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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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Army not so bad, say gamers

by Ian Bogost April 20, 2004

categories: Console & PC Games , Political Games , Public Policy Games

Wagner James Au wrote a story last week for Salon called John Kerry: The Video Game, about how video games have influenced young people's opinion about the armed services. Here's a good tidbit:

A third of the country's young people have an elevated view of the Army, not foremost for anything it's actually done lately, but because of the computer game they played, which just simulates it.

The article continues to describe Au's experience playing Battlefield: Vietnam as "LtJohnKerry" to see if it would influence his political opinion