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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Boxing Politician Games. Again.
by Ian Bogost May 5, 2008
categories:
Newsgames
, Political Games
It happens every election cycle, it seems. Games that allow players to make their favorite candidate box against their least favorite candidate, or some variation on a theme of same. We had Kerry vs. Kerry back in 2004, as well as the mobile game Bush vs. Kerry Boxing that same year. Not to mention the Osama vs. Bush boxing toy puppets.
Here's the salvo for this year so far. Kewlbox released Hillary vs. Obama. "The faster you click, the more punches you throw!" Then the New York Post offers 2008 Democratic Fight Night (via Kotaku). Both of these are clickfests of varying quality -- the NY Post specimen, despite technically being a "newsgame" thanks to its context, loses by TKO. Not that it's much of a victory.
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