HopeLab is a nonprofit video game lab founded by Pam Omidyar, wife of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. That’s right, I said non-profit video game lab. It seeks to make the world better through video games, and it’s hoping it has a new hit on its hands with Zamzee. Zamzee combats sedentary behavior by giving kids and teens points for moving more throughout the day and those points can be used to buy virtual goods or exchange for gift cards.
Early research shows a whopping 30% jump in activity when people play Zamzee– the equivalent of running a marathon every month. HopeLabs has decided to spin the game out into a for-profit company to help commercialize the game faster. Richard Tate of HopeLabs joined us via Skype to talk about the game that may be a solution if your kids ate too much Turkey yesterday.