Gamertell

“You are fat,” the Wii Fit game stated matter-of-factly, as the world crumbled around a 10-year-old British girl, who had been excitedly standing on the game’s Balance Board peripheral until the heart-breaking pronouncement.

However, her father hasn’t come to terms with the game’s assessment of her stepdaughter’s body weight and refused to accept it. “She is a perfectly healthy, 4ft 9in tall 10-year-old who swims, dances and weighs only six stone,” the miffed father told the Daily Mail. Although he agreed to his stepdaughter being sturdily built, he didn’t accept that she was “fat.“

The game is under considerable fire from British obesity experts, who have…

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Revolution was what Nintendo had initially christened the Wii. The Wii has apparently lived up to its initial name by revolutionizing the video games industry. Beyond its impact on the games industry, it has also been touted as a fitness machine of sorts, though many studies in recent times have rebuffed it as a substitute for conventional exercise.

Wii-habilitation is the new term that medical practitioners have coined for Wii-aided rehabilitation. More and more rehabs are turning towards the Wii because it is fun and physical at the same time. The Wii can get the patients off the couch and on their feet…

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There seems to be a general perception that the motion-registering Wii is a prime fitness device, with gamers being more physically involved in a Wii title as compared to other game platforms. But according to BBC News, experts in the UK don’t think too highly of the Wii as a fitness machine.

A British Medical Journal study has revealed that the energy released during a Wii Sports session is of a much lower intensity compared to actually playing the sport. Although Wii might not be able to substitute actual physical fitness programs, the study has found that it might still be able to help reduce obesity among kids.

There are plenty of reasons for you to play the Wii and it shouldn’t really matter if there is one less excuse – it’s probably time to break a real sweat on that rusting treadmill. However, Nintendo might not be too happy with these findings as it has been pompously hawking the console as a fitness machine, if Wii Sports and Wii Fit are anything to go by.

Read [BBC] via [Wii Blog]

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The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced Monday (November 12, 2007) that it will use its $8.25 million grant to fund project contributions that aid in RWJF’s Games for Health Project to develop and create games that improve health through interactive games.

The primary research will be held at the University of California in Santa Barbara and the project will be directed by Debra Lieberman, Ph.D., a communication researcher in the university’s Institute for Social, Behavioral and Economic Research. Research in this field, according to RWJF, has been valuable in that through research they found that games increase a players’ physical activity levels as well as reinforce anti-smoking attitudes or improve young cancer patients’ adherence to their treatment plans.

“Computer and video games are one of today’s fastest-growing media forms. While we have seen dramatic expansion within the health games field, we lack solid evidence to help identify when a game – used alone or in combination with other interventions – can improve people’s health, and what specific difference it makes,” said Chinwe Onyekere, M.P.H. RWJF program officer. “Studies funded through Health Games Research will produce important, action-oriented results that will help this growing field make a meaningful difference in the health and health care of all Americans.”

In 2005, the Pioneer Portfolio made an initial grant to the Games for Health Project, whose work at the time was designed to connect game industry leaders with scholars and health experts to heightened interest in potential games that positively influence health. This year, Health Game Research has put out a call for proposals and will award up to $2 million to fund research that “support studies that investigate principles of effective health game design.”

A second round of funding will be available in 2009 and will award an additional $2 million in grants. RWJF’s $8.25 million grant will also be used to fund and expand the current efforts of RWJF’s Games for Health Project.

“Research on learning and behavior change with interactive media — including games — has found that they can be very motivating and effective. So it is no surprise to find in the research that playing a well-designed health game can help improve players’ health behaviors and outcomes,” said Lieberman. “We need more research to develop evidence-based design principles that can be used in future health games and technologies. Studies funded by Health Games Research will make an important contribution toward this goal.”

Read [Game Daily] Also Read [Robert Wood Johnson Foundation] Site [Health Games for Research]

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There is an article published on Weight Watchers’ website that discusses the physical benefits of playing sports and fitnesss related games on the Nintendo Wii. The article cites research done at the Liverpool John Moores University in England that reported a 156% increase in energy expenditure in players of the Wii over their resting values (i.e. values when sitting and playing other gaming system).

The author, Steve Genge, ran his own unofficial study where he first played the Wii for forty-five minutes a day, five days a week. He focused on full games in the sports genre, training games and then topped it off with a fitness challenge.

Genge reports that he was pleasantly surprised by the amount of weight he lost in following this routine and sticking to the Weight Watchers Core Plan. So much in fact that he posed the challenge to his fellow office mates, which lead to a mini “Wii-lypics” in the office conference room. (What a job!)

Mr. Genge’s admittedly unscientific evaluation supported the conclusion of the academic study.

Read [Weight Watchers] Site [Nintendo Wii]

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