The Hindu Business Line : Freak out ... on fitness

Fun and fitness, without violence! A California-based company that has set up shop in Chennai says it offers games that parents of teenagers might approve of.

This is how you play the game.

A FEW weeks ago, I sat in a clean, well-lit Internet cafe checking my e-mail. Around me, a group of raucous young men are playing CounterStrike. On the wall, I see a poster advertising a local CounterStrike Tournament with a big list of cash prizes. I see others playing Ragnarok, the popular Korean MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games). If you guess that I'm in the US, Europe, Korea, or even China, you'd be wrong. I'm in Chennai."

So said Charles Huang, Founder/Vice President-Business Development, RedOctane Technologies, a California-based games and accessories development company.

So impressed was RedOctane that it opened up shop in Chennai in April, 2005. It currently has 37 employees in its office, and is looking to make inroads into the potential market in India for games development.

A close-up of the dance pads.

Swami Venkat, Vice-President, India Operations, RedOctane, says India is a good gaming market, and companies like Electronic Arts are focusing on Indian operations, and other internationally recognised game studios are also considering India for offshore games design and development.

RedOctane plans both to develop the gaming development industry here, as well as attack the local market, he says.

If you're an anxious parent wondering if in the future your son or daughter is going to spend hours slumped in front of the computer, eating hurriedly so that he or she could get back to dealing out horrifying deaths to animated monsters, take a deep breath, relax.

RedOctane's USP is that it promotes non-violent games that are fun to play, and also promote physical fitness. Don't believe? Read on.

RedOctane sells dance pads — 2 ft by 2 ft pads with arrow keys on them — that function more or less like a normal game pad, except that instead of using your fingers to press the buttons, you stand on the pad and use your feet. And its game, 'In the Groove', works something like this - a dance track plays in the background, and arrows appear on the screen in time to the music, instructing you which way you should move your feet. And you end up dancing, and you get your score depending on whether your steps were right or not. If it sounds easy, well, it's not.

Venkat frankly admits he can't get to the third stage, `average' (there are five, from `novice' up to `expert'). Srinivasan, one of the employees, in demonstrating the game, shows us the various levels, and after 20 minutes, turns it off exhausted, sweat dripping from his face.

There are various modes, such as the dance mode, the battle mode, where you can play against another player either on the console itself with another dance pad, or over local area network (LAN), marathon mode, where the game tests your endurance by playing on without stopping, and the fitness mode which records how many calories you burn.

These are calculated by sensors that are incorporated in the pad, which record every movement and calculate the number of calories that are burnt. Additional calories are taken into account when you have to move both feet in a sort of jump, which you have to do every so often in the course of the game.

The product scores over other computer games on two counts. First, it is non-violent. And violence in games is becoming a real issue, so much so that countries such as Germany are planning to ban all games that contain violence. Recently, Hillary Clinton proposed legislation that would restrict the sale of `mature' games to underage consumers.

The second issue with gaming is the addiction factor. In China, this is becoming a problem. Amidst its 25 million users, 10 per cent have problems, either at work or at home, and many people lose their jobs or get a divorce.

So much so that game publishers log you out of an online game after three hours (you lose all your points if you manage to continue somehow) and you won't be able to log in for another five hours.

The dance pad solution to addiction is a simple one - after half-an-hour, you're too exhausted to go on!

According to Venkat, in the US, Vern Patrick Elementary School, a school in Oregon, installed the pad and the games, trained the teachers to use it, and made it a regular programme for the students for five months.

They found that not only did the fitness levels improve dramatically, but also apparently it helped improve self-esteem, and helped them become more attentive in class (because of the concentration involved), and even helped an autistic child improve. In fact, Heather Renz won the Microsoft Innovative Teachers Award for implementing the programme.

And the product has been a huge success, with over 2,00,000 dance pads sold since 2001, when they first started manufacturing, and around 45,000 units of `In the Groove' sold since it was released in 2004 (the pads are also compatible with other dance games such as Konami).

And plans for India? "Obesity is not as big a problem here as it is in the US," says Venkat, "But it will help students improve their concentration, and that's the market we are looking at." With the exam obsession that dominates students' lives here, that doesn't sound like too bad an idea.

However, we will have to wait for the product. Venkat says talks are on with a couple of manufacturers and partners in India, and hopefully government approval will come through as well.

"The idea is to manufacture here and avoid customs duty, which plays a heavy role in the pricing of gaming products." So much so, that a gaming device that costs $20 in the US can cost up to $240 at a local store here. "If the Government can relax the customs duty, we will be able to handle the market," he adds.

Meanwhile, RedOctane is also going to develop a complete set of games for an Indian movie. When the games get released, Venkat says they will be the first game studio in India to achieve this.

But more on that later - it deserves a story all on its own!

Picture by Bijoy Ghosh

abhinav@thehindu.co.in

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