Exerfied Games vs Gamified Exercise

Abstract

This paper sought to develop an exercise mod for Minecraft and evaluate it against an exergame design based on guidelines from the literature. We designed and implemented both games and also designed a custom controller which mounts to an exerbike. We conducted a user study with 19 participants to evaluate our games. Participants found the exergame we developed to be more motivating and had significantly higher rpm when playing it. It is unclear whether our exercise mod for Minecraft was an effective exergame. While we did show some improvements over previous attempts to exerfy Minecraft, participant responses indicate there is still room for improvement.