Xbox's new virtual treadmill...

[Xilren's Twin]

Ok, this caught me completely off guard.  I'm paging through the holiday sales paper and what should catch my eye in the Toys-R-Us video game section but an Xbox title named Yourself! Fitness.

This apparently came out about a month ago from a development house named respnDESIGN.  No, it's not a game per se, it's a new take on an excercise video program.  A computer generated instructor leads you through workouts with over 500 different excercises, meal planners, fitness evaulations, over 200 tips from Prevention magazine, and a variety of visual and music options.  Plus, and this was the kicker to me

a system of motivations and rewards built into Yourself!Fitness which helps users achieve their personal health and fitness goals

Yep, they have a treadmill to their treadmill.  Apparently if you keep at your workout regiment, complete with regular fitness evaluations to see improvement, you can "level up" your membership rating to unlock new features like new music and environments.  A popular quote i saw bandied about was

"Yourself!Fitness represents a new and innovative direction in the home fitness market. It delivers features that are unmatched by anything else in the home fitness industry. I believe Yourself!Fitness gives women a reason to care about the Xbox® and opens the door to video games in general."

So gentleman, it's just a short step from the fitness game to the addictiting mmorpg's we all love to hate. :)

I'm actually going to get this for my wife; hell we both could use more exercise in our lives and this is too interesting a concept to pass up.  Make no mistake, this is aimed at women but is this the long sought for gateway title?  Is this sheer marketing genius or insanity?

Time will tell, but if Richard Simmons makes a guest appearance, I'm outta there.

Oh yeah, in an interesting bit of further insanity, both Microsoft and the developer ResponDESIGN are being sued by one of the writers of the Pulp Fiction screenplay who claims he proposed the idea of a Yoga game to MS and they stole it.  He is seeking 30 million dollars.

Xilren
PS  the PS2 version is coming soon, and there is talk of using the Eyetoy as well...

[Ardent]

I think it could be a brilliant idea. As someone who abhors the gym and is always looking for new and different ways to get off my fat ass, this could actually interest me. And I have a penis. (Mostly unusued, yes, but it's there.)

As for the Roger Avary story, I should fucking sue HIM for $30 million for making that awful "Killing Zoe" piece of shit I had to endure.

[sidereal]

Macroing and catassing jokes begin. . . .

now.


The funny thing is it'd actually work.  If 20 minutes on a treadmill could level my Tauren, that is what I would do.

[stray]

Supposedly, everyone steals Avary's ideas...

Anyways, good try I guess, but it won't go anywhere (Actually, if I take into account all the fitness stuff people buy, then maybe it will sell after all...and go straight to the closet with everything else). Anything that sells "motivation" to you definitely isn't going to work. I don't care if it's R. Lee Ermey in the video, it isn't going to work. If you're not already motivated then nothing on the outside is going to influence you.

If you are motivated, then here's a workout plan:

Eat healthy (You do not need a fucking meal planner -- WTF? How about this: Stop gorging yourself on shit. Simple as that)

Walk 5 miles a day

Then do 50 situps when you get home (split 'em between 10 or 25 if you have to).

That's extremely easy, but even that will give you results in no time.

EDIT: Sorry if I sound rude, but my rudeness is directed at the fitness industry more than anything else.

[schild]

I like video games. I'd play Urself! (that's how it's spelled, am i rite?) if the girl took off her clothes every time I hit a milestone.

[HaemishM]

NEKKID AEROBICS!

This is a perfect idea, provided you can market it properly. I mean shit, look how all those shitty aerobics tapes sold in the late 80's. Richard Fucking Gay-Ass Simmons owes his career to shit like this. Adding interactivity and achivement tracking is all the interactive part you need to make these kinds of things worthwhile, and the console is much better suited to selling this type of thing than the PC.

As for Roger Avary, can I sue him for not working with Tarantino, thus ensuring we get Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 and whatever piece of shit martial arts flick Tarantino plans to inflict on us next?

[sidereal]

If you're not already motivated then nothing on the outside is going to influence you.

Motivated to do what, though?  The point is that most people want to be healthier, but are insufficiently motivated by the desire alone to go through the work or lifestyle change required.  But if you can take a different, stronger motivation . . like, for example, the motivation to level your Herbalist, or the motivation to see boobies. . and attach that to something that will make you healthier as a byproduct, I think that would be a money-hat factory.

Of course, the product that spawned the thread is backasswards.  It takes people who are already motivated to work out (aerobics moms) and tries to gateway them into video games.  That is dumb.

Make a strip-workout video or a crafting treadmill plugin, eliminate cheating, and the average American male weight would drop 10 pounds.

[Sky]

Wow, this is a great capitalistic idea! Definitely a creative application for consoles. I have a few coworkers into home fitness, and they're very intrigued by not having the same workout routine every time they fire up the dvd. Not enough to buy a game console for it, though, because they have zero interest in video games.

