Water Cooler Games

by Ian Bogost January 28, 2009

Social Issue Games Toolkit

Activism Games, Game Design, Public Policy Games

Games for Change has announced the release of Let the Games Begin: A Toolkit 4 Making Social Issue Games, a multimedia resource for organizations interested in using games as a part of their outreach and communications efforts. Here's how they describe it: The Toolkit guides organizations through the process of ...

by Ian Bogost November 25, 2008

Make a Flood Management Game

Public Policy Games

One of the interesting things about serious games development is the opportunities to create titles about unusual subjects, topics that might not otherwise find their way into games. Here's such an opportunity. The Association of State Floodplain Managers has issued a RFP for "FloodManager," a game about floodplain management principles ...

by Ian Bogost October 14, 2008

Robotron without the guns

Advergames, Political Games, Public Policy Games

Such is how the creator of Consumer CULTure describes the game, which also offers "a satirical middle finger to consumerism and commercialism." The player moves around an enclosed space attempting to avoid an ever-increasing barrage of consumer objects and messages. While it doesn't take on a specific company like Disaffected! ...

by Ian Bogost September 24, 2008

Superstruct

Public Policy Games, Social Games

Game designer (and friend and collaborator) Jane McGonigal's new game Superstruct, created at the Institute for the Future, is about to go online. IFTF is casting Superstruct as a "massively multiplayer forecasting game," and uses the following rhetoric to set up the scenario: What does the world of 2019 look ...

by Ian Bogost August 21, 2008

Packaging Man: Skip the Wrapper and the Game

Activism Games, Public Policy Games

Consider a new game Packaging Man, which its creators bill as follows: an environmentally themed video game ... to raise awareness about the destructive impact fast food paper packaging has on Southern forests. The game which is a new take on the classic video game, Pac-Man, follows the exploits of ...

by Ian Bogost August 6, 2008

Suffering under Global Poverty

Educational Games, Public Policy Games

Ack. Check out the Race Against Global Poverty Game. According to its sponsors, the game is supposed give "children living in the UK the chance to learn about the developing world in a fun and stimulating way." I wonder what went wrong here. It's a graphically lush simulated board game ...

by Ian Bogost July 17, 2008

Lockdown: A School Shooting Game

Educational Games, Public Policy Games

Lockdown is a "serious game for incident responses to school shootings." The game was created at the GamePipe Lab at USC Engineering with sponsorship from Sandia National Laboratories. The game looks very polished, but I couldn't help but notice that Lockdown's apparent approach to "incident response" is: "do whatever you'd ...

by Ian Bogost July 8, 2008

Imagine Cup Winners - Games for a Sustainable Environment

General, Public Policy Games

I've been in Paris for the last week judging the game development category of the Imagine Cup. I'll write a full account later, but I wanted to report that the winners were announced today. The games needed to appeal to the competition theme of "imagine how technology can enable a ...

by Ian Bogost June 26, 2008

Microsoft Imagine Cup 2008 Finals

Educational Games, Public Policy Games

Microsoft holds an annual student competition called Imagine Cup, with its theme chosen from the UN Millennium Goals. The 2008 theme is the environment, and for the first time there is a special game development, with games created in XNA Game Studio Express. I'll be in Paris next week acting ...

by Ian Bogost April 14, 2008

The UN Shoots an Air Ball

Educational Games, Public Policy Games

The UN Foundation's Nothing But Nets campaign provides low-cost bed nets in an effort to reduce malaria-related deaths in Africa in particular. As a part of the campaign, they have created a game, Deliver the Net. If you play the game and sign up at the end, the organization will ...

by Ian Bogost June 12, 2007

Games for Change 2007 (day 2)

Political Games, Public Policy Games

Continuing coverage of Games for Change Festival 2007. Yesterday's coverage is here Funding Perspectives Connie Yowell, MacArthur Foundation Diana Rhoten, NSF Allyson Knox, Microsoft Lucy Bernholz (moderator) Games, Civic Education, and Engagement Joseph Kahne, Mills College Doug Thomas, Tiltfactor Angela [did not get her last name, sorry], Hunter College/Tiltfactor Ben ...

by Ian Bogost June 11, 2007

Games for Change 2007 (day 1)

Political Games, Public Policy Games

I'm in New York at Games for Change Festival 2007. I'm going to attempt to liveblog some of it here. Keynote Conversation with Chris Melissinos and Alan Gershenfeld Alan Gershenfeld, CEO of Netomat and former head of Activision Chris Melissinos, Chief Gaming Officer, Sun Microsystems Virtual Activism: Exploring Nonprofits in ...

by Ian Bogost April 25, 2007

ID the Creep

Public Policy Games, Social Games

Liz Losh recently introduced me to ID The Creep, a game that purports to help young girls practice identifying pedophiles online. The game is sponsored by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and The Ad Council. As Liz argues, the player really isn't forced to make any hard ...

by Ian Bogost April 18, 2007

Lumines + Inconvenient Truth = ?

