T17 Group1

Team Name

The team, Wii ACKO!!!

Team Wii ACKO

Team Members

Bryce Alston

Cook

Graham Kean

Sing Yean(Doris) Ou

Problems With The Wii Fit and Wii Sports

Wii Fit and Wii Sports, though are brilliant technology inventions, there are still some issues associated with them.

1. Wii Fit&Wii Sports decreases social skills

2. Wii Fit&Wii Sports require personal regular commitment

3. Wii Fit&Wii Sports do not provide enough excercises

Problem Statement

Wii Fit and Wii Sports are not suitable substitutes for traditional exercise or actual sports. The movements in both game are not realistic movements and neither game fully establishes a social situation in a sport.

What Are Wii Fit and Wii Sports

Wii Fit is the newest advancement in the field of digital fitness. It is an exercise video game for Nintendo Wii. Using the “Wii Balance Board” the game can keep track of the users BMI (Body Mass Index) and weight. The “Wii Balance Board” can also feel the balance of the users. The game is split into two sections, “Training” and “Body Test”. The “Training” brakes up into 4 areas, “Balance Games”, “Strength Training”, “Aerobics” and “Yoga”. The game is designed to help set, track and achieve fitness goals. First the user creates profile by calculating weight and BMI and then the game will perform a few balance tests to decide where to start off the user. As the user progresses, the game will keep track of the improvements and by doing so the user will unlock new exercises. Wii Fit is marketed towards all members of the family, from helping the kids to get more active to slimming down the parents. Nintendo boasts they bring the personal trainer to the user with one on one training exercises. Wii sports is another video game produced by Nintendo for their Wii console. With the “Wii controller” the user can simulate playing golf, baseball, tennis, bowling or boxing. “Wii sports” helps submerge the user into the game at a higher level than previous games have been able to.

Arguments

Wii Fit/Sports Decreases Social Skills

Wii Fit

Wii Fit is a suitable alternative for to doing traditional exercise but it takes out the social aspect of getting fit. Wii Fit does not allow for multiplayer split screen either. This does not allow you to play with one other person at the same time, you have t take turns. We all know how annoying that gets and makes it pointless in playing this game with someone else. So, there is no side by side play which takes out the most important aspect of making video games social. There is no problem with kids playing video games but when you create a video game that is a substitute for exercise it is not a good idea. This makes it easier for kids to say they are getting exercise and still just play video games. We say we are losing are ability to make and keep conversation. Allowing us to exercise in front of a video just enables this problem to get worse. Especially when we allow kids to do this kids need to be participating with other kids in activities to gain the art of communication. Now I’m not saying all kids need to play organised sports but simply playing games with other friends to get exercise is better than using a video game.

Another Wii game that does not support the social aspect of sports is Wii Sports. Now we can play sports in front of the TV. You can box, golf, play tennis, bowl and play baseball. These are all suitable activities around the house but not a suitable substitute for actual team sports. People are not getting the total team atmosphere by playing Wii Sports. Again Wii Sports creates a false sense of playing sports. Kids especially will lose the experience of playing on a team in any sport. Playing on a sports team or participating in sports is a major aspect of increasing a child’s social skills. Playing a sport for most kids is one of the first times that you are put into a large group where you can make friends and talk with others. Wii Sports cannot be used to substitute playing real sports, it creates a false sense and does not allow us to increase our social skills. This is most apparent in the kids as was explained earlier.

