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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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AIG UFO Exec Catcher
by Ian Bogost December 25, 2008
categories: Newsgames

Remember that whole financial bailout thing? And remember how AIG got in some hot water for spending almost half a million dollars on an executive retreat just after the government's $85 billion takeover of the insurance company?

Here's a little newsgame about it, called AIG UFO Exec Catcher. It's like one of those carnival crane catching machines, except your goal is to remove or otherwise disable misbehaving AIG execs.

There's certainly some editorial at work here, but the game serves another function too: a type of simulated retaliation. That's certainly something that might warm the heart of the everyman who didn't get a bailout this holiday.

Which reminds me, Merry Christmas from Water Cooler games!

(thanks to Paolo)