MEA´s and Exergames

Taking advantage of the new smartphones and tablets, exergames have recently experienced a major trend increasing their reach to outdoor contexts and activities, instead of the traditional indoor context (e.g. play at locations such as arcades, fitness centers and schools or simply at home).

 Endomondo Sports Tracker

Endomondo Sports Tracker [28] is one of the most popular MEA´s. It features a variety of options: for instance, in the “Beat Yourself” mode a player can choose a

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previous recorded workout as a challenge; in the “Beat a Friend” a user races against a friend’s performance; in the “Calorie Goal” the players are able to set a calorie value to burn in the subsequent physical activity. Users are able to establish workout routes via GPS coordinate input.

As far as persuasion is concerned, Endomondo encompasses implicit and explicit persuasive cues. The first concerns the usage of challenges which entice the user into performing better by:

a) Beating his / her former performances; b) Or beating a friend’s performance.

Explicit persuasion assumes the form of a feature labeled as “Audio Coach” by the developers. Through it, users are informed about their performance in real time (e.g. whether they are burning more or less calories at a certain point in the workout session compared to previous ventures).

 Cardio Trainer

Similarly to Endomondo, Cardio Trainer16 is an application that plays music amidst a workout session. Here, users are able to establish their preferences regarding this type of explicit persuasive feedback. In particular, they can define whether the informative messages are delivered on a time basis or based on the distance covered.

Cardio Trainer capitalizes on GPS to track the users’ courses but also enables the utilization of pedometers. The application tracks distance covered, workout time and based on these variables it calculates the calories burned. As for the usage modes, the emphasis goes to the “Race against Yourself” feature which mimics Endomondo’s “Beat Yourself”, enabling users to challenge themselves and challenge their previous performances.

 RunKeeper

RunKeeper17 [36] shares most of its features with the two previously described MEA´s. It provides a richer workout summary to its users, namely displaying top speed information along with the travelled distance and elapsed workout time.

16 http://google.about.com/od/googlereviews/fr/cardio-trainer-android-app.htm

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However, its differentiating characteristic is the possibility of sharing the user’s workout data and all GPS tracked activities into the application’s website. With the user’s permission, this data is then shared among the community allowing for spectators (individuals who may not be partaking in the workout activity themselves) to track the workout session.

 Nike+

Nike+ [29] sports most of the features already covered in the previous MEA´s. One of its innovations pertains to the introduction of another form of persuasion: power- songs. According to the developers, power-songs are pieces of music which due to their characteristics (e.g. emotional affinity the user possesses towards it, high rhythmic nature of the song itself, etc.) are capable of inspiring and motivating users into pursuing better performances. In Nike+, users can create playlists and label some of those songs as power-songs. While exercising, the user is then capable of touching a button in the application which stops the song being currently played to start reproducing one of the available power-songs.

 Keep Running

Keep Running18, one of the MEA´s mentioned in our survey, possesses a more specialized nature: its goal is to ensure users maintain a regular speed while running. Like previous entries, Keep Running allows users to listen to music while exercising. This plays a key role in what concerns the user’s motivation and on how the application persuades the user. Prior to engaging in the exertion activity, users can establish speed thresholds for their desired performance. The application is then able to monitor the user’s speed and, if his / her speed falls outside the boundaries of the said thresholds, the application forcefully stops the music being played. Unlike other MEA´s, this strategy employs an approach which is not based in natural language cues, but rather on the usage of coded hints concerning the user’s performance.

 Other Applications

Choosing which MEA to use is just not a matter of the feature set it provides: personal preference for the interface, social pressure and how they are marketed factor

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into this decision. Up until this point we addressed MEA´s which showed unique features by themselves. Yet a few more applications than those listed exist.

For instance, Runtastic15 [31] covers most the already mentioned features. Additionally, it provides information regarding altitude and allows users to manually configure their workout sessions from a list of predefined cardio-exercise templates. Competitive challenges (against the user him / herself or against friends) along with live workout monitoring are some of the features also present in this MEA. Strava [32] is another application which shares most of the characteristics of other MEA´s. Additionally, and given the user possesses a small device capable of measuring his / her heartbeat rate, the application allows for the definition of a “suffer score”. These are thresholds which indicate periods in which the user is overexerting him / herself.

