core experience by doris c. rusch - frog2011

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“Core” Experience - Exploring Less Obvious Design Approaches To Exercise GamesThis presentation investigates the so far under-explored experiential potential of exercise games. It takes its departure from the observation that exercise games largely focus on simulating sports activities (e.g. snowboarding, surfing, dancing or yoga) instead of trying to model the experience of what it feels like to actually engage in these activities. The central hypothesis of this talk is that the experience of any kind of physical activity is never solely (or primarily) about the physical, tangible aspects of the activity but about how these aspects make us feel and think. Exercise games mostly ignore this part of exercising, maybe assuming that by simulating the activity its mental aspects will happen by themselves. This presentation explores what is lost by this current design approach and what an alternative route could look like. By way of concrete, original design examples, new avenues of exploration for exercise games shall be sketched out and put forth for discussion.

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“Core” Experience

exploring less obvious design approaches to exercise games

Dr. Doris C. Rusch, DePaul University: FROG 2011Monday, November 7, 2011

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goal: designing possibility spaces for playful explorations of the human condition

Monday, November 7, 2011

depressionaddiction

love

Monday, November 7, 2011

Monday, November 7, 2011

“physical play”: the first and most immediate form of play

“the playful child is the physical child”(Lucia Capacchione: “Recovery of Your Inner Child”)Monday, November 7, 2011

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how can we leverage physical play to explore the human condition?

Monday, November 7, 2011

games as possibility spaces Monday, November 7, 2011

aiming for more and more fictional immersion

Monday, November 7, 2011

kinaesthetic mimicry:blurring the boundaries

Monday, November 7, 2011

holy grail: immediacyMonday, November 7, 2011

achievement unlocked?

Monday, November 7, 2011

which “fiction” fits the technology?

Monday, November 7, 2011

simulating sports activities; sports metaphors

Monday, November 7, 2011

my quibble• conceptually dull

• extreme focus on physical concepts

• ignore symbolical aspects of physical play

Monday, November 7, 2011

in defense of current exercise games

• some are great fun

• they may offer added value: feedback, instruction, motivation.

• some fictions are really cool and enable experiences not easy to have in real life.

• they are good for videogame’s reputation .

Monday, November 7, 2011

BUT:

Monday, November 7, 2011

why shouldn’t we explore less obvious design approaches to exercise games?

what could an alternative to the simulation approach look like?

Monday, November 7, 2011

what is the symbolical potential of “physical play”?

it starts by asking:

Monday, November 7, 2011

what is the experiential “core” of a physical activity?

Monday, November 7, 2011

mind: feeling capable of handling the burden (of whatever life throws at us)

body: lifting physical, tangible weight

mind - body connection:

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mind: an exercise in trust and letting go

body: coordinated movement, timing

Monday, November 7, 2011

body: efficiency and speed

mind: “owning” territory, empowerment to overcome (mental / emotional) obstacles

Monday, November 7, 2011

“exploring one’s body equates

exploring one’s psyche”

(Santiago, 2001, p.6)

Monday, November 7, 2011

the body goes through the motions.

the mind provides the metaphors that make the motions meaningful.

to enable meaningful, physical play, exercise games could tap into these metaphors.

Monday, November 7, 2011

why does the simulation of real-life physical activity not do the trick?

Monday, November 7, 2011

• because in exercise games, your attention is bound by whatever happens on screen.

• the mind is busy buying into the sports metaphor and not free to focus on the images and associations that usually come up during a work-out.

• the provided sports metaphors are not terribly insightful.

Monday, November 7, 2011

let them be informed by the symbolical potential of physical activities.

for an alternative approach, rethink metaphors for exercise games.

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example: “Zombie Yoga”(for Xbox Kinect)

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abstract concept: Fear

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physical activity: yogaMonday, November 7, 2011

you find yourself in the middle of a Zombie outbreak

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you have been bitten and the infection is slowly spreading inside

you.Monday, November 7, 2011

• you need to find a cure before you turn into a Zombie!!

• every renewed contact with Zombies speeds up infection.

• you can fight, but aggressive behavior increases infection speed.

• you have to overcome your fears to win the game.

Monday, November 7, 2011

become a warrior of light!

• each yoga pose you do has a particular effect in the game.

• e.g. warrior I: build protective light bubble around you

• warrior II: part the horde

Monday, November 7, 2011

stand in tadasana

warrior I to freeze Zombies

subway takes a turn

Zombies get thrown to one side,but you are perfectly still in

tree pose.Monday, November 7, 2011

heal through light meditation

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the world in “Zombie Yoga” is an emotional landscape filled with fear, represented by Zombies.

fear is also internal, represented by the infection.

Monday, November 7, 2011

by learning to deal with and command the externalized fear, the inner fear

(infection) is healed.

The yoga poses are translated into gameplay verbs that (mostly) represent the intended inner effects of these poses.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Monday, November 7, 2011

sum up

• the “core” experience of physical play integrates mind and body

• exercise games focus on the body

• conceptual potential remains untapped

• include the mind, explore emotional metaphors

Monday, November 7, 2011

thanks! questions?drusch1@cdm.depaul.edu

Monday, November 7, 2011

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