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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Making Room for Wii Fit
by Ian Bogost May 20, 2008

At the end of the chapter on exercise in Persuasive Games, I briefly discussed the problems exercise games pose to home use. A student and a colleague did a study and wrote an ACM article about how people negotiate space and play with big controllers like those used for DDR and Guitar Hero.

With the release of Wii Fit, these issues are coming to the fore once again. GameCritics.com is running a poll asking people if they have enough room to play Wii Fit (Yes, No, Yes if I move furniture). The results are ongoing, and based on only a couple hundred responses, but it generally seems split roughly into thirds, with a slight bump in the "Yes" camp. I'm suspicious, and wonder how many of the respondents actually own the game and balance board. Here's a telling comment from one reader:

When I look at the Wii Fit trailers, it seems like those "gamers" live in the most cavernous studios. I like having a coffee table in front of my couch. I can't even imagine having the space to do push ups while facing the TV.