What A Great Idea!

Hopefully next time, they'll sneeze on your food.

I´ve read and heard so many times how running is supposed to be such a great aid to unleashing one´s
creative energies. Time and time again I´ve read or heard someone extol how some- one would get his
best ideas during his runs, but I never had any great ideas - not until last Sunday:

Since more than a decade there have been computer games for all kinds of buffs, and for instance
motorsport fans can drive a Formula One racing car on every circuit of the season, from the streets
of Monaco to the banked curve of Indianapolis or they can steer a Peugeot or a Subaru in any of the
great WRC races and experience the slippery asphalt of Corsica or the hilly gravel roads óf Finland.
The depiction is very accurate and lifelike, there is a sense of almost being there in real life!

But not a single games designer has thought of marathoners! There must be a great untapped market!
Wouldn´t it be just amazing to be able to experience the Verrazano Bridge or the Västerbro in
Stockholm, to hear the enthusiastic cheers in London or the silence of the spectators in Helsinki?
Or to feel what it is like to run on the Champs-Elysées or the Unter den Linden?

For serious marathoners it wouldn´t be just fun, it would be a valuable form of mental preparation.
The game would have an "Advanced Players" mode, where correcr pacing and hydration would be required
and the effects of any errors would play out on the screen. In "Advanced II"-mode the player could
build a training plan, and the game would evaluate its effects, as well as those of the taper and
the carbloading period, according to sports physiology(1).

(1) Versions of thegame would naturally be localized also to reflect the different states of
accepted wisdom in these areas.

Last but not least, the computer game could be used to play out aggressions and frustrations
incurred in real life: one could do all manner of things that are not allowed - stop to drink where
one pleases, zigzag like heck, elbow left and right, pat someone´s behind etc - or one could jump
into "Freeze"-mode where all other runners would slow down!

Since I don´t personally know any game designers and I´m sure I´d be ripped off the financial gains
of my great idea in any case, I hereby publicly offer it for free use!

Anders

(Anders Lustig) said:

I´ve read and heard so many times how running is supposed to be such a great aid to unleashing
one´s creative energies. Time and time again I´ve read or heard someone extol how some- one would
get his best ideas during his runs, but I never had any great ideas - not until last Sunday:

You quit running?

On 20 Nov 2003 03:25:08 -0800, [email hidden] (Anders Lustig) wrote:

<snip>

Unfortunately I believe your idea has already been taken. Quite awhile back I had the same
idea and started looking into it for not only running but cycling etc as well. The cycling
has been covered quite thouroughly with the likes of Computrainer etc. The running was not
quite as "popular" but I believe I saw several products that offered similar functions to
Computrainer for treadmills. Even head to head stuff over the internet. It's been quite a
while so I can't remember were I saw it, but if memory serves it's available.

~Matt

Quoted message said:

Anders