Daily Mail concerned about Wiis in P.E.

By Robert Purchese Published 28 January, 2008

Schools trial alluring concept.

Five schools in Worcestershire have been using the Wii in physical education classes to encourage youngsters to get active.

The initiative is being lead by the Droitwich and Worcester City School Partnership, which boasted positive heart rate-quickening results to UK newspaper the The Daily Mail.

"The use of computer games to increase physical activity levels and raise attainment to some would seem contradictory, but with rigid structures in place and by using specific games students soon found themselves being active and engaged almost without realising it," enthused a spokesperson for the Partnership.

But not everyone sees the benefit. The Mail claims a recent study proved playing a game on Wii only expends 2 per cent more energy than playing on traditional consoles.

And Nick Seaton from the Campaign for Real Education is worried it will encourage children to play videogames instead of doing conventional exercise.

"I think most sensible parents will think this is surrendering to the laziest pupils, it cannot possibly be any replacement for serious games and competition between peer group," said Seaton.

As we all know videogames are often cast as villainous in the mainstream media, blamed for causing children to eat less healthily and burn less calories and attack old ladies and play quiz games.

Slightly ironic that Nintendo should come under fire for moving away from a seated gaming environment then, particularly as its new Wii Fit product quite literally tells you how fat you are before making you bob around and head footballs.

"We now want to turn the living room into a fitness centre for the whole family," said Nintendo UK marketing mouth Dawn Paine. "Perish the thought, but video games can now make you fit."

Apparently as many as one in five boys and girls will be obese by 2020. Hover boards to follow.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • the_dudefather #1 4 years ago

    Eurogamer you Bojos! hover boards dont work on water!

  • jonsaan #2 4 years ago

    Having not played Wii fit I can only speculate as to how effective it is. The article does not say what Game/s are being considered for use in school.

  • Razz #3 4 years ago

    OMG! SHOCKING NEWS!! O_O

  • Rodney #4 4 years ago

    no amount of waving your arms about with a wii controller is a substitute for competitive and intensive sports.

    This is worrying, last week I was cheering on EA and this week I find myself in agreement with the Daily Mail



    Edited by 1 at 28/01/08 @ 10:37

  • Shinji #5 4 years ago

    The "Campaign for Real Education"? Another rent-a-quote pillock to add to the list then, along with John Bayer from MediaWatchUK, Stephen Green from Christian Voice and Andrew Green (no relation, presumably) from MigrationWatch. All nasty, lurid types who play fast and loose with the facts and represent bodies with impressive names but, apparently, nothing else going on upstairs - and in the case of Green, at least, he seems to be the sole member of his! And yet the Mail and its poisonous ilk manage to trot them out at least once a week to comment on anything and everything, regardless of whether they actually have the faintest clue about it...

    Welcome to a fine, fine group, Nick Seaton! Pull up a pew and ready your finest ignorance! "Real Education", indeed...

  • Salvia #6 4 years ago

    Fuck that! Get the lazy little twats out on the playing field.
    Edited by 1 at 28/01/08 @ 10:44

  • stampax #7 4 years ago

    oh no i agree with the daily mail :(

  • Eighthours #8 4 years ago

    But not everyone sees the benefit. The Mail claims a recent study proved playing a game on Wii only expends 2 per cent more energy than playing on traditional consoles.

    Clearly bollocks.

  • aine #9 4 years ago

    can't stand the dailymail ...

    the express is worse - i've been keeping an eye on that one for a while. of the last week's headlines, five were xenophobic (today's in particular elicited a "fucking hell" when i saw it), one was about an "outrage", and the other one was about the weather. a lot of the time it just comes off as a parody of the mail.
    Edited by 1 at 28/01/08 @ 11:04

  • aldo_14 #10 4 years ago

    the express is worse - i've been keeping an eye on that one for a while. of the last week's headlines, five were xenophobic, one was about an "outrage", and the other one was about the weather. a lot of the time it just comes off as a parody of the mail.

    Surely one must have been about Diana or Madeline?

    The Express and Mail are reprehensible shite. All you have to do is replace 'immigrant' with 'Jew' or 'Black' and it reads like a piece by the Nazis. Not surprising, really, given that the Mails' founder was a massive fan of Hitler & Mussolini up to and during World War 2.

