Fit without sport: which psychological tricks ring fit adventure

Already Mary Poppins, probably the least known as a pioneer of today's gamification trend, said in every work that needs to be done is a degree of fun. And it certainly has almost everyone experienced that work can also be fun. You have the feeling of mastering a task to get things to do & get forward. In psychology, we also refer to as self-effective life.

Video games give us this feeling in a particularly pronounced dimensions : We are doing ourselves through huge monsterhords as if it were nothing, explore racing huge fantasy world, preserved mass-way - and all without a drop of sweat on the forehead. Even in Ring Fit Adventure there is a fantasy world, monsters and prey, but the forehead remains anything but dry. Why does it work as a video game anyway and what gives us the feeling to be self-effective?

The thing with the amplifiers

Psychologically considered are damage numbers, levels, loot and scores small rewards, so-called amplifiers. They give us the feeling that what we are doing is good for us and fun. However, our reward system distinguishes between short-term and long-term amplifiers. In the short term, everything happens in the context of a few seconds, such as critical hits or loot.

For example, medium and long-term amplifiers are unlocking new game mechanics or progress in history. Video games are optimally designed so that they provide both numerous short-term and long-term amplifiers, while - apart from some exceptions - are not exhausting or unpleasant.

However, life is yes (unfortunately) no video game : In the topics learning, work or physical effort, the fun factor strives predominantly against 0. In particular, sporting activities such as jogging need extreme overcome to begin at all. What is it that we are ready to play almost at any time a video game but do not make sports? And how does it make us ring fit adventure easier?

The suffering of the young sports catcher

Our motivation and our behavior is controlled most of the time over short-term consequences or amplifiers. Unfortunately, you have to say, because not everything is motivating in the short term, is good in the long term and not everything that is good for us in the long term is motivating at short notice.

Less stimuli in sports: Sporting activities that serve mainly to build fitness, although due to the many positive effects on psyche and body are good for us, but unfortunately irritate us much less than sitting on the couch or What greasy to eat. The problem here is that the short-term amplifier ratio is unbalanced: there is little pleasant (e.g., fun) and much unpleasant (e.g., effort, pain, exhaustion) in this type of sport.

So how can one overcome this often insurmountable ditch between the desire for the health benefits of sportiness and unpleasant nature of physical activity? Damage numbers and fights with the sweet monsters like in Ring Fit Adventure?

There's something about Gamification ...

The playful design of sporting activity is also no longer novum in the video game area: Since the beginning of the 2000s, sports games such as Wii Sports or dance matches as Dance Dance Revolution and Just Dance sweeten the physical activity. These very popular sports simulations, but mainly transport activities in the video game area that are already fun, like dancing or baseball.

With Wii Fit, on the other hand, Nintendo has tried for the first time and reasonably successfully on the gamification of primarily strenuous activities, such as muscle building exercises and yogahaltungen, before using Ring Fit Adventure 2019 the so-called fitness game genre and thus the gamification of sporty exercises to the next stage. But how does Gamification work and through which design elements is it?

With points, badges and rankings to hamster in the wheel become?

The problem with the lack of short-term amplifiers tries to solve gamification with the design element of the points, badges and rankables. If I carry out an exercise, I will immediately reward with points and make progress. As a result, the short-term unpleasant stimulus of effort is still opposed to the reward feeling of points. This improves the short-term amplifier ratio and makes even more profitable appear more bearable.

In addition, I can then use a certain number of repeating the exercises to work on medium and long-term goals in the form of badges and measure me in comparison with other players and feel better in social comparison.

It's not that easy then ...

Although the motivation for strenuous activities can be increased, but only short term. To keep players in the long term in the rod heard more, because video games, the role models of gamification, do not only consist of points and numbers.

Jolina Bering

Jolina has always been relatively sports enthusiasts and has already tried everything from badminton to climbing up to Muay Thai. With the failing of all club activities due to the pandemic, she found a new sports adventure in Ring Fit Adventure in which she could fall. After some initial skepticism, she has discovered Ring Fit Adventure for itself as a good entry after prolonged sports breaks.

Ideas from the video game world : Other important elements include a well-told story and a visually appealing game world. Levelsysteme also helps us make progress noticeable, and offer short-term amplifiers through experience points. The achievement of levels is the medium and long term goal and reward at the same time as higher levels often associate with higher status values ​​and new skills.

Another point of which leads to a higher identification with the gaming content, and thus to higher motivation is personalization. Be it names, appearance or the way we play the game. All these things give us control and room for maneuver and help we are interested and curious and stay. Now that we have thrown a deep look into the Gamification Trickkiste, let's look at how that in Ring Fit Adventure is implemented.

Ring Fit Adventure - A Gamification Masterpiece?

Ring Fit Adventure is right at the beginning a lot right to arouse the interest and get away from the digging of the unwus: you can personalize his character slightly (looks & name) and then slips directly as a protagonist * in a classic I have the world Prior to the destruction story. The world will also be stuffed by other characters and monsters who looked like a Pokémon with a training device, filled with life. All this contributes to that it is not just like a fitness exercise with nice packaging, but more like a video game.

We will virtually one with our avatar and move with each step on the spot also the legs of our figure, with our bicep power gates up and down monster. This contributes enormously to the identification with the gameplay and gives us a thick pack of self-effective life. Speaking monsters: Exercise sequences are sold to a lap-based battles against monsters. This not only has a story frame for the exercises, but is directly rewarded by damage numbers, experience points and coins.

Rewards : There are also awards at the end of a training session if you have repeated exercises in a certain frequency and there are rank lists where you can compare with other players. All of these factors help very well to distract from the physical effort to make a rewarding gaming experience and to give a sense of progress, as you would not want to go jogging.

But in addition to the necessary short-term amplifiers, Ring Fit Adventure also offers many resources that contribute to a longer-term motivation: In addition to the more simple but entertaining history, there is also equipment to collect, reach levels and unlock new skills. Another important factor is personalization: through the flexible adaptation of exercises before each fight and the different game modes (story, training plan, rhythm game) you have the opportunity to adapt the training to your own needs. This makes ring fit adventure to a swiss pocket knife of home training.

The final death of the inner pig dog?

So has Nintendo managed to perfectly gamify sports activity? Perfectly not quite, but it is probably designing the best fitness game, which has given it so far as it offers much more game depth, story and personalization, and thereby also long-term amplifiers than other games of this genre. Nevertheless, one who is always the same soundscape, the very similar level design, and the already very shallow story and character depth at some point to the biscuit. Nevertheless, it is worth it because it can ensure through the short and medium-term incentives to start sports and movement or starting again and to produce a certain fitness level. So it's exactly what it should: highlight our butt. What is your experience with ring fit adventure and what helps you motivate for sports activity?