This isn't some theoretical "fitness should be fun" speech by an idealistic VR game developer.
Fun is nature's way to get us fit.
Mammals play to increase fitness (fitness in the broader, evolutionary sense). We simulate real life in a low-consequence environment, and are rewarded with: Fun!
So games are meant to be sugar coated pills - the sugar being Fun, the pill being Fitness.
Video games are great at generating Fun, and although some prop our social, motor or thinking skills, let's be honest - most just exploit the fun circuit.
All sugar, no pill.
And that's fine. As gamers, we go in knowingly looking for fun, not fitness.
But it troubles me to see video games decrease our fitness outright; Exploiting the fun circuit so well that we let our physical, mental and social health deteriorate. To me, it's a preversion of what Fun, Play and Games should be. I want nothing to do with that.
VR is a medium where my moral and professional aspirations align right out of the box. I can give people Fun which increases their Fitness (at the very least their physical fitness) - just as nature intended.
Done right, all you feel is Fun. But at the end of the day you get the deep satisfaction of increased fitness.
I think this is what VR gaming can do.
It can make games good for us again.
Fitness shouldn't be a chore. It should be something that happens to you while you're busy having fun.
Check out this illustration.
In 2017 we tried explaining VR gaming's potential to do our bodies good, as opposed to what traditional gaming (which we love!) has been doing to us as a species.
Today we like calling it "collateral fitness" :)