Wednesday 8 august 2012

Standing Up - A Whole New Way To Play Video GamesIt's not every day you discover a whole new way to play video games. Yet over the pastmonth, I've done just that—I've found a way to play games that makes me feel better, morealert, healthier, and more involved. How have I accomplished this? I've started playing videogames while standing up.

"Oh, damn it," you're probably saying, vigorously tapping a fresh pack of cigarettes on yourpalm while gazing into the middle distance, "Another article about the perils of sitting."

And yeah, that's what this article is. But really, it's just my story—I didn't anticipate how muchI'd like standing, so I thought I'd share the story of how I came to start playing video games(and working) while standing up.

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Since I started working for Kotaku full-time a year ago, I've found myself sitting a lot morethan I used to. I spent seven years as a music teacher, and I used to bike to school every dayand spend a few hours on my feet in front of a class, directing a band. My day-to-day didn'tfeature all that much sitting! I also had a more flexible schedule, and would run in the parkjust about every day. What sitting I did was broken up by long periods of standing, walking,running and bike-riding.

When I started writing full-time, that changed. I don't have time to run most days—I spend myshift sitting in front of a computer, and when I'm reviewing a game, my nights are spentplaying it. During the 2011 fall video game rush, I found myself sitting down for 12 hours ormore with minimal standing breaks, often for days on end.

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Every day, it seemed I saw another article about the perils of too much sitting. Sitting is badfor you. Sitting for more than 11 hours a day greatly increases your chances of dying in thenext three years. Exercise won't counteract it, either—sitting is, itself, a damaging thing to doto your body. But really, I didn't need to read those studies—I only needed to listen to whatmy body was telling me.

My energy levels had plummeted. My digestion felt weird, and I was never hungry. My legswould ache when I'd stand; they'd feel swollen and "off" somehow, like they weren't gettingenough blood. My lower back became more prone to painful freakouts, especially when I'dsneeze. Basically, everything from my ribcage down was asking me, repeatedly, "Dude, whatare you doing?"

My body did not like my new lifestyle.

At the same time that I'd seen all of these articles about the dangers of sitting, I'd also seenmore and more people talking about the merits of standing desks. I began to read. Here's whatI learned:

It's best to try converting your desk into a temporary standing situation before buying anexpensive standing desk.

It's not healthy to stand ALL the time; it's good to take breaks and keep a balance. Still,standing for the majority of your day is better than sitting for the majority of your day.

Your feet will get sore, and it's good to get some sort of pad or wear comfy shoes.

Okay, I thought. I can give this a shot.

I started homemade; I took a shelf off the bookshelf in my kitchen and placed it on twocoffee cans, upon which I placed my monitor. I put another piece of wood on top of twocardboard boxes, and put my keyboard on that. Before long, I had a desk at which I couldstand and work.

It didn't take long for me to realize that, yes, this was something I was interested in. After acouple of days working while standing up (only working, mind you - playing video games

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didn't come until later), I already felt better, stronger, and healthier. My legs were sore (in agood way), my posture was good all day, and I felt more focused as I worked. I decided toinvest in a standing desk.

I did some research and found that thankfully, there are a ton of options for people interestedin standing desks. The problem with a lot of "office solutions"-type products is that they'repriced at business prices, so if you work from home like me, you're going to pay a premiumfor a product that's mostly sold to million-dollar businesses. For example, the Geek Desk isone hell of a piece of hardware, but it starts at $800. Too much money, especially consideringthat I have a big, nice $500 desk that I really like.

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I eventually settled on the Ergotron Workfit-S Single HD Workstation, which costs $379. Thenice thing about the Workfit is that it attaches to your existing desk and can easily convertbetween standing and sitting. You want to check how much your monitor weighs beforeordering the HD or the non-HD version—you'll need a heavier monitor to make the HDversion lower properly. On a bit of a whim, I went ahead and ordered one.

It arrived a few days later, and I quickly set it up (it was, thankfully, really easy to puttogether). I'd already been working standing up for a couple of weeks, so nothing muchchanged except that the fact that I was now able to sit down for periods of time during theday, and my whole setup was more ergonomic and adjustable than before. I had beenoperating under the assumption that I'd want to use the sitting-down setting to play games, soI hadn't been playing many PC games. But then, I had a thought: Maybe it'd be fun to playgames while standing up?

