Nov 29, 12:27 PM

Wii Fitness

Kristy I think it would be a big mistake to start billing the Wii as some sort of fitness training system. I keep seeing stories in the MSM about it’s appeal in this area, but if it starts coming out that people are buying it primarily to get fit, Nintendo has a major problem on their hands.

Once motivation crosses from “I want to play this because it’s fun” to “I want to play this because it will make me lose weight,” a new world is entered, with a landscape littered by unused home exercise equipment and dusty tae bo tapes. Are these two motivations mutually exclusive? Yes. A game might involve both components – but in the consumer’s mind one will always dominate the other.

Fundamentally, the reason we play games is because they are fun. If you cloud that simple thought process my adding in a lot of other reasons such as fitness or brain power, over time consumers will start to treat the game/system more like a chore, something they have to play like their daily workout, not something that they actually want to play.

Does anyone even play Brain Age anymore? In Japan it’s still big, but in America we like our burgers and we hate exercise. Fitness products here are always fads – they aren’t sustainable. To start selling the Wii by telling people it will help them get in better shape would be disastrous.

-Jon
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  1. omg Kirsty Alley! Teh Hot!!

    That aside…I think Wii could be billed as a tool that could be used for fitness, but I think they should do it similar to DDR. With DDR, the game is billed as a game first, and a fitness tool later. With the Wii, they could do this, but I think they should on a game-by-game basis.

    — Andrew    Nov 29, 02:02 PM    #

  2. I don’t agree. I would argue that the reason all of that home gym equipment is laying around unused is pretty much the problem that the Wii is solving. Working out while you’re thinking about working out is boring as hell. Working out while doing something fun is pretty cool. I played a boxing game in Dave & Busters that required you to punch in different ways and at different speeds. You also had to duck or lean to avoid different attacks from the other boxer. It gave me a workout while my brain was busy trying to work on skill improvement. I completely forgot that I was getting exercise.

    — russkiypenguin    Dec 12, 01:18 PM    #

  3. Good point that the Wii does have an advantage over other fitness equipment in that it could take your mind off of the exercise. My thinking is that if a player gets it into his/her mind that “I need to play this for my health,” it sorta devalues the experience.

    — jon    Dec 15, 07:38 AM    #

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