Lack Of Commitment

The health of the average American has become an increasingly popular topic, with disturbing facts that show the obesity rate reaching new milestones it is evident that people are abusing the comfort of technologies in their homes. This is where Wii Fit comes in, it was designed to attack kids and adults that are overweight and that do not want to go to the gym and do a high intensity fat burning routine. Although, Wii Fit has developed a disappointing reputation because of the problems that accompany such games. Wii Fit does not offer a good gaming experience, gaming and exercise simply do not go hand and hand. The problem with Wii Fit is that a lot of the users do not find it easy and fun like regular video games; therefore, playing once a week suffices most people experimenting with Wii Fit. After some research to monitor weight loss of users, people found that Wii Fit is a hard way to lose weight; you have to have commitment and endure the whole process instead of just playing whenever you desire. Therefore, to properly use Wii Fit you have to treat it like a weight loss program with a personal trainer. For the people that are serious about weight loss that treat Wii Fit as if it was a mandatory daily exercise they probably will get results. Needless to say, it is still not a proper substitute for outdoor activity which offers 60% more calorie burn than Wii Sports. If you do not commit to a regular routine with Wii Fit and instead play whenever you desire you will not see the results you may expect to see. A commitment to a proper weight-loss program does not only mean getting physical activity, but rather a proper diet and adequate exercise.

Not Enough Exercise

Although Nintendo states that the new “Wii fit” can help its users get in shape, consumers may be mislead. As far as video games go, “Wii fit” is certainly one of the most physically demanding, however, it may not be enough to replace the traditional style of exercise. Nintendo boasts that the user can set weight loss goals and achieve them through “Wii fit” and as most people don’t have extensive knowledge about physical training, “Wii fit” may seem like the perfect solution. The truth is that if one is serious about losing weight, there are many other factors involved in a proper weight-loss program. With “Wii fit” the user creates a profile, performs some balance tests and then is introduced to different types of strength and balance training, results will be very slow and possibly non-existent. A proper exercise plan requires adequate cardio combined with healthy eating. For any proper workout, one must raise their heart rate through some form of cardio exercise be it jogging or biking, the higher the heart rate the more calories the person will lose while performing any exercise. The training in “Wii fit” is simply not intense enough to receive noticeable improvements in physique within a reasonable time frame. Plus studies have proven that a change in diet is more effective in weight loss then a change in exercise. Over all “Wii Fit” should not be used as a serious form of exercise.

Wii Sports vs. Real Sports

From our research, all the studies and statistical numbers are pretty much the same. They are all based on the research conducted exclusively by the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse Excercise and Health Program. According to the "dietblog", The American Council on Exercise had released a study that compares Wii Sports and Real Sports. In the study, participants were asked to play Wii Sports as though as they would play in actual sports. Each game lasted 10 minutes and researchers recorded heart rate and V•O2 at one-minute intervals. Researchers also interviewed the subjects during the final minute of each sport to determine their perceived exertion levels using the Borg rating of perceived exertion (RPE). In addition to burning the most calories, boxing was the only Wii game that would be considered intense enough to maintain or improve cardiorespiratory endurance as defined by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), in which 30 minutes of Wii boxing burns approximately 216 calories.

The following are the results of each comparison in how much calories each activity can burn:

Wii Golf: .8 calories per minute

Driving range golf: 3.9 calories per minute

Wii bowling: 3.9 calories/minute

Real bowling: 7.2 calories/minute

Wii baseball: 4.5 calories/minute

Real baseball (pitching): 7.3 calories/minute

Wii tennis: 5.3 calories/minute

Real tennis: 8.1 calories/minute

Wii boxing: 7.2 calories/minute

Real boxing (sparring): 10.2 calories/minute

Conclusion

It is a fact that Nintendo Wii Fit and Wii Sports have successfully combined exercises and games together to a new level of digital fitness. However, keep in mind the fact that these digital fitness are still consider as video games after all, they cannot replace your actual workout at the gym. Keeping oneself at home playing Wii will not benefit anyone; even worse, people may result in decrease in social skills. Wii Fit and Wii Sports are originally designed to help those over-weight users that are unwilling to go to the gym and do some actual workout. Among these users though, not everyone has the patience to commit a regular routine with digital fitness, especially when there are only limited exercising games. From the actual research, we can see the comparisons of calories burn in a minute between each Wii sports and actual sports. Obviously, Wii does not provide enough exercise and is not suitable to be a substitute of any actual sport. We can conclude that Wii is suitable for a workout supplement but not a substitute.