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How VR is impacting the fitness world
Dozens of fitness games are already available in online game markets and app stores, each striving to make getting off of your couch and working up a sweat more fun than a jog or the gym. More fun means more workouts, which means fewer broken New Year’s resolutions and fewer inches on waistlines. What’s not to like? That may sound too good to be true, but research says VR can play those kinds of healthy mind tricks. That’s why serious medical researchers are turning to VR for a litany of therapeutic uses, including treating Post Traumatic Stress, maintaining mental acuity for seniors and managing pain for burn victims. Reading that analysis was exactly why the founders of Black Box VR went all in on developing what would be the first VR fitness game built around resistance training rather than aerobics.
From Myst to Overwatch: how color and light breathe life into video games
It’s easy to forget how beautiful the world of Myst looked when Cyan published the game in 1993. Set on a picturesque and mysterious island, The Stranger wanders the world, completing puzzles and unlocking locations filled with heavy fog or shadows or bright sunlight reflecting off of the rippling water. Myst had to visually arrest because, other than completing puzzles, there wasn’t much for players to do other than to take in the scenery. There were no enemies to fight or even characters to talk to. How did Myst become a bestseller? By making the world feel real, says Elouise Oyzon, an expert in game design.
Don’t be surprised when esports elbows—or button-mashes—its way into becoming one of the most popular collegiate sports.
The day is coming when college sports fans go nuts for a perfectly-executed Overwatch dive the same way they cheer for a game-tying 3-pointer or a spectacular touchdown run. While professional esports garner more attention, more than 130 universities and colleges in the U.S. have already created varsity Esports teams for fan-pleasing games, including Overwatch, League of Legends and Dota 2, according to the National Association of Collegiate Esports. Expect that number to skyrocket as schools realize they are losing students to competitors with Esports opportunities and scramble to keep up. There are plenty of recruiting and branding reasons for higher education to embrace Esports, but don’t discount the oldest reason anybody competes in anything: It’s a competition, and schools want to win.
“Collegiate Esports is a coming wave,” says Chris Haskell, coach of the Boise State University Esports teams. “Somebody is going to become the Alabama football of Esports. That seat is currently open. Why can’t it be us? We just have to move quickly.”