Battling Obesity with Video Games

Guest: Amy Lu, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and the Game Design Program, College of Arts, Media and Design, Department of Health Sciences of the Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University Anyone who thinks all video games are for couch potatoes has not worked up a sweat playing Dance Dance Revolution. There’s a whole crop of video games that use motion sensors and require players to move their bodies in order to win a dance off, compete in a virtual sports game or fend off attackers. The problem is that these active video games aren’t typically the ones that absorb children for hours on end. They’re lacking some element that could actually keep a child engaged long enough to get a real workout. If researchers could figure out what that missing something is, video games could become a real tool for fighting the childhood obesity epidemic.