site banner
EdenicFaithful  Dark Wizard of Ravenclaw  1yr ago (text post)   3143 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 23, 2022

Be advised; this thread is not for serious in depth discussion of weighty topics, this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

7
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

What is the state of exercise gaming? My only recollection is Wii Sports. Have there been any fun developments for gamifying exercise since then?

As others have mentioned, smart watches and exercise apps actually have been a huge boon for me. I've always liked bicycling and running, but watching your performance increase along segments and routes, leaderboards etc. is honestly excellent. I'm getting the fun out of playing a game and the benefit of greater strength.

Like gaming though there's a certain tier of competitor I can't touch since I have a job and am no longer in my 20s. Knowing I won't have a KOM on Strava in my life is tough, but being in the top 10% of people who bother gamifying exercise feels awesome.

And specific products you'd recommend?

Strava the app is the most widely used and is constantly being updated. One thing I ended up getting later that gives you a bit more info is a Bluetooth heart monitor.

I got a Fitbit and was unhappy with it.

Besides that it's just the exercise equipment which I can give advice on but would change based on what you're doing.

Smart watches literally exist specifically to gamify exercise. Run further distances, lift heavier weight, walk more steps? You get more points. Then you can share your high point count on social media with your friends.

Although, as someone who has no interest in owning a smart watch, but is in outrageously good shape, I can say that "being physically fit" and "traveling the world doing fun outdoorsy/fitness hobbies" is much more rewarding than an app ever could be.

...So yeah, my advice is to partake in interesting and physically strenuous hobbies, and to try to find friends who do those hobbies. Not to try to get your exercise while looking at a screen

In a different sense. Climbing is exactly that. Instead of adding workout to games, they gamified workouts.

It took the boring act of excersizing and gamified it. Each boulder is like a platformer level where you have to execute a set of moves and exersize becomes an accesory to allow you to execute the coolest moves.

No wonder tech nerds love climbing. It is computer games in workout format. (The wierd hipster in me lowkeys hates how all tech people love climbing. For once i thought id picked up a non tech hobby, only for every tech person to simulaneously pick it up around the exact time I got into it. We are all truly, a hivemind)

To answer your actual question, the quest 2 did what youre asking for.

In death : unchained and especiall thrill of the fight are amazing workouts. Thrill of the fight is up there with fullfield soccer as one sport that pretty knocks the wind out of me within 20 minutes.

Ring Fit did something interesting from a game design perspective, but it's not at all worth it. It gets old really fast, and it's more preoccupied with preventing you from hurting yourself than with actually being fun or challenging.

Down Dog isn't a game in that it doesn't have interactivity but it's great.

Peloton and Zwift are the new generation of gamification.

Oh you're in for a treat, VR exercise is what you're looking for.

A purchase of an Oculus Quest 2, new at ~$499, is enough to get you access to a whole new world of exercise games.

There are great ones like Beat Saber, which is a guaranteed workout, no end of boxing games, games with virtual athletics, such as Gorilla Tag, the list goes on and on.

Even "normal" VR titles are inherently more physically demanding than flat-screen titles, and there's so much out there you won't run dry for years.

You don't need a powerful PC, the Quest 2 works standalone as well as tethered, and given your particular needs I can wholeheartedly recommend it!

I play Pistol Whip with a gun shaped peripheral I bought from etsy that lets you add quarters to add weight. Holding a weaver stance and point shooting moving targets for 30 minutes is a surprisingly ok core workout.

Beat Saber is fun but if you use the Oculus Quest 2, you'll have to do some hacking to get custom songs in. It's worth it once you have that.

I like using the Armswinger movement in H3VR for a similar reason. Armswinger + Take and Hold is the closest approximation of InRangeTV-style 2-gun Action Challenge Match I can get from the comfort of my bedroom.

Ring Fit Adventure for the Switch was the next big thing, I think. It was very hard to acquire for quite some time. Being released right before 2020 probably helped a lot with its continued popularity, but I think I remember it getting a lot of attention when in launched in late 2019.

I would love to hear recommendations for it. In my experience it is a "use once and then put away" game.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats