MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a Treadmill

MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a Treadmill

August 26, 2008

While running your character on a long trek through your favorite MMO, have you ever imagined how great it would be to get so much exercise in real life?

The marketing site for Mana Energy Potion has posted a fascinating account of how two WoW players connected treadmills to their PCs and used their own 6mph locomotion to power their avatars:

We decided on a run from the gates of Shadowglen, through Dolanaar, to the sentries of Darnassus. We took level 1-2 elves so there would be a real danger that we'd get attacked along the way...

 

I'd first like to point out that Eli is in quite good shape. I, however, am not... We thought it would be a good representation of the gamut of gamers if we both ran the race. We donned the cheapest heart monitors we could find for kicks...

 

Eli and I stayed pretty even throughout the whole run. But about 3 minutes in, my heart rate reached over 205 BPM, and my max is around 195 BPM. I had to slow down to a walk because I thought I was going to pass out. Running in WoW is no joke... 

Comments

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

There's no way I could run through the WoW world on a treadmill

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

I remember seeing this done with Quake 2 but on an exercise bike

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

Man, if I knew this was news-worthy I'd have blogged about my experience doing the same in Age of Conan. I used a gamepad in conjunction with Pinnacle Profiler to run my character while I biked for an hour or so a day. It made my wife happy, got me exercising, and kept my game playing to reasonable levels.

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

I like the concept, but I hate the sponsership.  As RealLifeComics have already pointed out, anything with 6667% of your daily recommended intake of B12 in it can't be good for you.

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

You have to remember that the group that makes those recommendations have no clue what they are talking about...

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

Ok, I gotta say:  THIS IS SO COOL!  :)

Nightwng2000

NW2K Software

Nightwng2000 has also updated his MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/nightwing2000 Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

I've thought of doing the same thing, but I don't have the cash to attempt it. I don't know if I could even jog from one side of Thunderbluff to the other. I'm a programmer. Until I learn to type with my toes and become twice as productive, my legs are only used to carry me from my chair to my 'fridge.

Mad props to these two guys, though, for wanting to see what it's like to have to hoof it through WoW.

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

Can anyone teach me how to hook up my treadmill to my pc?

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

They actually give a bit of a instructional on how they did it. 

GlovePIE sounds pretty cool too.  It mentions it can be used with rowing machines as well.

I suspect if one has plenty of money, one could buy and program a more advanced treadmill that was designed for PC connection.  Many medical treadmills have that capability.

Nightwng2000

NW2K Software

Nightwng2000 has also updated his MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/nightwing2000 Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a
Great idea! But I would have used either a balance board or DDR mat (run in place).
Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

205 BPM? Yeah right! Even if you are running away from a murderer at full speed for a good amount of time, your heart beat would max at 180 BPM. If you reach 180 BPM, that would kill you right there.

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

Um.. Not really. Im not in very good shape, and when I exercise hard by running on a treadmill or playing football, my heart monitor routinely peaks at 205-215. Its not good for me, but as you can see, Im not dead. Lol. Im sure up in the 250-260 range would be pushing death, but not 200.

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

I've been over 200. Boy, that was fun -_-

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

Incorrect.  According to your age and weight, your "max" heart rate can very but unless you are in shape and younger than 20, 200 is not healthy if sustained.

Go running on a treadmill for an hour, keep a good jog and monitor your heart rate, it is fairly easy to get it way up there if you are not in the best shape.

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

Ok this is full of win!  Now if someone figures out how to allow for making character actions this is just... Epic!  I hope this idea is taken further.

-Loudspeaker
"Volume helps to get a point across but sharp teeth are better."

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

I have been contimplating modding an excersize bike to power a generator running my computer. That way, if I want to use my computer at home, I have to get some excersize in the process.

E. Zachary Knight
http://www.editorialgames.com
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
MySpace Page: http://www.myspace.com/okceca
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Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

Good luck. I've seen something exactly like that at a museum you had to to pedal really fast to power a small black and white TV (although it did work, I remember pedaling really fast and seeing a resee's commercial).

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

if im not mistaken, this will make a lot of potheads that play that game forced to quit if they have to run on a treadmill... it ruins the game for me! but i cancelled my account anyway!

Jesus Jack Jones Thompson told me to do it!

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

It's just like rock paper scissors. Excercise > Potheads > Jack Thompson.

 

 

...how does JT beat excercise?

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

By running his mouth so much he burns more calories an hour than these folks did?

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

Does anyone have any more detailed information on how to set a system like this up?  Is it possible to make it less strenuous, so that say a retired parent who loves WoW could use it?  How expensive is the equipment for something like this?

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

i so want to do this. i run on a treadmill and use an exercise bike all the time. if i could videogame with a these it would make it a hell of a lot eaiser

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

One of the keys to excercize is to find something you'll keep doing and ways to keep it itneresting. If you aren't havign fun and aren't interested you won't do it, so, thisis a good idea.

