Ian Bogost - Water Cooler Games

my affiliations

Ian Bogost - videogame theory, criticism, design

about me

contact

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.

Browsing Emotion in Games archives. View all categories

by Gonzalo Frasca December 12, 2006

"Diverse" Christmas Games

Emotion in Games

Hey readers! It's been a while since I last posted -I'm working around the clock on my PhD dissertation. I wanted to let you know that my new column at Serious Games Source is out. It deals with three different kinds of traditional Christmas games played in different part of ...

by Ian Bogost July 13, 2005

Enough with the damned neurotech

Emotion in Games, Health & Medicine Games

I was talking to Nick the other day about a decade-old attempt to use neurofeedback in games. MindDrive was supposed to "harness the brain's impulses" to control simple movements in games. The device was developed by Ron Gordon, former Atari chief executive. He was actually attempting to create a kind ...

by Ian Bogost April 10, 2005

Coppola Hates the Godfather Game

Emotion in Games

Following up on some my previous comments about film license games, various Hollywood rags have printed Francis Ford Coppola's comments about the forthcoming EA-produced videogame based on The Godfather. Coppola says that he had no prior knowledge of the game, and added this comment based on his preview of the ...

by Ian Bogost February 27, 2005

Are casual games a salve for film licenses?

Advergames, Casual Games, Emotion in Games, Game Design, Social Games

With the Oscars poised to air tonight, it seems an appropriate time to meditate on the fate of film license games. I've written before on Hollywood's propensity to use games as a film marketing tool, as have I mused on the dangers of games mixing themselves up with film licenses. ...

by Gonzalo Frasca May 12, 2004

Playing with yourself

Emotion in Games

CNN has a story about the new sexy games anounced at E3. I was really disapointed at seeing that Leisure Suit Larry looks awful (it was a great game back in the days. Scratch and Sniff, you can't beat that. Al Lowe, we love you. Btw, check out this interview ...

by Ian Bogost May 3, 2004

Do home video marketers prefer games?

Advergames, Emotion in Games, Game Design

Universal has published a new advergame, Go, Fish, Go! promoting the Pay Per View/On Demand release of The Cat in the Hat. It's a Frogger or Chicken-inspired cross-the-road game; you play as the fish in a bowl. The game adds some interesting variations on Frogger, including a low-friction bowl that ...

by Ian Bogost March 31, 2004

Love Story Challenge

Emotion in Games

Thanks to Andrew over at GTxA for reminding me to post about the "Love Story Challenge" at this year's GDC. Raph Koster, Will Wright, and Warren Spector were challenged to outline a rough design for a love story game. Slashdot has a description and their usual wry discussion about it. ...

by Ian Bogost January 30, 2004

Emotion and Games at MSNBC

Emotion in Games

There's a good article on the future of emotion in games at MSNBC, featuring Ion Storm's Warren Spector and our friends Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern from Grand Text Auto. The article both mentions and shows a screenshot of Facade, the interactive drama Mateas and Stern have been working on ...

by Ian Bogost November 12, 2003

I laughed, I cried ... I fired 500 rounds?

Emotion in Games, Social Games

Andrew stern reopens the continued discussion on the absence of human emotion in games. There's a lot to be said on this topic, but I'm only going to make a few comments right now. First, I think it's a dream to think that there will be some renaissance, some incredible ...

About the book

Guru Meditation
for Atari VCS and iPhone

About the game

recent stuff

Writing and Blog Posts
Against Aca-Fandom
Weird Media and Tiny Ontology
Moos and Merch
Website Updates
Cow Clicker

Comments
Ian Bogost on Against Aca-Fandom
Jonathan Gray on Against Aca-Fandom
Ian Bogost on Against Aca-Fandom
David Kociemba on Against Aca-Fandom
Ian Bogost on Against Aca-Fandom

favorites

The Turtlenecked Hairshirt
The Metaphysics Videogame
Cascading Failure
Top Ten Reasons I Returned My Kindle
Carrying On Over Carry-Ons
The Geek's Chihuahua
Reading Online Sucks
Chumby and the Rhetoric of Openness
A Professor's Impressions of Facebook
My Appearance on The Colbert Report
Bloomsday on Twitter