There is a difference between the kind of video games people play sitting on their couches and those that require users to get off the couch and dance, exercise or otherwise move.

Thus, The New York Times' Tara Parker-Pope (married to Portfolio magazine journalist Kyle Pope) found herself on the hunt for the latest in video games.

"As a new parent eight years ago, I swore never to buy a video game system, certain that my child would spend her leisure time reading and playing outside," Parker-Pope writes in her November 27, 2007 Health column.  "I recently remembered this vow while waiting in line for two hours outside the Nintendo store in Manhattan.  Like hundreds of other parents, I was trying to get my hands on the Nintendo Wii, a popular video game system and on of the season's hottest toys."

Parker-Pope explains her conversion by noting that so-called active video games actually encourage players to get off their duffs.