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Water Cooler Games

Water Cooler Games served as the web's primary forum for "videogames with an agenda" — coverage of the uses of video games in advertising, politics, education, and other everyday activities, outside the sphere of entertainment.

The site was maintained at watercoolergames.org from 2003-2009, where it was edited by myself and Gonzalo Frasca. It is now archived here in full.

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Console sweat

by Gonzalo Frasca May 24, 2004

categories: Health & Medicine Games

The NYTimes (free reg. req.) posts a story on a videogame aimed at women who want to work out and lose some weight. It's a long way from all-you-can-eat Pacman. Update: CNN runs a story about losing weight while playing Dance Dance Revolution.

Comments (2)

"The new title, aimed at women, features a computer-generated personal trainer who guides users through a customized set of exercises and diets".

Hmmm...it makes me wonder: Is this an attempt to make even more money from women who already are overloaded with messages about the need to look slimmer and more beautiful, or is this an honest attempt to do something interesting and make people stay healthy in a good way, for example by fighting the metabolic syndrome?

It would have sounded far better if the title not only was aimed at women, but at all kinds of people who suffer from the metabolic syndrome and want to do something else than attend ordinary aerobics classes and the like.

Patrik Bergman on May 24, 2004 7:16 PM

Best site for Poker

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