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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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Nintendo DS Spa

by Ian Bogost December 7, 2008

categories: Health & Medicine Games , Women and Games

Here's a different take on games for health: the Nintendo DS Spa, which I spotted recently at Lenox Mall in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood. The service offers complimentary massages, during which time massagees are invited to play DS games.

If in-mall massage-demos weren't enough evidence of Nintendo's commitment to advertising their wares to women, an accompanying brochure available at the pavilion offers the following invitation:

Nintendo DS is all about moments. Those moments between class or before work. Those moments just before you head out on the town with your girlfriends. ... And if you've always thought video games weren't made for you, you're in for a pleasant surprise. Just like Carrie Underwood, America Ferrera, and Liv Tyler were.

The three celebrities named appear inside the brochure, playing DS games. Nintendogs, New Super Mario Bros., and Brain Age 2 are shown in particular.