"Healthifying" Exergames: Improving Health Outcomes through Intentional Priming

Exergames, video game systems that require exertion and interaction, have been rising in popularity in the past years. However, research on popular exergames shows mixed health benefits, potentially due to minimal energy expenditure and decreasing use over time. This paper presents a 2x2 experimental study (N = 44), using a popular exergame, where we vary the framing of intention (i.e., "Gameplay" or "Exercise") and feedback (i.e., "Health" or "No health") to explore their single and interactive impacts on perceived exertion, objectively measured energy expenditure, affect, and duration of usage in a single session. Our study showed that participants primed with exercise used the system significantly longer than those primed with game play (M= 49.2 +/- 2.0 min versus (M = 39.3 +/- 2.0 min). We discuss our results and possible design implications based on our single-session experiment. We conclude with a discussion on the potential impact of focusing on "healthifying" exergames-highlighting an exergames' dual purpose as both a game and exercise-as opposed to gamifying health behaviors.