Game title: Box VR
Gaming system: Oculus Quest (Virtual Reality goggles)
Category: Virtual Reality (VR), simulation, fitness, sport, active
Player type: single-player to multiplayer classes
Restrictions: None, for everyone (VR recommended for age 7+/30 minutes maximum due to lack of research on long-term physical effects)
Game set-up: 6.5 feet by 6.5 feet empty room space recommended
Average game play time: 10 minutes to 30 minutes +
Publisher: FitXR
Release Date: March 21, 2019
Cost: $29.99
Overview
Box VR is a fitness-oriented game on the Oculus Quest, VR goggles, where players are able to box featuring several moves such as squats, jabs, uppercuts and hooks. It’s primarily aimed at single-players, to choose your own music playlists, take pre-loaded boxing classes and set your own goals. However, there is a multiplayer option where you can join a class with other players if others are online.
The game begins where the player begins in a locker room setting, and they’re able to choose multiple boxing environments. This includes whether to choose a class designed by a fitness instructor, simply build a music playlist and choose your level of difficulty (easy, medium or hard) to box to, or to choose the “class of the day”:
Players are also able to choose between three boxing studio environments, featuring two different types of gyms and a more technologic-virtual landscape:
Any of the boxing settings and environments are user-friendly choices and allow for quick access to get started boxing. Once you’re in the boxing round you’ll be able to see your points in the upper left-hand corner and your calorie and time statistics in the upper right-hand corner of the game.
Frequently throughout the boxing round, players will be advised on what foot placement to be in, either right-foot forward or left-foot forward. Furthermore, players have distinctively-colored boxing gloves with a blue boxing glove on your left-hand and pink boxing glove on your right-hand. This helps with mental coordination to know which hand to hit each colored ball at.
Now, the fun part….different balls will fly at you in varying shapes to let the player know to:
Jab
Smaller round balls with a white center to hit directly/straight on center.
Hook
Half-circles with a white ball/colored tail on the side that you need to hit.
Uppercut
Half-circles featuring the white ball/colored tail on the flat/bottom side.
Squat
Large yellow-orange beams that you must either dodge to the left/right side or squat under.
Block
Single blocking pads that you must use both boxing gloves to protect yourself from.
Players score points with each ball that they hit accurately. Points increase with accuracy, as well as with the strength of your punch; the harder you punch, the more points you receive.
The primary goal of Box VR is to focus on staying active and having fun while you’re doing it.
Here is a Box VR trailer (00:28) that represents game play very well.
Game Experience
I had been eyeing this game to buy for several weeks and I was actually waiting for it to go on sale, since the cost of the game was on the higher end for Oculus Quest games at $29.99. However, with my gym closed and trying to focus on staying active during the COVID-19 pandemic, I decided to splurge and take up VR boxing to stay in shape in addition to my walks outside.
Since I have limited boxing experience in the real-world, with the exception of some informal boxing with friends and a kickboxing team-building activity recently, I was a little nervous as to whether I would enjoy this game or not. I started out Box VR by practicing the game’s tutorial and reviewing proper boxing stances online. I was worried about injuring myself without proper stances, so I hope that Box VR adds this to future game updates. However, my main goal with Box VR was to have a strenuous game that I can easily access during the pandemic to escape and to stay active.
At first, my partner and I alternated turns playing by casting the game to our TV, with AirScreen, so that we could watch the other person boxing. The casting lags a little bit by a few seconds, but it’s great for feeling like you’re immersed in game play, as well. I also made sure to add the extra controller grip straps to the Oculus Quest controllers as an added safety measure since you’re throwing the controllers around and I didn’t want to break one….or the TV...by accident. Next, I spent quite a bit of time adding songs to my playlist initially and choosing songs that I thought would “pump me up” to work out between Box VR’s rap, rock, or pop song choices. Once I had about 50 minutes of songs on my playlist, the simplest way to get started was to choose my playlist on an “easy” level, with my songs shuffled and hit start. The game was self-explanatory about how to hit each of the flying boxing balls and I think I had a leg-up since the game play was very similar to Oculus Quest’s Beat Saber game, where you use color-coded light sabers to hit boxes to the beat of songs. Nevertheless, it did take a minute to understand how the Oculus Quest sensors picked up your punches to each of the different moves (jabs versus hooks, for example) and there are certain angles that work best. It also took me about a week of game play to realize that Box VR can sense how hard I’m punching?! The harder I punch, the higher scores I would get. This also helps with working up a sweat faster and I always feel like I got a really hard workout after playing Box VR.
Otherwise, I’ve been playing Box VR for a couple of weeks now, primarily solo. I was most interested in playing multiplayer currently with other virtual players, due to being on pandemic stay-in-place orders in CO and I thought I might make some online friends. But, it seems as though the multiplayer rooms are always empty when I check. So, a nice compromise for me has been to join the boxing classes that are designed by real-life fitness instructors. Players can choose these classes by time-range primarily. I typically choose a class that lasts between 15 to 20 minutes as I’m working my way up to longer box times. However, class difficulties vary greatly and although I’ve worked up to a “medium” level on the Box VR scale since I’ve started playing, some of the boxing classes are really physically grueling. So, I wish that they would designate the classes by time and difficulty level, also.
Generally, I have been surprised to feel more toned physically from playing Box VR and I’m curious about the long-term effects of playing. Either way, Box VR is definitely a nice mental escape and even if I wasn’t being stuck at home mostly, it is a nice stress reliever. I always feel much better physically and mentally after playing and I like to use it as my after-work work out as a replacement to the gym.
