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.
Another yuletide-themed posting before shuttering our virtual doors for the holiday this weekend. Interactive agency Agency.com has created the Agency.com Snowball Fight, a cute little game in which you throw snowballs at people in a variety of Agency.com-officed locations. The best score come January wins an iPod, but I don't think it's the kind of game most people will feel compelled to play long enough to compete.
I remember back in the 90s, most i-agencies created little Christmas greetings like this as promotions of their work. It's basically a meta-advergame. After the bubble burst, this became far less common; it was difficult to justify spending so many man-hours on self-promotion. But the principle remains the same: create a cute or clever holiday game that both sends greetings to clients and potential clients and demonstrates the capabilities of the studio.
(thanks to Nico)
Information is Beautiful
The Art History of Games
The Art History of Games
Objects & Things
Object-Oriented Ontology Symposium
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Jeff Medcalf on Information is Beautiful
Shane on Object-Oriented Ontology Symposium
Ian Bogost on Object-Oriented Ontology Symposium
Shane on Object-Oriented Ontology Symposium
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