A few years ago, friends introduced me to a game that encouraged working out through points and “flips”. You earned points by working out every day. You work out twice in one day and you earn a flip. A flip is a coin flip that allows you take away points from someone else. Along with a healthy dose of trash talk, this is a great way to encourage exercise and have fun. What’s really cool about this game is that it’s always a close competition in the end. Why? Those who work out too much or flip too often invoke the wrath of other competitors. You contribute a small amount to join the game, and the leading scorers get a percentage of the final pooled contributions. Everyone is a winner because they build a great exercise habit and a better body in the process!
The only problem with the game was that it required headache inducing spreadsheets, lots of rule enforcement by the the gamers, and using second rate tools (such as yahoo boards) to discuss the competition.
Workoutrageous.com is my solution to these drawbacks.
- The administrator sets up a game with all the rules, and Workoutrageous.com enforces them
- Workoutrageous maintains the spreadsheet and the discussion board
- Multiple games can be run at once, and anyone can create a game and invite participants
My goals for workoutrageous were to:
- Challenge myself on building a flexible system that works
- Create a fun experience for the participants that encourages exercise
- Use this as an easy tool for groups to raise money for charitable organizations (my hope is that all future games will contribute at least 20% of the final earnings to a charity of their choice)
Workoutrageous has been beta-tested with several mini competitions and the feedback has been incorporated into the first release. My plan is to do a larger competition in Seattle before allowing participants to administer their own games. The site will allow hundreds of games to occur simultaneously. Go charityware!
The site is located at http://www.workoutrageous.com