Ian Bogost - Water Cooler Games

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Ian Bogost - videogame theory, criticism, design

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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 May 14, 2005

Does expression come in HD too?

Console & PC Games, Featured, Social Games

By now, most of our readers have heard and seen Microsoft's official unveiling of the Xbox 360, their next-generation console. Following through on Xbox chief J Allard's depressingly trite future vision for videogames at GDC, the focus of the Xbox 360 is visual resolution and graphical clarity. Microsoft's Robbie Bach ...

by Gonzalo Frasca April 15, 2005

Food Force

Educational Games, Featured

Finally! An educational game that rocks! Informative, well produced and very enjoyable to play with. Go United Nations! Food Force was just launched and it is definitively worth the 200 meg download (full versions available for free for Windows and Mac). The game consists of several different missions, with animated ...

by Ian Bogost April 6, 2005

A Force More Complicated

Featured, Political Games

I haven't had a chance to share my impressions of this year's Game Developers Conference, now a month past, mostly because I've been so busy. However, a couple recent articles cover issues that came up during the third Serious Games Summit at the GDC. The Nation just ran a piece ...

by Ian Bogost March 27, 2005

PSP and Performance Intelligence

Console & PC Games, Educational Games, Featured

So, I admit it, I bought a PSP. I hadn't planned to, but there were tons at Target yesterday, and I figured it was either now or later so might as well make it now. I had and continue to have doubts about the device. Again and again Sony tries ...

by Ian Bogost December 1, 2003

A Review of the Leapster

Educational Games, Featured

I finally got a chance to play a Leapster today. As I mentioned before, I think the product is positioned in the marketplace like no other -- a handheld educational/game device for kids 4 - 8. Update (12/1/2004): After you read this review, read my updated comments one year later. ...

About the book

A Slow Year
Game Poems by Ian Bogost

About the game

About the book

Guru Meditation
for Atari VCS and iPhone

About the game

recent stuff

Writing and Blog Posts
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

resources

Speculative Realism Blog Aggregator
Latour Litanizer
Atari VCS Programming in TextMate
Platform Studies book series
Tooth Fairy Tool for Parents

favorites

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