[Samwise]

At the AGC panel on design risks in MMOGs, Raph mentioned that he'd like to see games that have beneficial real-world effects, though he didn't suggest how that might happen.  (I think the exact words were "why aren't we talking about games that could cure cancer?")  It might not cure cancer, but something like this if done right could certainly curb a lot of other health problems.  I'd buy it in a second.

[Paelos]

It's a good start, but it needs to have more interactivity associated with it to justify its release on a gaming system. My suggestions would be to start with a heart rate monitor that you can play into the system so the game can keep track of your progress. That would be kickass.

[Samwise]

I'm thinking something along the lines of a high-quality DDR pad.  Those things get your heartrate going pretty well.

An alternative to embedding sensors in the "equipment" itself might be to have something like an Eyetoy monitor your progress.  For some types of exercise, like step aerobics, a properly positioned Eyetoy ought to be able to track your progress visually pretty well.  And you wouldn't have any annoying cables to worry about.

[Velorath]

Hmmm... from what I've heard some of those dancing games tell you how many calories you burned while you were making yourself look like a complete fucking reject.  I guess this was one of the next logical steps, encouraging exercise while actually letting people keep a shred of dignity.

[doubleplus]

Hell yes. The wife could use this to lose the baby weight. If I can find some way to turn her into a gamer while she gets hot again, I believe I'll be able to retire from life a fulfilled man.

[Shockeye]

Hell yes. The wife could use this to lose the baby weight. If I can find some way to turn her into a gamer while she gets hot again, I believe I'll be able to retire from life a fulfilled man.

You're walking on thin ice there. She cannot get "hot again". She was "always hot". Repeat after me, please. If you ever want sex again, learn it and repeat it.

[Trippy]

I'm thinking something along the lines of a high-quality DDR pad.  Those things get your heartrate going pretty well.

There was a flurry of news around 2001 or so about how DDR had become the new fitness fad for teenagers in the US. One article interviewed people at a high school where they had installed arcade versions of DDR in the gym so that students could "workout" on them.

[doubleplus]

You're walking on thin ice there. She cannot get "hot again". She was "always hot". Repeat after me, please. If you ever want sex again, learn it and repeat it.

Meh, she's the first to complain about looking like a cow now. I figure once she actually has the kid, things will get a bit better, but this third trimester garbage has to end. And hey, this is a lot more subtle than buying her a treadmill and screaming, "RUN, FATTY!"

[Shockeye]

And hey, this is a lot more subtle than buying her a treadmill and screaming, "RUN, FATTY!"

Don't forget to put that on the card.

[Arnold]

I'm thinking something along the lines of a high-quality DDR pad.  Those things get your heartrate going pretty well.

An alternative to embedding sensors in the "equipment" itself might be to have something like an Eyetoy monitor your progress.  For some types of exercise, like step aerobics, a properly positioned Eyetoy ought to be able to track your progress visually pretty well.  And you wouldn't have any annoying cables to worry about.

Jeez, way to overcomplicate something that is dead simple.  Lift some barbells, lift some dumbells, run, swim, whatever.  All this computer pad/sensor/etc is a bunch of crap that will end up collecting dust after some initial novelty.

If a person wants to get into shape, they need to make a lifestyle change. No gadget will get them into shape if they are not willing to make a change in lifestyle.

[Xilren's Twin]

Jeez, way to overcomplicate something that is dead simple.  Lift some barbells, lift some dumbells, run, swim, whatever.  All this computer pad/sensor/etc is a bunch of crap that will end up collecting dust after some initial novelty.

If a person wants to get into shape, they need to make a lifestyle change. No gadget will get them into shape if they are not willing to make a change in lifestyle.

And if making that change were so damn easy, we wouldn't be a nation of fatties spending millions if not billions on "home fitness".  Anything that can introduce some interia to get more people to live healthier is a good thing in my book.  Like it or not, the high rate of sedentary jobs and dimishment of free time means most people lifestyles are simply not condusive to going to a gym/pool/track as a regular part of their day.  Hence the push for home fitness with thinks like treadmills and this sort of shit.  It's a helluva lot easier then somehow finding an extra 2 hours in my day to hit a healthclub; 30 min at home i can squeeze in.

Xilren

[Arnold]

It's a helluva lot easier then somehow finding an extra hour in my day.

Xilren

See, that's why I refused 9/80s when they were offered to me and when everyone in the office, but one other person, worked them.  I have a certain amount of shit I want to get done in a day, and losing an hour would prevent me from getting it all done.

[Samwise]

I'm thinking something along the lines of a high-quality DDR pad.  Those things get your heartrate going pretty well.

There was a flurry of news around 2001 or so about how DDR had become the new fitness fad for teenagers in the US. One article interviewed people at a high school where they had installed arcade versions of DDR in the gym so that students could "workout" on them.

I believe it.  I played DDR a fair bit around that time, being in college and having a spare hour here and there to spend at the arcade.  Lost about 10 pounds in a couple of months.

Tried DDR again recently and could barely make it through two games without huffing and sweating profusely, and it wasn't even at the same difficulty levels I used to play at.  Kinda depressing, but it underscored how much exercise I was getting back when I played regularly.