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

I had a similiar thought, one of the reasons I want to stop on treadmills and bikes etc is it's so monotonous, bobbing up and down staring at a wall. It'd be way better if you were cycling through the grand canyon, running along a Norwegian glacier; or weightlifting on the moon (600lb benchpressing here I come!)

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

I think it's a great idea!  I would definitely buy (and, more importantly, USE) an exercise machine if I could hook it up to my favourite games.

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

This was so funny.

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

I would die just running from the Valley of Trials to Sen'jin Village.

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

When will the first racing game that uses treadmills appear? 

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

At first I thought it was a pretty epic idea, but that was because I assumed they were going to do something like a lap around the world or from one end of a continent to the to the other. But a 5 minute jog O.o

Seriously m8s, ditch your cars and ride a bike!

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

Woah this actually looks like a cool idea although how would you play the game?

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

Setting up a DDR mat to WoW would be ultra cool....

run, run, run

attack, 1, 2, 1, 3, 4

run, run, run

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

This is extremely cool... However! I would probably pass out after trying to make it through the Barrens.. :D

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

What a fun idea. It also would solve the problem of characters having identical running speeds. On the other hand, way to lure players even further away from Real Life.

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

I've been trying to do something similar using two Wiimotes, a DDR pad, or Nintendo Wii-Fit to control my character in Age of Conan.

Check out my blog, I will be posting scripts as I update it. Feel free to contribute, I'm sure this could be ported to WoW.

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

I'm all for freedom of ttnet vitamin speech and allowing rent a car game makers to put whatever they want in games, but there's one thing about this app that has me scratching my head.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but from araç kiralama the previous article araba kiralama on this I gathered that players can use Google maps in-game to find the other (real-life?) dealers in their area.  If this is the case, has travesti anyone considered what's stopping someone from using this app to actually move drugs between hands for reals?

But majority araba kiralama of their outrage araç kiralama stems from what it could DO TO children, not the content itself.  Talk to one of these people and you'll find they don't think any books kiralık araba should be banned from children.  Mention American Psycho and they talk about kiralık araç the redeeming value of using imagination to construct a story.  Reading, no matter what the content, is largely viewed as a consequenceless activity for people of any age.  The reason why I mention American Psycho is because of the content itself.  Gaming never has and likely never will have any scenes where someone has sex with a severed head.  Not gonna happen.  Yet despite this, they'll fight tooth and nail to protect their children from two boys kissing in Bully but whatever they read is harmless... yeah.

The entire arguement is kiralık oto based upon a social normality inflicted by luddites who can't figure out the controls for Halo so it's frightening and terrifying and obviously the cause of youth violence on the rise even though, in reality, it's in decline (which is actually a HUGE suprise given minibüs kiralama the economies status).  In  a perfect world, we would have parents that actually parent.  The idea of sales restrictions on media on oto kiralama any form to accomidate parental unwillingness to get involved with their child's life is the real problem to me.  Here I am, 32 years old, and being held up at a self-scan rent a car needing to show ID before I can buy a $10 M rated game all because Soccer Momthra can't be bothered to look at the crap Billy Genericallystupidson does in his free time.  It's too hard for her, so I have to suffer?

Re: MMO Exercise? Running Through World of Warcraft on a

This is a great idea in theory but as someone said ealier the majority of gamers are teenage potheads and not too interested in fitness.  It's like the wii fit that is almost exclusively used by women.  Although I do love my rowing machine so if I could fix that up with my xbox 360 I might have a go.  Terry of rowing machine reviews.

GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 11/20/09 at 05:42pm
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Posted 11/20/09 at 05:17pm
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Posted 11/20/09 at 05:10pm
ZippyDSMlee: JD:No thank you I don;t want your cooties...or STDs...
Posted 11/20/09 at 05:01pm
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Posted 11/20/09 at 04:59pm
DarkSaber: Wait, is that meant to be Zippy, me or you?
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:49pm
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Posted 11/20/09 at 04:46pm
DarkSaber: knell? Don't you mean Neil? Anymore of tht and I'll dub thee Zippy The Soecnda
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JDKJ: C'mon, Zip. You already touch yourself way too much. Spread the love. Before you go blind.
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: JD:No and I ain't touching any part of you or your friends!! :P
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:25pm
JDKJ: @Zip: You know Lik Mitaint?
Posted 11/20/09 at 04:18pm
ZippyDSMlee: neill and bob,oldest giveing head joke and most lamest...
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Posted 11/20/09 at 03:56pm
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Posted 11/20/09 at 03:49pm
JDKJ: I'd like to introduce you to them. First, Neil. Then, Bob.
Posted 11/20/09 at 03:47pm
ZippyDSMlee: JD:I know they are intimate friends of yours...
Posted 11/20/09 at 03:44pm
JDKJ: @Zip: You know Neil and Bob?
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