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Friday, May 28, 2010

Gov't Recruiting Video Game Designers in Fight Against Obesity

The United States Agriculture Department launched a contest for video designers to come up with games that children can play to teach them about nutrition and exercise. The contest is part of a government initiative led by First Lady Michelle Obama to combat childhood obesity.

Some in the videogame industry said the challenge was difficult, because they were used to designing games only for entertainment.

"Games with ulterior motives are a lot harder," said Joel Gonzales, of the International Game Developers Association.

Alex Fisher-Lasky, working at George Mason University, agreed.

"Everything goes smoothly until you start playing it and you realize it is not fun," he said. "You have to spend 60% of your time changing it, because the game is not fun."
 

Labels: prevention, video_games

Posted By: Jane St. Clair

Comments:

former_teacher on 5/30/2010
Regardless of your opinion of video games, anyone with even a cursory understanding of these games knows that game creators & designers are tremendously talented and creative people. Treating game designers as teammates in the fight to produce healthier children -- rather than branding them as the enemy -- makes a tremendous amount of sense. From what I understand, games like the Wii have already contributed to this effort by getting kids up & moving while playing the games. More "active" video games aren't the entire answer to the problem of childhood obesity, but I have not doubt that they can make a great contribution.