At the end of the chapter on exercise in Persuasive Games, I briefly discussed the problems exercise games pose to home use. A student and a colleague did a study and wrote an ACM article about how people negotiate space and play with big controllers like those used for DDR and Guitar Hero.

With the release of Wii Fit, these issues are coming to the fore once again. GameCritics.com is running a poll asking people if they have enough room to play Wii Fit (Yes, No, Yes if I move furniture). The results are ongoing, and based on only a couple hundred responses, but it generally seems split roughly into thirds, with a slight bump in the "Yes" camp. I'm suspicious, and wonder how many of the respondents actually own the game and balance board. Here's a telling comment from one reader: