I bought a Meta Quest headset two weeks ago based on this recommendation, and I completely agree. It is a very effective way to motivate myself to get exercise. The Thrill of the Fight is particularly effective for high intensity exercise/interval training. I normally don’t like interval training, but when someone is beating you up, you have to react! I previously thought my max heart rate was around 190, today I learned it is at least 205!
One potential downside I see, it that TOTF is violent in a realistic way. Normally, I don’t worry about this in computer games: I don’t think that clicking the mouse or pressing some keys, is likely to translate to anything in the real world. However, in VR, the actions you take to hit an opponent are exactly the same as you would in the real world. So for the first time, I have been worried if a game could make me or others violent. This can of course be solved by simply playing other games.
A more general failure mode of VR exercise is to overestimate how much exercise you get when playing more relaxed games such as Beat Saber. Due to the headset, the sweat to exercise ratio is higher than for example running or biking, so I sometimes think that I have been exercising more than I really have. This is the opposite effect of swimming, were I don’t notice any sweat, and so tend to underestimate how much I have exercised.
I bought a Meta Quest headset two weeks ago based on this recommendation, and I completely agree. It is a very effective way to motivate myself to get exercise. The Thrill of the Fight is particularly effective for high intensity exercise/interval training. I normally don’t like interval training, but when someone is beating you up, you have to react! I previously thought my max heart rate was around 190, today I learned it is at least 205!
One potential downside I see, it that TOTF is violent in a realistic way. Normally, I don’t worry about this in computer games: I don’t think that clicking the mouse or pressing some keys, is likely to translate to anything in the real world. However, in VR, the actions you take to hit an opponent are exactly the same as you would in the real world. So for the first time, I have been worried if a game could make me or others violent. This can of course be solved by simply playing other games.
A more general failure mode of VR exercise is to overestimate how much exercise you get when playing more relaxed games such as Beat Saber. Due to the headset, the sweat to exercise ratio is higher than for example running or biking, so I sometimes think that I have been exercising more than I really have. This is the opposite effect of swimming, were I don’t notice any sweat, and so tend to underestimate how much I have exercised.