Scholarly Examination and Connections
Comparing the experience of exercise in a virtual reality (Oculus Quest goggles) setting to the “Admission is the Mission: How First Generation Students Approach Learning About College Through Games” article by Zoe B. Corwin and Robert Danielson, a similar premise is at play in that real-world knowledge is being taught through gamification. In the Corwin and Danielson article, college application scenarios and real-world planning skills are being taught through a PC-based game prior to when students actually need to apply for college (Corwin et al., 2016). With limited boxing knowledge, I was also being trained through the Oculus Quest at the front end on boxing moves such as jabs, hooks and blocks in order to stay active. Obviously, I did need to discover some affinity spaces on proper boxing stances, and jabs, uppercuts and hooks, but this opened up a world of fitness support. In being able to access boxing communities and training videos outside of Box VR (i.e. affinity spaces), I also felt like I had more knowledge and support at my fingertips (Gee, 2005). I could see the limited tutorials in Box VR on proper boxing to be a possible liability for other players that do not seek out affinity spaces to research on their own. However, in my mind, this mainly prevents unnecessary injury in Box VR and a newcomer could manage to play with little to no boxing knowledge.
Obviously, the main benefit to Box VR, or at least my main intention with the game, is to stay active during the COVID-19 pandemic or any other time. Since the pandemic is ongoing, there will most likely be more research on the effects of transmission, social distancing and lifestyles in the future. However, currently, my goal has been to stay active and I have seen in additional Oculus Quest forums about what a life-saver the Oculus Quest has been for people around the world on stay-at-home or quarantine orders. Specifically, there has been discussion about Oculus Quest games to keep you active and which games are favorites. And, although VR has been around for years now, the Oculus Quest has created the most recent mainstream VR player base since its influx of purchases in December 2019. Ashish Amresh and Rahul Salla’s article, “Towards a Home-Based Virtual Reality Game System to Promote Exercise” touches on the possible player engagement in virtual reality exercise and benefits from play. Their 2017 study concluded that the majority of 37 study participants burned more calories in VR than they would have in their normal, daily exercise. Additionally, the majority of study participants gauged that VR enhanced their exercise (Amrish et al., 2017). I can attest to the fact that I look forward to Box VR to stay active for a break from work or after the work day is finished.
I’ve actually begun VR boxing every day and have talked with my family and friends about taking boxing classes or kickboxing classes in the future. It’s strenuous activity to help you get in shape as well as to distract from your day-to-day stresses. The ability to transfer my VR boxing skills to the real-world of exercise and boxing is pivotal for keeping me active and motivated (Stevens et al., 2008). The main motivating factor for me from Gabriela T. Richard’s article, “Designing for the Audience: Past Practices and Inclusive Considerations”’s three player motivations is definitely “competence” for Box VR. It’s fun to meet time and point benchmarks in the fitness classes, as well as in my own playlist workouts. Just this week, I gained an additional three Oculus Quest achievement awards ranging from new high scores to the number of fitness classes completed. The second player motivation, “autonomy” is clear as Box VR is primarily a single-player game and I can jump from different types of classes and songs at leisure. I find the third player motivation of “relatedness” is not as straightforward since multiplayer player boxing classes are always empty (Richard, 2014). But, I feel connected to my partner in discussing Box VR as he has previous boxing experience. I also enjoy talking about Box VR with friends and I feel that it’s a fun social conversation to discuss types of exercise to keep sane with at home currently.
Overall, Box VR is a really enjoyable and fun game to stay active with. It could transfer to a classroom setting, but more so for physical education or as a reward. For personal use, I think VR is on the forefront of exploding in popularity right now and the immersive possibilities for distractions and exercise is limitless and deserves recognition. VR will begin to expand more and more to educational settings.
References
Amresh, A. & Salla, R. (2017). Towards a Home-Based Virtual Reality Game System to Promote Exercise. 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0911/ab2b44f7af3fc4906aabfb280dd6a9f2920e.pdf
Beat Saber - Announce Trailer - Oculus Quest. (2019, May 18). Retrieved April 2, 2020 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUXPOqt4O2E
Box VR. (2020). Retrieved March 30, 2020 from https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/2327205800645550/?locale=en_US
Box VR by Fit XR - Full Release Trailer. (2019, May 21). Retrieved April 2, 2020 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65pBq9qF9GQ
Corwin, Z.B. & Danielson, Robert. (2016). Admission is the Mission: How First Generation Students Approach Learning About College Through Games.Carnegie Mellon: ETC Press. Retrieved from https://via.hypothes.is/https://remikalir.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/CorwinDanielson2016.pdf
Fit XR. (2020). Retrieved March 30, 2020 from https://fitxr.com/
Gee, J. (2005). Semiotic social spaces and affinity spaces: From The Age of Mythology to today's schools. In D. Barton & K. Tusting (Eds.), Beyond Communities of Practice: Language Power and Social Context (Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives, pp. 214-232). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511610554.012
Richard, G.T. (2014). Designing for the audience: past practices and inclusive considerations. Learning, Education and Games. ETC Press, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 199–223. Retrieved from https://via.hypothes.is/http://remikalir.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Richardson2014.pdf
Stevens, R., Stawicz, T., & McCarthy, L.. (2008). In-Game, In-Room, In-World: Reconnecting Video Game Play to the Rest of Kids’ Lives. The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games and Learning.41–66. doi: 10.1162/dmal.97
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