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A new generation of exercise video games (exergames) emerges as a promising tool to motivate and engage users in physical activity. However, there is a dearth of literature in this area which potentially limits the scope of using exergames to promote physical activity on a broader scale. Little research has been conducted to examine whether exergames work equally well across diverse populations. In addition, to our best knowledge, no study examines whether the key features of exergames indeed motivate the users to engage in exercises. The current study thus investigates the impacts of an individual psychological difference factor and a specific contextual factor on exercise experience using an exergame. The objective self-awareness theory and the self-discrepancy theory were used as the theoretical underpinning. In a 2 (seeing the image of self on screen: seeing oneself vs. not seeing oneself) x 2(body image dissatisfaction: low vs. high) between-subjects design experiment, we found significant interaction effects such that the feature of seeing the image of self on screen provided by the exergame works positively for individuals with low body image dissatisfaction yet works negatively for individuals with high body image dissatisfaction. The finding of the current study has significant implications for health professionals and users who use the new generation of exergame for physical activities. This study also contributes to the objective self-awareness theory by providing additional evidence in a new medium. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intrinsic motivation has been reported to be one of the strongest determinants of exercise adherence. The role of competition in exergames was studied to determine the ways to increase intrinsic motivation. We tested the competitive exercise setting as a contextual factor, and competitiveness as individual characteristic, to investigate their effect on intrinsic motivation using psychological, behavioral, and physiological measures. The experiment was a 2 (Competition: Competition versus Non-competition condition) x 2 (Individual competitiveness: High versus Low) between-subjects design. The results showed significant interaction effects of independent variables on intrinsic motivation, mood, and evaluation of the exergame. For highly competitive individuals, competition increased intrinsic motivation, but for those who were lowly competitive, exercising in competitive settings had detrimental effects on the exercise experience. We also found significant moderated mediation effect of presence toward exercise experience in the exergame. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]