 Non-MEA Exergames

Some exergames have been developed, building upon MEAs´ features and their typical usage. However, these exergames expand on MEAs´ characteristics, giving them game related aspects, which in turn forcefully include other dimensions related with games. Zombies Run [33] exemplifies an exergame which was built around MEAs´ characteristics. It provides tracking for running activities, measuring distance, duration, average speed, average pace and calories burned, much like other MEA. It even provides training programs. Players can analyze statistics regarding their performances and share those statistics with other players. While playing, they are guided by audio instructions and are accompanied by music and power songs. All these features are the same as the ones present in other traditional MEA. Then what is the difference? These exergames are heavily focused in gaming mechanics such as storyline and game objectives (e.g. completing missions or assignments), which other MEA cannot offer. Thus these exergames serve as an expansion of MEA and their capabilities.

 Exergame Systems

Exergames possess a rich history which describes how they have been conceptualized and played throughout time. Existing exergame systems can be coupled in three major trends identified throughout the years, one of them being MEA´s. The other trends pertaining exergames relate to the existence of specialized hardware and home console exergaming. The former consists in the development and use of specific hardware peripherals that aim to introduce new ways to interact with games and provide players with new and more interesting gaming experiences. Systems related to this trend

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encompass concepts like the use of exercising bikes, step machines and traditional arcade machines. The latter consists in the development of exergames for contemporary home video game console platforms such as Sony´s PlayStation19. These games allow for different experiences than those that traditional videogames provide. The identified trends can mingle with one another. This fact is reinforced by systems which make use of devices capable of detecting player movement - the PlayStation Move6,20 and Microsoft Kinect6,21.

From the studied exergame systems, all offer different characteristics in terms of the number of players allowed to play (single vs. multi vs. community), the nature of the location for playing them (indoor vs. outdoor) and the systems´ orientation (device vs. activity). These characteristics are relevant because they can help us understand what kind of playing modes are available (number of players), the ubiquity of such systems (location) and their level of effectiveness / performance (orientation). The following table resumes the systems taking into consideration these characteristics:

Table 3 – Features of historical exergame products

System

Number of Players Location Orientation

Single Multi Community Indoor Outdoor Device Activity

Joyboard7,22 × × × Puffer7,23 × × × CompuTrainer7,24 × × × × Power Pad7,25 × × × Power Glove7,26 × × × 19 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_%28console%29 20 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Move 21 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect 22 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyboard 23 http://www.atarihq.com/othersec/puffer 24 http://www.racermateinc.com/computrainer.asp 25 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Pad

34 Tectrix VR7,27 × × × × Prop Cycle7,28 × × × Dance Dance Revolution6,7,29 × × × × Exertris Interactive Exercise Bike6,30 × × × × GameBike6,7,31 × × × × Yourself! Fitness6,7,8 × × × Bodypad6,7,35 × × × Gamercize6,7,35,32 × × × Wii Fit6,7,8,9,10 × ×* × × × EA Sports Active6,33 × ×** × × × Nexersys35 × × × Move6,24 × × × × Kinect6,25 × × × × Endomondo × × × × Cardio Trainer16 × × × × Runkeeper17 × × × × 26 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Glove 27 http://tulrich.com/tectrixvr/ 28 http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9139 29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_Dance_Revolution 30 http://www.gizmag.com/go/2123/ 31 http://www.todaysfitnesstrainer.com/making-exercise-fun-the-evolution-exergaming-part-two/ 32 http://www.gamercize.net/gamercize.htm 33 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EA_Sports_Active

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Runtastic15 × × × ×

Keep Running18 × × ×

* - playing simultaneously, each player with different consoles or one at a time ** - playing two at a time, using a different set of controllers each

Analyzing this table, we can state that most exergame systems explore characteristics such as single player modes, indoor location and different orientation styles (with a slight advantage to device orientation). Regarding the ‘number of players’ characteristic, multiplayer seems to be available in systems where an exercising bike or a home video game console is present. Also, community based exergames are few in number and commonly present in mobile exergames. MEA´s imply outdoor location in contrast to every non-mobile system which is indoor. Finally, systems whose aim is to provide physical activity (especially those that include the fun factor) are not dependent on hardware and appear to be more successful. One explanation might be that device dependent systems have risks of unsatisfactory performance and acceptance from players.