Wii Aches — Couch Potatoes Working It Up

Genocaust writes "While the new controller on the Wii is proving to be a success, it's turning out to be more effort than some die-hard couch potatoes bargained for. The Wall Street Journal reports on the newest workout regime for nerds." From the article: "In Rochester, Minn., Jeremy Scherer and his wife spent three hours playing tennis and bowling, two of the games included with the Wii. Mr. Scherer says he managed to improve his scores — at the cost of shoulders and back that were still aching the next day. 'I was using muscles I hadn't used in a while,' says Mr. Scherer, a computer programmer who describes himself as 'not very active.' Mr. Scherer is vowing nightly 'Wii workouts' to get in better shape." "Bunnies Don't Know What To Do With Cows," in Rayman, is another guaranteed way to get your arm aching. Cows are heavy, and it takes a lot of energy to throw them.

Its a choice

[Shados (741919)]

Honestly, with the way the control scheme works, you CAN be a couch patatoe and play the Wii just fine.

Its just boring :) When you really get into it is when the workout starts, but its also when the fun begins.

Re:Its a choice

[Aladrin (926209)]

And Congrats to Nintendo for making that the way it is. Maybe it's just a side-effect and not intended, but making it more fun to be active is a great thing for everyone, young and old.

I just wish I could get my hands on one. I'm not willing to stand in long lines or camp out my local eb this week, hoping to get a chance at one... I'm hoping they'll be fairly easy to get within the next few weeks. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Re:Its a choice

[Shados (741919)]

You have no idea. I tried to avoid launch, because I thought it was stupid to camp for a console. Ironicaly, camping for it probably would have been the easiest way to get one. Now retail stores have no clue when they get them, so you have to head to the stores (if you call, its too late by the time you get there) and just randomly ask face to face every so often. I live near a bunch of stores (like 10-15 minutes on foot), and don't have a car (personal choice, since i'm a programmer and always in front of my computer, its the only way I'll ever get off my ass, so I decided not to get a car for the time being). I've never been walking this much in my entire life.

The Wii literally made me lose 5-10 pounds in a week, and I didn't even BUY one yet.

Re:Hummm...

[Umbrae (866097)]

And hey, maybe a pad you can put on the ground! I'll make a game called track n field. It'll be great. Or how about a glove you can wear? That'd be neat too.

Wiimote + Dancemat?

[meringuoid (568297)]

Maybe it'd be worth coming out with an alternative controller, something you'd need to put your whole body into in order to operate it.

You could make a dance game with extra detail, maybe. Two wiimotes, one in each hand, and a dance mat connected as a standard controller.

Come to think of it, that wouldn't only work for dance games. How about a fighting game? Wii Boxing with fancy footwork...

Re:Wiimote + Dancemat?

[timeOday (582209)]

You do have to wonder, will Nintendo come out with sensors you can wear on (i.e.) your ankles that use the same technology? I was going to buy a Dance Dance Revolution game but never did because there are all kinds of problems with the dance pads (except for the metal ones that cost a couple hundred). Think about it, if you jump on your controller it's bound to wear out. But doing it optically or with gyros or however this thing works should last a lot longer.

Re:Wiimote + Dancemat?

[dangitman (862676)]

Something I would prefer would be motion sensor controllers, fastened to the feet, to be a substitute for mat-style dance controllers. I read of many diificulties with the dance pads. If one ponders it, leaping upon your interface is going to increase wear significantly (unless you pay $200 for one made with more durable materials). Wireless sensing will possibly avoid all the physical problems of human/dance interfaces.

Re:Wiimote + Dancemat?

[Photon Ghoul (14932)]

Well, I for one would much prefer something like little WiiRemotes strapped to the ankes to replace dancemats. I was going to buy DDR but I read about a lot of problems with the mats. And if you think about it, jumping on your controller has to be hard on it (unless you pay a couple hundred for a metal pad). Remote sensing (like the WiiRemote) might avoid all the mechanical Dance Pad problems, perhaps?

Re:Not my choice

[digidave (259925)]

Stop with the "Nintendo is for kids" thing. It's not true and honestly, unless you do manual labor for a living (lifting servers and running cable doesn't count) you shouldn't be physically tired when you get home. If you are too tired to play a Wii game then you are probably the one most in need of the little bit of exercise you would get from playing it.

The Wii is the only one of the new systems that is made for adults. Single men under thirty don't count as adults. I don't know one man who wants to come home from work and play adolescent games where you shoot other people. Those games are still pushing the same formula that they did a decade ago when most of us adults got tired of them. I'd rather play a golf or baseball game than Gears of War for the same reason I'd rather spend Saturday playing real golf than I would hanging out with friends.

