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.
You are reading an archived version of this article. The original URL was (loading...)
My new column: The Missing Social Rituals of Exergames
by Ian Bogost February 3, 2007
categories:
Health & Medicine Games
Serious Games Source has published my latest Persuasive Games column, this one about social practice in exergames. In the column, I argue that exergames are currently limited by the lack social rituals of physical activity like sports. A brief excerpt:
The whole experience exposes the inhumanity of exergames of this type: videogame-induced movements are no more inherently inspiring than exercise bikes or stairmasters. Wario Ware’s micro-games are cute and quirky, but their novelty quickly fades, and Wario’s characteristic end-of-session cackle becomes the gracious alarm of a new kind of countdown timer.
You can read the whole thing over at Serious Games Source.
blog
books
games
writing
photography
teaching
speaking
Loading...
follow me on Twitter
recent stuff
Writing and Blog Posts
Speculative Realism Notes
Alien Phenomenology
Pretty Girls for Nixon
Atari Hacks and Demakes
If You Follow Me...
Comments
Ian Bogost on If You Follow Me...
mist. on Atari Hacks and Demakes
Ian Bogost on Atari Hacks and Demakes
Raph on If You Follow Me...
Mark N. on Atari Hacks and Demakes
Speculative Realism Notes
Alien Phenomenology
Pretty Girls for Nixon
Atari Hacks and Demakes
If You Follow Me...
Comments
Ian Bogost on If You Follow Me...
mist. on Atari Hacks and Demakes
Ian Bogost on Atari Hacks and Demakes
Raph on If You Follow Me...
Mark N. on Atari Hacks and Demakes
favorites