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GAME CHANGER


Experts agree that gaming’s addictive features – challenges, rewards and social pressure – may be some of the most powerful weapons ever invented to get people to jumpstart, and stick to, healthy lifestyle changes. Susie Ellis, president of SpaFinder Inc, reports


trends to watch in the wellness industry. With medical experts now arguing that gaming’s uniquely engaging core mechanisms – from reward systems to social dynamics – are key to getting people to sustain healthy regimes, the connection between online gaming and the fitness industry is both super logical and powerful. While the trend remains largely


I


predictive at this point, given that online gaming is hands-down the most explosive consumer media form and almost every industry is ‘getting into gaming’, it will inevitably evolve.


n our 2012 SpaFinder Trend Report, we named online wellness gaming as one of the most interesting, innovative


“A STUDY OF US AND UK GAMERS SHOWS


THE AVERAGE PLAYER OF ONLINE SOCIAL GAMES IS NOW A


43-YEAR-OLD WOMAN”


USER ALIGNMENT Let’s start with a few facts about gaming: a staggering half a billion people worldwide play online games for at least an hour a day. And they’re not all teenage boys down in the basement zapping villains in games like World


Gaming could be key to changing the world’s health


of Warcraft. While hardcore gamers are indeed more likely to be male and younger, the massively popular social, casual games category – think about Farmville, Bejeweled and Angry Birds – is actually now dominated by an older, female demographic. A comprehensive study of US and UK


gamers, PopCap Social Gaming Research 2011, shows that the average player of online social games is now a 43-year- old woman; female social gamers outnumber men by 55 per cent to 45 per cent. Another study, Kabam Social Gamer 2011, reveals that the average first-time new social gamer is actually a 50-plus-year-old woman. This online social gaming demographic


presents the fitness industry with an interesting opportunity to engage with the full spectrum of not only its members but also its prospects – including, surprisingly, the grey market.


FUN AND SERIOUS But gaming is no longer limited to zapping virtual enemies or tending the virtual farm. Millions of people worldwide have already played dozens of fitness- and spa-focused games: Clarins, for example, has taken the spa-themed casual game to a new level with the launch of Spa Life on Facebook, where players compete to manage clients in search of treatments, and where they can redeem points for Clarins products. But as noted in our trends report, the


big, powerful and truly game-changing gaming and wellness connection lies ahead, and it involves ‘serious games’ – a new online social gaming category. Serious wellness gaming platforms are rapidly developing as more medical experts agree that gaming could be the key to changing the world’s health. If countless medical studies show that the old directives from doctor to patient


46 Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital june 2012 © cybertrek 2012


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