Successful exergames should lead players not only to achieve enough level of energy expenditure but also to engage in the play itself. The aim of this study is to review studies that explored the psychological effects of playing exergames, from the viewpoint of player engagement. Peer-reviewed journal articles in English collected via database search (Science Direct, Web of Science, ACM Digital Library) from 2011 to 2015 were considered, and 45 experimental studies were selected out of 911 studies. The results show that a variety of psychological effects of engagement including enjoyment, immersion, and flow were measured in the exergame studies. In addition, physiological variables (e.g., energy expenditure), feedback modality (e.g., auditory and tactile), and play modes (e.g., solitary or group play mode) are related to psychological effects of playing exergames. Finally, salient methodological issues (e.g., validated measurement, sample size calculation) in the studies are identified and discussed.

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This review demonstrates the potential for games to improve health outcomes of young individuals. However, the mixed results suggest that more serious game interventions need to be better designed and rigorously tested to support their impact on improving health outcomes.

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This paper discusses an approach for transforming solitary exercises into social exergames. We frame our discussion by highlighting the relation between the original exercises and game interactions, and by analyzing an example exergame which is successfully transformed from its original solitary exercise. We present a user study of the exergame that evaluates the need for holistic transformation strategies from solitary exercises into social exergames.

User context is defined by data generated through everyday physical activity in sensor-rich, resource-limited mobile environments.

The unique aquatic nature of swimming makes it very difficult to use social or technical strategies to mitigate the tediousness of monotonous exercises. In this study, we propose MobyDick, a smartphone-based multi-player exergame designed to be used while swimming, in which a team of swimmers collaborate to hunt down a virtual monster. In this paper, we present a novel, holistic game design that takes into account both human factors and technical challenges. Firstly, we perform a comparative analysis of a variety of wireless networking technologies in the aquatic environment and identify various technical constraints on wireless networking. Secondly, we develop a single phone-based inertial and barometric stroke activity recognition system to enable precise, real-time game inputs. Thirdly, we carefully devise a multi-player interaction mode viable in the underwater environment highly limiting the abilities of human communication. Finally, we prototype MobyDick on waterproof offthe-shelf Android phones, and deploy it to real swimming pool environments (n = 8). Our qualitative analysis of user interview data reveals certain unique aspects of multi-player swimming games.

The unique aquatic nature of swimming makes it difficult to use social or technical strategies to mitigate the tediousness of monotonous exercises. In this study, we propose the use of a smartphone-based multiplayer exergame named MobyDick . MobyDick is designed to be played while swimming, where a team of swimmers collaborate to hunt down a virtual monster. To this end, we take into account both human factors and technical challenges under swimming contexts. First, we perform a comparative analysis of a variety of wireless networking technologies in the aquatic environment and identify various technical constraints on wireless networking. Second, we develop a swimming activity recognition system to enable precise and real-time game inputs. Third, we devise a multiplayer game design by employing the unique interaction mode viable in an underwater environment, where the abilities of human communication are highly limited. Finally, we prototype MobyDick on waterproof off-the-shelf Android phones, and we deploy it in real swimming pool environments ( n = 8). Our qualitative analysis of user interview data reveals certain unique aspects of multiplayer swimming games.