Fat World

FATWORLD: Fit or Fat? Live or Die? You Decide.

After my last game review about Darfur is Dying, I thought it would be nice to explore a game that is a little less morbid and a little more fun. I came upon this game while I was researching a nutrition topic. The name is FATWORLD (gets right to the point!) The game is relatively easy to play and teaches the player about the importance of remaining physically fit. A player can create his/her own character, which includes age, gender, class, or can choose to randomize the character. The player then has to create a daily exercise and nutrition routine, and plan for the future. I like the characters in this game, and I like the fact that the game teaches the player about diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and food allergies. Players have to create menus, recipes, and decide what to eat, learn what to avoid eating, and make decisions about whether or not to exercise. Players have a wide array of food choices and can come up with interesting recipes. The amount of food the player can purchase depends on the amount of money a player has, so the decision to buy organic or fast food becomes an important choice.

From the website: http://www.fatworld.org/home.php

“FATWORLD is a video game about the politics of nutrition. It explores the relationships between obesity, nutrition, and socioeconomics in the contemporary U.S. The game's goal is not to tell people what to eat or how to exercise, but to demonstrate the complex, interwoven relationships between nutrition and factors like budgets, the physical world, subsidies, and regulations. Existing approaches to nutrition advocacy fail to communicate the aggregate effect of everyday health practices. It's one thing to explain that daily exercise and nutrition are important, but people, young and old, have a very hard time wrapping their heads around outcomes five, 10, 50 years away. FATWORLD is the fifth project to emerge from ITVS's Electric Shadows initiative, a special fund for innovative Web-original projects that offer untold, provocative stories by today's independent storytellers.” (Persausive Games).

The website also provides resources on topics such as obesity, diet plans, nutrition for children, links just for children, and much more.