Topic: Nintendo trademarks WiiRelax

Using your heart rate to change the game seems gimmicky, and the results would vary wildy between users. Some might not even be able to have the thing pick up any change.

That's sort of the point, to make the experience vary. Who wants the same old same old? Some people are better at keeping calm than others. No reason a game can't be made about this. There are lots of things some people can't do but others can.

We're talking video games here. The industry has been built on the use of gimmicks.

I can't see me getting scared playing a video game, but if a game had a lot of physical exertion in it, causing my heart rate to increase and that had a beneficial or detrimental effect on my character ... that'd be interesting.

Not every user has the same level of play in games anyways. Any session on an online FPS will demonstrate that simple fact. Not everyone gets the same experience out of the same video game.

They have these sort of heart rate monitors in sport a lot now. Its very interesting to see how much impact things can have on peoples' heartrate. Not just physical activity either.

During the Aus vs WI test they had a heartrate monitor on one of the bowlers. There was one batsman in for quite a while and eventually he got him out... the bowler's heartrate dropped from about 120bpm, where it had pretty much stayed for the whole over before, to about 90bpm after that delivery. You can see the same sort of thing in other sports where they collect this data. Quite often in footy when someone is lining up to take a goal their heartrate skyrockets.

These people are athletes trained to control their breathing and to keep calm so I am pretty sure that you would see the same sort of data on a "hardcore gamer" playing an FPS or similar high-intensity game.... and obviously horror games. Imagine if a horror game knew when you were least expecting something. "ok, he's at resting heartrate now... lets make some footstep noises... ok, he reacted a bit but he's calming down again.... hmmm.... lets make a zombie jump through that window"

I read books or run to relax but I did enjoy all the humorous jabs that many gaming sites pointed out. "WiiRelax: the first game to help you fall asleep."

WiiRaylax? Awesome, I'm taking over Ninty and I'm not even aware of it.

_{Oh, relax. My bad.}

At least, maybe this means that a game's difficulty can adjust to how relaxed you are, preventing any major stress that may occur. That's been the idea hinted to me when I heard about the Super Guide in NSBMW.

They should update the Wii firmware so that whenever you're playing any game with the Vitality Sensor on, if you get angry, the Duck Hunt dog pops up and laughs at you.

wtf... cricket? Crazy non-Americans and their crazy sports...

So I just looked up cricket. I guess it's a lot like baseball but with more terminology and less bases. At least that's what I gather. Also, wickets.

I don't know...playing videogames is already how I relax, so this seems a bit redundant. Not all videogames are relaxing of course, but something like Animal Crossing or Twilight Princess (hey, riding around on epona through the beautiful hyrule field listening to the epic music is pretty nice) or flying the plane around on Wii Sports Resort can be really relaxing.