The weekend after I got my standing desk set up, the Guild Wars 2 beta was happening. I'vebeen interested in this game for a number of reasons, mainly because it looks like a lot of funand like it might welcome non-MMO players like me to the fold. I got into the beta anddecided to do an experiment: I'd play through the beta weekend while standing up.

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Saturday morning, I got up, logged on, and started playing. Standing. And it was great. A lotof time MMO-style PC games can make me tune out a bit after a while—it's probably due toyears of console controller usage, but I don't always feel as engaged at the mouse andkeyboard as I did when I was a kid. The moment I stood up, that went away entirely. I feltpresent and connected to the game in a way I hadn't in a while, alert and easily able tomanipulate the game to do my bidding.

Anytime my feet felt tired, or I wanted to take a break, I simply slid the Ergotron down to asitting position and played while sitting. The standing mount brings my monitor much closer tomy face than it usually is, which connects me in the game while letting me keep a consistentangle for my head and shoulders. Anytime I need to rest my eyes, I just turn and walk awayfrom the computer, pace around a bit, make a phone call, whatever. Everything feels morefluid, faster, and easier than when I played while sitting down.

It didn't stop at Guild Wars 2. My newfound love of standing has now gone beyondtraditional mouse and keyboard PC games. I play a lot of games on my PC with a controller—from cross-platform games like Bulletstorm and Far Cry 2 to platformerslike Limbo and Braid . It used to be I'd move my PC over to my HDTV to play those on a bigscreen; these days, I leave it plugged in at my desk and play those games standing up. Mynew second playthrough of Knights of the Old Republic? Standing. This last weekendplaying Skyrim: Dawnguard? Upright.

Playing a first-person game while standing up is a heightened, highly enjoyable experience. Itsounds a bit silly, but when I play Far Cry 2 while standing, I feel more connected to mysilent avatar—after all, he's standing too, isn't he? I don't exactly role-play it—I don't kneel inthe bushes and take a knee when sliding—but I do feel more physically involved in the game.

In other words, standing has begun to move beyond health for me—it's started to actually

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Just asstandinghelps mefocus when Iwork, it helpsme focuswhen I play.

make the games better. And when you think about it, it makes sense—many of our first gamingexperiences involved standing at arcade machines, joystick in hand. There's something to besaid for returning to that feeling—I never felt listless or uncomfortable when I was at thearcade; I felt loose and free, engaged and awake. It wasn't entirely due to the fact that I wasstanding, but it certainly didn't hurt.

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I'm a convert at this point—I'm not going back to sitting anytime soon. There are still a fewthings I'm thinking about picking up—some sort mat like this sublime one will make it easier togo barefoot all day, and I might get a hoverbar stand for my iPad so I can put it next to mymonitor to use as an auxiliary screen (though damn, $80 is a lot to spend for that.) But by andlarge, my new setup allows for so much flexibility, from writing for work to producing musicto playing games, that I would feel really restricted going back to a regular desk.

I realize that the idea of standing up while playinggames probably strikes a bunch of you as sheerlunacy, the antithesis of everything you think of whenyou think "video games." Video games are supposedto be something relaxing, something we do at the endof a long day, or during the weekend! They're a wayto blow off steam, or to kick back and get lost inanother world!

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I understand where you're coming from. Althoughwhen I think about it… most games I play aren'trelaxing at all. They require focus and discipline, theychallenge me and force me to be on the ball. They're a lot like work—fun, exciting, rewardingwork, but work nonetheless. And just as standing helps me focus when I work, it helps mefocus when I play. And while you may think "I would get tired, eventually I'd want to sitdown"—well, that's the great thing about an adjustable desk. You can play however you want,though you might find that standing is preferable.

But I can't go back; I'm hooked. And I'm as surprised as anyone! What started as anexperiment to improve my work day grew into something that's slowly reshaping the way Iplay games. So I can only recommend giving it a shot—use some boxes or loose boards andbuild up your desk. Try standing for a couple of days.It won't be easy, and it'll take a little bitof discipline. But you may just come to the same realization I did: There's a whole new worldin the upright and locked position.

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