    Albiet playing Wii isn't excercise and PE should be footie or something. Not that this makes the Mail right - we all know their interest is in neo-luddite scaremongering and yearning for a return for the sexist, racist, msyogenistic return of the empire and probably slavery.
    Edited by 1 at 28/01/08 @ 11:07

  • KD #11 4 years ago

    Easy fix for all this childhood obescity/laziness is start taxing parents for fat kids, watch the little podgy lazy gits drop the weight then =)

  • Lebowski #12 4 years ago

    Daily Mail scare-mongering? Surely shum mistake?

    And as for fitness levels, have you ever tried playing Wii Boxing? You build up a right sweat, especially running off from your girlfriend after your flailing wii arms have broken something else in her flat. Arf arf!

  • Lebowski #13 4 years ago

    Daily Mail scare-mongering? Surely shum mistake?

    And as for fitness levels, have you ever tried playing Wii Boxing? You build up a right sweat, especially running off from your girlfriend after your flailing wii arms have broken something else in her flat. Arf arf!

  • Rodney #14 4 years ago

    @ Eighthours

    I am not sure if 2% figure is clearly bollocks, most calories are burned just sustaining your body and its functions. Increased energy expenditure during fairly rigurous exercise is not that significant as a percentage.

  • L42yB #15 4 years ago

    "The Mail claims a recent study proved playing a game on Wii only expends 2 per cent more energy than playing on traditional consoles."

    That does sound like nonsense to me. In this study I suspect that these people were playing games whilst sitting down and moving a minimal amount.

    The amount of energy you expend when playing on the Wii varies a great deal from person to person (from what I have noticed).

    Although overall, I agree that this is not a substitute for sport. However, I think you could easily get as good a workout from a Wii console as you could from an aerobics video or summin similar... which mean you *could* get enough exercise to be healthy from playing your Wii, if it is done correctly :)

  • jhs8swd #16 4 years ago

    As it happens, studies HAVE been performed using the Wii. But I don't know where this 2% the Daily Hatemail is coming from.

    First this one appeared in the British Journal of Medicine recently: http://ww w.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/335/... - in summary, Wii sports uses 2 to 3 times the amount of energy that sitting playing with a joypad uses. And that study references this one: http://pe diatrics.aappublications.org/cg... which says that in comparison with sitting down games, Eyetoy and DDR both use approximately twice as much energy.

    I still think it's surprising how little energy overall is used though. And with regards to the comment someone made that playing Wii made someone sweat, it doesn't take much to get an unfit bloke sweating - after I had to do nothing for six months last year I can attest to that when I was starting to do stuff again!!

  • The_Inquisitor #17 4 years ago

    1 in 5 obese, cool, more people to point and laugh at. :)

    I think the idea of attractive kids to get active with Wii sports is a good idea, but not as a substitute for the real thing. They should be out side, getting sweaty. But by all means let them use it to warm down afterwards and test their fitness, it could be used to encourage them to try harder during the lesson so as to gain a better result afterwards with something they can easily relate to.

  • nufcfan123 #18 4 years ago

    tbh i don't want to see the wii being used in PE

    if i went into a PE lesson whist i was at school and instead of havin for example Football we had an hour of Wii Boxing i'd be pissed.

  • SpigleyMcCheese #19 4 years ago

    I can see what they're saying. I play Wii Sports with a flick of the wrist, and find it has much the same effect as going through the rigmarole of emulating the actual action.

    That said, I despise the daily Mail and will happily change my beliefs in order to contradict theirs. Wii Sports is the pinnacle of fitness training.

  • smelly #20 4 years ago

    SpigleyMcCheese +1 to everything you said there :-)

  • firefly #21 4 years ago

    Hmm that's tabloid hypocracy for you.

    Violent games like Manhunt or GTA should be banned - because if kids like virtual violence they'll love the real thing.
    Sporting games like Wii Sports should be banned - because if kids like virtual sports they won't bother with the real thing.

  • djed #22 4 years ago

    @ rodney
    agreed .

    Maybe you could look at it as hating faux 'news' and disagreeing with the methods of public education =)