Obesity (especially among children) is a health problem that worries Regence Blue Cross. To raise awareness, the health care insurer sponsors a yearly walking competition for state legislators, and wanted to extend that idea to fifth-grade students.
The problem: the existing competition rewarded people who were already fit, but did little to encourage overweight or sedentary people to increase their activity levels.
Applying game design principles, Writerguy developed new rules that rewarded personal improvement and team play, establishing incentives for people of all fitness levels to join.
WRITERGUY IS WORKING AS:
game designer and writer
GAME TYPE: cooperative/competitive health games
TARGET PLAYERS: middle-schoolers, legislators
HIS MISSION IS TO:
create cooperative and competitive challenges that encourage all members of the target player groups to participate in healthier levels of activity
HIS CLIENT: Regence Blue Cross and affiliates
YEARS: 2005 - present
"The Move It! program was designed to motivate students to be active every day by mixing health awareness, action and competition into the daily lives of the children. Elements of the program included personal and team challenges, as well as role models -- historical explorers from the American Westward Expansion. 'When the program ended, my students did not want to stop -- so I put up new posters and they are still going,' said Karen Roney, physical education specialist at Salish Ponds."
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"Three weeks into the program, students in Baker’s class had tripled their starting figures, and were walking an average of sixty thousand steps a week."
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