Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Virtual Sports Injuries - Xbox Kinect

We were given an XBox Kinect for Christmas, and like most people who watch the commercials, we thought it would be a great way to get the family up and moving around. It came with a dancing game and a couple of sports games.

We fired it up and put in the sports game. Now we had a party. My brother and I are very competitive, so we started with the tennis game. Like other gaming systems, for the Xbox Kinect to work, both people have to be standing in front of it. Probably not a good idea for tennis.

The first match went off without a hitch. We were both sweating and ready for round two. My brother swung for an overhead smash that caught the pull cord on the ceiling fan and sent it flying up into the fan where it was promptly cut off by said fan and sent hurdling across the room. We should have taken that as an omen.

In the last set, my brother was trying to return a vicious backhand from me. Unfortunately, his forehand had a blazing spin on it that not only went past my virtual character, but also caught me in the back nearly rupturing my kidney. We decided to take a break and let the kids play.

My kids started first and my daughter landed a wicked backhand that gave her brother a fat lip. Although, to his credit, he responded with a killer forehand that stayed in bounds and gave his sister a bruise on the shoulder.


We thought it might be best to change games, so we moved to virtual track. This time I talked my husband into playing. We started with hurdles. He had to sit down after he hurt his knee on the fake jump leaving me alone to start the javelin. I knew I had to give it my best shot, so I flung my virtual javelin for all it was worth, promptly spraining my shoulder. How does the even happen? I threw air!



We didn't do much better with the dance game, and before the night was over, we were all sweating and lining up for ibuprofen and ice packs. Who knew virtual sports could be so dangerous?

10 comments:

  1. I haven't had any painful experiences with my Kinect but after my neighbor saw me pretending to be a Jedi (lightsaber and all) while playing Star Wars Kinect, I kinda stopped playing.

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  2. Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever whacked a person with a Wii-mote or Kinect stick before. Must’ve been one heck of a night!

    Friendly fire aside, people tend to forget that, when they’re playing sports games in their Xbox or Wii, they can end up imitating intensive sports like hurdles. This in turn tends to get you winded or sore really quickly. But still, it makes for a great family activity, yes? Just try to keep a fair distance from each other when playing next time.

    Kristal

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    1. It's true! It's great family fun Kristal, and certainly more of a workout than I expected. It's especially great in the winter, when the weather is bad, and it's harder to exercise outdoors.

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  4. I saw my aunt warming up once in the living room. I was going to ask her if she was going for a jog outside (which was impossible, since it was snowing), when she turned on the Wii and started playing a sports game. I joined her afterwards, and I found out why she was stretching beforehand. Dang those games are exhausting! My arms ached the day after, but I guess it was worth it, considering the unexpected workout I got. Haha!

    Tracey

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  5. LOL! I hear you! I should have stretched!

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