Make no mistake, the 360 and PS3 are game systems for adolescent boys, not adults. The Wii is the only system that offers gameplay that might be entertaining for an adult or his family. The fact that my six year old son will also find entertaining games on the Wii is a bonus so I won't have to buy a dedicated kids system like PS3.

Re:Not my choice

[Shados (741919)]

Thanks for typing out what I was thinking :)

Fact is, what constitutes a "kids game" is quite subjective, and people in different age groups tend to feel differently about it. For example, most people who think of Mario as a "little kids game" are probably under 25 (I'm 24 myself, and disagree with Mario, etc being for kids... Ecco Jr. for the Genesis was a little kids game. Its a total other ball park).

Ironicaly, the previous poster mentionned coming back home wanting to get high and drink, which (if we're going by stereotypes, in the same way one can associate the Wii with kid games), tends to be associated with hormonal frat college teens, a group which are seen as "kids" by about anyone above 30 and a little less.

So honestly, away with the stupid stereotypes. Fun knows no age.

Re:Not my choice

[krotkruton (967718)]

The Wii is the only one of the new systems that is made for adults. Single men under thirty don't count as adults.

You made a good point and sounded intelligent up until that comment.

I'd rather play a golf or baseball game than Gears of War for the same reason I'd rather spend Saturday playing real golf than I would hanging out with friends.

What? You don't like hanging out with friends? Have you lost your social life outside of your family? So single men under thirty aren't adults, and you'd rather play golf than hang out with friends. You sound like an unhappy married man (since you think single men don't qualify as adults) who probably didn't go to college (I say that because you seemed to allude to college students being the "adolescents" who play first person shooters) and is unhappy with his job that he started right out of high school, but that would just be my guess.

That doesn't really matter though. You do realize that you just stereotyped "single men under thirty" while bitching about the stereotype that Nintendo is for kids. Its a lot more convincing when you practice what you preach.

I'm a 23 year old college student, which is probably why I was so irritated with your comment, who loves the GameCube, not to mention the other systems. My roommates and I play Mario Tennis all the time when friends come over before we go out on the weekends. We play Mario Party with our girlfriends. The Mario games are our favorites on the system, and we have probably gotten more use out of the GameCube than the other systems we own.

I'm a little confused on why you say that the Wii is the only new system for your definition of adults while your only reason for that is that adults like sports games more than FPSs. Historically, the PS and XBox have more sports games than Nintendo, unless you are counting all of the Mario sports games. I admit I haven't reviewed the latest list of games for the systems, but even if there are more sports games out for the Wii at the moment, I doubt that that will be the case in another year since, as far as I know, it hasn't been the case in the past.

Finally, my 63 year old father loves the PS2 and plans to buy the PS3. This is because he doesn't like games that require manual dexterity, and the PS2 has the largest concentration of RPGs (which usually don't require hand-eye coordination). He doesn't like sports games and is not interested in the Wii or the thought of using its controllers. The PS3 is the system to most likely have a large number of "standard" RPGs (by that I mean games like Breath of Fire, Dragon Warrior, and FF instead of Zelda or Secret of Mana), so that is what my father wants and the PS3 is the only system for him, a married man over 30.

Re:Not my choice

[Shados (741919)]

Ironically enough, I'm pretty positive that if Lucas Art comes out with a -good- game from the Jedi Knight serie on the Wii that correctly uses the Wiimote, the Wii sales for the next few months after launch will flat double.

A solution

[causality (777677)]

Maybe this could be a solution for Bovine America. If only they could come up with a video game controller that removed excess complacency and enabled one to recognize propaganda, then we might even go back to having a free country again!

Re:A solution

[antifoidulus (807088)]

Well, for Americans who do go outside there is only 1 video game: Frogger. Very, very few cities are designed with pedestrians being something other than poor and/or drunk people, so those of us that do walk/ride bikes everywhere constantly have to basically try to play a giant game of frogger every time we go out. And trust me, the SUV driving redneck isn't much smarter behind the wheel than any of those cars in Frogger, and even less considerate.

Re:A solution

[TheRaven64 (641858)]

It depends on where you are in the USA. I've just got back from spending a couple of months over there. In Salt Lake City, everything is far apart so you really need a car, but if you are walking (I was staying half an hour's walk from where I was working, so it wasn't too far) then it's quite possible. Intersections that are traffic light controlled are easy to cross, and ones that aren't seem to give right of way to pedestrians; if it looks like a pedestrian is about to cross, then all the cars will stop. On the whole, drivers seemed very polite towards those without cars.

In New York City, the situation was somewhat different. There are traffic lights, but I'm not convinced anyone actually observed them. The strategy for crossing a road in NYC seems to be for all of the pedestrians to huddle on the curb. Gradually, the ones at the back push the ones at the front out into the middle of the road. When there are too many people in the road for the average car to drive over, it becomes the pedestrians turn to use the road, until their density thins enough to allow cars across again.

