have not heard of exercise let alone taken part in it much, there could
be a huge benefit to a wide variety of families and individuals when it is
released. Like Jamie Oliver did for school dinners, is what we are seeing here
quite similar, but for the gaming community? By simply introducing this kind of
gaming to the living room it is going to send out a message that will work in a
user’s favour for years to come. By making exercise fun early on, the
physiological benefits will be maintained and developed, instead of snowballing
in the opposite direction and this is, in my opinion, essential.
Of course, this could potentially turn into an active
universe for developers to dive on the wagon and generate the equivalent of the
exercise world’s surplus of useless arse toners and stomach crunchers, let’s
hope not. Hopefully quality will be high and a genuine interest in developing
bodies and mental attitude towards exercise will give more positive media
towards health and video games that is normally easy pickings for critics.
After seeing what Wii Fit might have to offer and what the
Eye Toy has at least done for getting gamers out of a chair, I can see huge
potential in developing a higher level of ‘active gaming’ in the future –
whether it’s multi-user and trainer interactivity or solo driven software
that’s structured to develop sports skills and really shift unwanted calories in
a variety of ways. Exercising, then using a Wii for weekly weigh-ins and then
automatically storing data online? The possibilities for active gaming are
endless! I just hope that celebrity endorsements don’t start bombarding the
gaming world as they have the DVD shelf space. Let’s just sit on our bums and
see what happens, shall we?
Simon Lovell
Personal Trainer – The Heat Personal Training
www.theheatfitness.co.uk
07786 175 118