In recent years, the default portrait of passionate gamers changed from skinny, bespectacled, pimple-faced teenagers with frail shoulders to unshaved, relatively obese cosplaying young adults. But one of these traits may change in the near future – the obesity part. At least, if devices such as the one created by New Concept Gaming take any hold.

This company is based in the UK and specializes in the creation of Wii-fitness-type products, combining video games with more boring stuff like health and fitness. One of its recently developed gadgets is called jOG – a suggestive name, wouldn't you say? - and it has already been showcased at this year's edition of the Toy Fair, which took place in London, at the end of January. New Concept Gaming plans to release the product tailored specifically for the Nintendo Wii, in April 2009.

Apparently, jOG works like this: it has sensors that monitor the way you move your lower body, and by that I mean the legs, and is virtually capable of measuring your strides. This input is then transferred to the game, so that your real steps coincide with your digital ones. So, now you can feel more like you're actually in the game and work out at the same time. Of course, walking and running while not actually moving is not exactly a grueling training regimen, but it's way much better than nothing. After all, if you play on this jOG thing for a long, long time, you might even reach the recommended quota of 10,000 steps per day.

According to Gamer's Daily News, there is scientific proof (from John Moores University) that gamers using the jOG for the Wii thingy use more than three times the energy they would expend while playing normal games from a seated position, and their heart rate is 40% faster. We don't know yet what kind of game the jOG actually is. Some fantasy epic saga, a survival horror sci-fi story? Because Wii games gave this tendency of being, well, anything but that. Running in terror on the zombified streets of Resident Evil or scouring the wastes of Fallout 3 would be a real workout.

Still, the jOG is a nice idea, technologically speaking, with plenty of potential. If there only were a Wii game that would allow gamers to blend real-life shaving with virtual shaving - we could call it sHAVE - all problems would be solved. The jOG costs about £19.99, by the way.


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