How long

[Hennell (1005107)]

before they make a actual exercise themed game?

Re:How long

[MuNansen (833037)]

Wii Sports has a Fitness function, sort of like Brain Age, that's meant to help you stay consistent, but it's not very in-depth. A more in-depth version could do a lot. And the parent is right that the cow throwing game in Rayman gives you a MAJOR workout.

Re:How long

[sporkme (983186)]

Remember the original Nintendo's game mat, the PowerPad [videogamecentral.com]? You could use it with an Olimpics themed game and compete in track and field events. I recall kneeling on the floor and smacking the pressure spots with my hands to achieve unrealistic scores.

I think maybe something like this may make a venture into the trendy excercise market. If they can sell a big ball for a hundred bucks, they can sell a Wii controller too.

This begs the now cliche question: Why not just go outside and play the actual sport? Alas, there is not a chance in hell.

Re:How long

[MobileTatsu-NJG (946591)]

"This begs the now cliche question: Why not just go outside and play the actual sport?"

Mainly because it's not the most convenient thing in the world to arrange a sport. More than one person is needed to play. Where I work, for example, half my coworkers have a minimum of an hour long drive home AND they have family to go home to. It's not easy to arrange an hour or two to go somewhere and play a sport. On top of this, this time of year, the only way they could do this when there's daylight is to arrange it on the weekend. For our type of work, weekends often mean catching up on chores.

Thanks to the Wii everybody can just go home and play. Two of my coworkers have arranged to play via the net (which, btw, I didn't know was possible...) *and* they've gotten their wives involved. Where I work, the Wii has proven to be both a workout advice and a social event. I don't know if that'll last, but man, it's sure looking encouraging so far.

Penny arcade said it best...

[Flamefly (816285)]

I think http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/11/13 [penny-arcade.com] eloquently puts the point across.

Wii are out of shape

[destine (109885)]

I mean really really out of shape. I've known this for awhile, but it's nice that I have something I can do that I enjoy that actually gives me a bit of a workout. My SO and I are playing a lot of Tennis together. It's less of a learning curve and more practical to play a few best of 3 games of tennis every night than to go out and do it in cold wet seattle. And surprisingly, we can work up a sweat after a half hour to an hour of tennis.

The bowling is really easy on the arms. Baseball can be hard on the pitching arm. Boxing is a real work out. And golf is kind of relaxing and is more of a precision game. Several of the Raving Rabbids games have tested our metal. I seem to be really good at the running and rhythm games, and my SO is great at the shooting and fine manipulation games.

All in all, it was fun to notice that little bit of pain in the back of the shoulder that lets you know you got some exercise. Something I rarely feel I can do much of anymore, which is really just a mental block and lazyness on my part. Still, if they could figure out some way to get your legs to workout in this games, it would be something better for youth to do besides the regular sit and stare video games that I grew up with.

Hasn't been a problem so far...

[RyanFenton (230700)]

I've been playing quite a bit exploring the landscape of the latest Zelda game. As long as I hold my wrists strait while playing, I've found it a much lighter stress than using a mouse. The closest thing to an ache I've gotten was while playing a precision flying minigame for more than a half-hour - having to hold the pointer perfectly still to pop these stationary balloons as the camera pans around your character's flying figure is akin to trying to hold your hand out in front of your body for a similar time... extremely easy at first, but your muscles do tense from the focus on a position. Sitting cross-legged on a chair, and occasionally resting my elbow on my leg pretty much fixes that issue with me though. Swinging both controllers, almost an endless number of ways and times though, hasn't itself been much of a stress at all, even now at the end of the game, and after going through a 50-floor optional battle-fest.

Nintendo has done a very good job so far making a comfortable and light controller. Players concerned about wrist or arm stress should compare against mouse usage, and be willing to take breaks if they have to do the same when using a mouse. Don't be afraid to rest your arm on something while playing, or to be creative with 'lazy' ways of performing the same action if it must be repeated. And, if it's really an issue, consider getting some cheap light weights (1-5lbs) and do some light exercise while watching TV at night or something - this works for even the oldest or the youngest people out there, from my experience.

Ryan Fenton

Both arms?

[Tx (96709)]

I get plenty of right-arm exercise in front of my PC, but I could do with something that works on my left arm, and preferably doesn't make you go blind ;)

Re:Brilliant -- like DDR but for the arms

[neoform (551705)]

I'm going to have to disagree with this article..

This article assumes that nerds are somehow NOT used to making quick/small jerking motions with their wrists.. I mean.. common.

Re:FIRST WII FISH POST!

[MobileTatsu-NJG (946591)]

"I AM A FISH!"

Mr. Rimmer, this is the 11th time you've failed the astro-navigation exam. Don't you think you're just not cut out to be an officer?