W. Virginia to put DDR in all 765 public schools
DDR is going to the next level: getting placed in every public school in an entire state.
West Virginia is the first state in the U.S. to officially adopt Konami's dancing simulator in all of its 765 public schools. According to SFGate: "The games, which will run on Microsoft Xboxes, will be incorporated into physical education curricula and after-school programs" in an effort to motivate kids to exercise and to fight childhood obesity, an acute problem in the state. Adult supervision will be required to prevent hacking (read: game swapping) and unforeseen health complications, of course.
At any rate, buying even one TV-Xbox-dance-pad combo for each school will cost over $550,000 total (and what gym class could go without at least a second pad or system?), though the program's cost is being sponsored by no fewer than one other local group or agency. We hope the investment's worth it (dancing for your stars grades, anyone?), but exer-gaming's come quite a long way in a short period of time, and doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon.
