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Higher levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and maybe even light physical activity (LPA), have been related to better health, motor skills, and cognitive outcomes in virtually all age and ability groups. Problematically, however, most people in general are not prone to enjoy and participate in substantial amounts of physical activity (PA), and it has been challenging to find ways to increase the number of minutes of PA per day to a high enough level to achieve the aforementioned benefits. Low levels of PA may also in part be due to possible compensation with lower activity later in the day, or the next day, in response to bouts of PA. Serious games, that is, games designed to achieve an outcome in addition to entertainment, have been developed to enhance health outcomes and have been demonstrated to yield broad positive effects. Serious games have influenced selfefficacy, or confidence, for doing a behavior (e.g., PA), which is a determinant of doing the behavior and thereby on the pathway to behavior change. Exergames are a genre of serious games and games for health, but the game mechanic, or method of game play, requires body movement to move the game forward, thereby increasing levels of PA. Exergames appeal to some age groups owing to their intrinsic motivation (or fun) enhancing aspects. Some have argued that given the high appeal of gaming in general, exergames hold the promise of being even more effective than other PA-promoting programs in initiating and maintaining PA. Some scholars, however, have concluded that exergames are a blight on humanity because they may not provide higher levels of PA intensity and may displace naturally occurring outside sports and PA, whereas others emphasize the possible replacement of sedentary gaming with active gaming and the broad, even international, reach of some games (e.g., the recent Pokémon Go release). Alternatively, among children, simply providing a selection of exergames did not increase children’s PA levels, suggesting that more than just the games needs to be provided. Exergames were originally introduced using PA as an innovative gaming mechanic that was hoped and expected to enhance the games’ attractiveness to some groups and thereby enhance sales, not promote the public’s health. As a result, some investigators have experimented with exergame mechanics to further enhance the healthfulness (it is hoped without impairing the enjoyment). Three groups have been identified for special interest in and benefit from exergames: children, who generally play extensive amounts of games and thereby may be prone to exergaming, and seniors and people with disabilities, who can perform and benefit from the somewhat lighter intensity activities associated with exergaming. The interesting articles in this special issue of the Journal of Sport and Health Science address these important and diverse issues. Exergaming may be a “gateway” to PA (i.e., increasing diverse kinds of activity from earlier playing of exergames), but little research has addressed this hypothesized effect. Staiano and colleagues tested in an experimental design whether dance exergaming offered 3 times per week over 12 weeks under coaching supervision to 37 adolescent girls (randomly assigned to groups) affected psychosocial variables that influenced PA or had the gateway effect. The investigators introduced an interesting free-play period with diverse activities available to test the gateway effect. The intervention group girls, in comparison to the control group, increased self-reported intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and PA from before to after the 12 weeks of exergames, but this had no impact on objectively assessed PA or sedentary behavior. Because attendance at the exergaming sessions was high (80%), PA was increased during the intervention, but this was LPA, not MVPA. The increased LPA did not transfer to the free-play period or to after the intervention, thereby providing no evidence of a gateway to other PA. This does not terminate the gateway speculation because it might exist for younger children, adults, or boys, or in response to more intense activity, but the findings do not exactly stoke the fires of hope, either. Alternatively, the adolescent girls, who are famously inactive, did engage in mostly LPA during the intervention, suggesting that supervised dance exergaming could be offered to increase their usual PA. Continuing the focus on children, Gao and colleagues tested whether a choice of exergames could be offered on a population basis to otherwise underserved children (second and third graders) to increase their amount and level of PA at school. Peer review under responsibility of Shanghai University of Sport. E-mail address: tbaranow@bcm.edu

Exergaming: Hope for future physical activity? or blight on mankind?