When you think of video or computer games, the image that most likely comes to mind is someone sitting in front of a screen, controller in hand, not moving nearly as much as any characters in the game. Fun video games can make you want to sit like this for hours. Console games and computer games have been around for several decades, but up until fairly recently, nothing has made gaming an active experience. At Blue Goji, we’re aiming to change that with fitness gamification. Read on to see exactly what that means and how it works.
Gamification of any kind works because of basic psychology: “The more goals you achieve, the more dopamine [your brain] releases, and the easier it is to stay motivated. Gamification tries to tap into this by offering you rewards for the completion of small goals.” Dopamine, a neurotransmitter, releases when you experience pleasure–including rewards.
More specific than general gamification, fitness gamification centers around the idea of crossing physical exercise with the motivation and objective of games. You’ve probably seen or even played games that try to get you moving to control gameplay: Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Fit, for example, gained a lot of attention when they first came out. By combining fitness with gaming, you can turn a potentially tedious work out into an enjoyable experience. As a bonus, you get the instant gratification that a standard work out can’t always provide. While it can take awhile to see results from regular exercise, scoring points and completing objectives is instantly rewarding. As a result, you may be more easily motivated to keep playing the game than you would be to keep exercising without the game.
We have taken the concept of fitness gamification to a new level with Goji Play. The special controllers translate movement on supported cardio equipment directly into gameplay using internal accelerometers and Bluetooth. Thanks to new virtual reality headsets, Goji Play has become even more effective in its fitness gamification with our Active VR support: being completely immersed in another world makes you even more engaged in your Active VR gameplays and likely to forget that you’re exercising! Although Goji Play is no longer available for retail sale, we still want you to experience it through our Beta Testing Program.
If you currently own or have a serious intent to purchase VR equipment, and have either an elliptical machine or a stationary bike, we want your input! With our Beta Testing Program, you will get to try out Active VR. If interested, send us an email with the subject “Beta Program” to get added to our waitlist. Oppositely, if you’d like to be added to a waitlist for when Goji Play is back on the consumer market, make the subject “Goji Play Waitlist.”
We hope you are interested in trying out fitness gamification! If you have any questions, please use the comment form below to let us know, or contact us directly. To learn more about our games and technology, we invite you to explore our website. For more information about health/wellness tips and innovations, subscribe to our blog and follow us on social media!