The idea that video games can be good for you is still one that is being debated among researchers. After all, sitting in a chair all day playing Call of Duty can't possibly be as good for you as taking a walk or working out, right?
You would be 100 percent correct in that department. But as a new study from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville shows, "active gaming" is another story entirely. In fact, the study goes as far to say that active gaming may actually be more beneficial than simply telling your kids to go outside for unstructured play.
Here is how the researchers came to their conclusion: during a three-week period, researchers placed an accelerometer on the hip of young participants, as well as one on each wrist. Each participant in the study engaged in one structured gaming session playing Kinect Adventures (specifically the "River Rush" minigame) on the Xbox 360 and one unstructured outside play session. Each session lasted 20 minutes long, and the children could stop and rest as needed.
What researchers found was that the active gaming sessions "created a greater percentage of moderate to vigorous intensity than unstructured outdoor play."
"We're not saying video games should replace outdoor play, but there are better choices people can make when choosing the types of video games for their children," Hollie Raynor, director of UT's Healthy Eating and Activity Laboratory, says in the study.
It may sound surprising, but it makes perfect sense. Microsoft's Kinect for the Xbox 360 features numerous games that require a full range of body motion. While playing the game, players are given goals and challenges, goals and challenges children are more than willing to work at to achieve them.
The freedom of unstructured playtime outside allows for the children to do whatever they want. Outside if a child gets tired from playing, they may stop. After all, there is no reward for continuing on with such rigorous physical activity. But in a motion-based game like Kinect Adventures, players will continue doing that physical activity to achieve higher scores and in-game rewards.
It's the exact same reason various fitness apps create goals for users and "gamify" living a healthy lifestyle. These provide incentives for people to continue working out or training by showing real-time progress. Children who are playing the Kinect, of course, don't realize they are getting exercise. To them, they are just playing a game.
So there you have it: some video games may actually be better than playing outside. They just probably aren't the games you want to play.
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