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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by Ian Bogost October 31, 2008
My New Column: The Birth and Death of the Election Game
Articles, Political Games
Gamasutra has published my latest "Persuasive Games" column, this one on the decline of election videogames in the 2008 cycle. Drunk on such video game election elation, I remember making a prediction in a press interview that year: in 2008, I foolishly divined, every major candidate would have their own ...
by Ian Bogost July 21, 2008
Editorial: The End of Gamers
Articles
I have an editorial up on Edge today in their Keynotes section. The title on Edge is "The End of Gamers," which is lurid but might not capture the main argument of the piece, which is more like "Things People Do with Games." That said, I'm on the record more ...
by Ian Bogost June 27, 2008
My latest colum: Performative Play
Articles, Social Games
Gamasutra has published my latest "Persuasive Games" column, this one on how gameplay can literally alter the real world, not through changes in attitude but via gameplay actions themselves. "Performative" is a name for speech acts that do things themselves when they are uttered. The classic example of the performative ...
by Ian Bogost May 10, 2008
My new column: Texture
Articles, Game Design
Gamasutra has published my latest "Persuasive Games" column, this one on how videogames are tactile. But unlike paintings and plats principaux, games are not static scenes or objects -- they are interactive models of experiences. To simulate the behavior, rather than just the appearance of texture, games have to use ...
by Ian Bogost February 12, 2008
My new column: Videogame Vignette
Articles, Game Design, Political Games
Gamasutra has published my latest "Persuasive Games" column, this one on a student game from USC Interactive Media called Hush, an unusual game about an unusual historical and political moment. The article uses Hush as and the idea of adapting the vignette style to videogames. In literature, poetry, and film, ...
by Ian Bogost September 11, 2007
Persuasive Games: The Reverence of Resistance
Articles, Console & PC Games, Social Games
Gamasutra has published my latest "Persuasive Games" column, this one on the Manchester Cathedral controversy in popular PS3 shooter Resistance: Fall of Man. I take a fairly different position than A cynic, unbeliever, or Internet troll might point out the irony of the church pointing the finger, given the millennia-old ...
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Ian Bogost on Making Books
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Gamification101 on Gamification is Bullshit
James on Help Feed the Speculative Realism Feed
Making Books
Academic Professional Job Opening
Slashdot Q&A
The Bulldog and the Pegasus
Speculative Realism Aggregator Update
Comments
Ian Bogost on Making Books
Mark N. on Making Books
Krystian Majewski on Making Books
Gamification101 on Gamification is Bullshit
James on Help Feed the Speculative Realism Feed
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What is a Game Bundle?
The Curse of Cow Clicker
Beyond the Elbow-Patched Playground
Low-Earth Lamentation
Shit Crayons
Aerotropolis
Against Aca-Fandom
There are no Blown Calls in Football
We Think in Public
What is Object-Oriented Ontology?
The Metaphysics Videogame
Cascading Failure
Top Ten Reasons I Returned My Kindle
Carrying On Over Carry-Ons
Reading Online Sucks
The Curse of Cow Clicker
Beyond the Elbow-Patched Playground
Low-Earth Lamentation
Shit Crayons
Aerotropolis
Against Aca-Fandom
There are no Blown Calls in Football
We Think in Public
What is Object-Oriented Ontology?
The Metaphysics Videogame
Cascading Failure
Top Ten Reasons I Returned My Kindle
Carrying On Over Carry-Ons
Reading Online Sucks