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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Speculative Realism Notes
Alien Phenomenology
Pretty Girls for Nixon
Atari Hacks and Demakes
If You Follow Me...
Comments
Ian Bogost on If You Follow Me...
mist. on Atari Hacks and Demakes
Ian Bogost on Atari Hacks and Demakes
Raph on If You Follow Me...
Mark N. on Atari Hacks and Demakes
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