Public Policy Games

According to Joystiq, Lumines creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi is reportedly working on an environmentalism "not-game" about environmental issues. A "not-game," in Mizuguchi's words: "It's not going to be a video game. The concept derives from video games, and its something which the gaming generation will appreciate." Hmm. We'll have to wait ...

by Ian Bogost April 10, 2007

Advertising and Ecology: Planet Green Game

Advergames, Educational Games, Public Policy Games

Starbucks Coffee and Global Green USA have created Planet Green Game, a game about energy conservation and consumption. The game is set in a hypothetical town called Evergreen. The player chooses a character and transportation mode (foot, skateboard, bicycle, and three types of automobiles, each with different emissions). A ...

by Ian Bogost March 26, 2007

Stop Disasters Game

Educational Games, Public Policy Games

PlayerThree, creators of Food Force among other great titles, have a new game sponsored by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. The game is appropriately called Stop Disasters!, and it's a fantastic, simple, rich little strategy game. It's also a rich game, covering five disaster scenarios in great ...

by Ian Bogost March 19, 2007

Turn It All Off, an energy savings game

Public Policy Games, Social Games

We've been a bit lax on covering games lately, and I'm planning to make up for that this week. For starters, here's the 1E Energy Awareness Campaign game about how you can save energy at work. Turn It All Off is a cute, well-produced game that does more than many ...

by Ian Bogost January 3, 2007

Water conservation game

Public Policy Games

Check out Seattle Public Utilities' game about water conservation, Waterbusters. The visual design is nice but the gameplay could use some work... mostly you walk around the house and run into stuff. If you run into the right stuff, you get messages about how they could be used more efficiently. ...

by Ian Bogost September 26, 2006

Right to Bore Arms (and new columns)

Advergames, Console & PC Games, Public Policy Games

Gonzalo and I each have a new column at Serious Games Source, the serious games arm of CMP's popular website Gamasutra. The first installment in my "Persuasive Games" column is up now, titled The Right To Bore Arms, about a new NRA-licenced game. ... By making firearms boring, slow, and ...

by Gonzalo Frasca September 11, 2006

Food Force 2 under production

Public Policy Games

As you may know, Food Force is one of my favorite educational games -here's my previous coverage of the game. Well, details are sketchy at this point but word is out that there is another game about humanitarian aid currently being under production. It is aimed at an older audience ...

by Ian Bogost February 27, 2006

CDC villifies games, gamers

Advergames, Health & Medicine Games, Public Policy Games

The Centers for Disease Control, which is located just a few clicks down the road from where I live, has a new ad campaign to encourage more active lifestyles. As printed in AdCritic, one of these ads depicts a bunch of overweight baseballers in stained uniforms idle and cookout on ...

by Ian Bogost October 22, 2005

Funding for Student Political Games

Political Games, Public Policy Games

I'm up in New York (way up, at 207th st.) at the Games for Change conference. A number of interesting things to report from the conference, which I'll do in the coming days. For now, I want to catch up on a couple of funding opportunities for students, both directly ...

by Gonzalo Frasca September 7, 2005

Gaming for the People

Public Policy Games

Think of DR as the Danish version of the BBC. The fact is that DR, along with Diginet and the IT University of Copenhagen (home of the Center for Computer Game Research) are hosting an event on Friday 23rd. The event is called Gaming for the People and wants to ...

by Ian Bogost June 23, 2005

A lousy environmental advergame

Advergames, Public Policy Games

I've been traveling and attending conferences for more than a week, including DiGRA 2005 and Supernova 2005. I gave a paper at DiGRA on political games and a workshop talk at Supernova on games and advertising. More on those later. For now, it's time for a lousy environmental advergame. French ...

by Gonzalo Frasca May 25, 2005

Speak at Serious Games Summit

Public Policy Games

There is a new edition of the Serious Games Summit, coming to Washington D.C. on October 31st - November 1st, 2005. They have a Call for Abstracts, so if you have something serious and/or playful to say remember that the deadline is July 1st. ...

by Ian Bogost May 9, 2005

California Budget Challenge

Political Games, Public Policy Games

A nonpartisan California organization called Next Ten has created the California Budget Challenge, a sort of interactive application that lets the user make highly structured decisions about the California budget. It's not really a game, but another example of an interactive representation of the tradeoffs of budgeting. (thanks to Bridget) ...

by Ian Bogost April 18, 2005

Ride an esuvee

Educational Games, Public Policy Games

The Attorney General and Consumer Protection Agencies have created Esuvee Challenge Course, a game that teaches players about key factors in SUV rollovers. The game has high production value and great complexity, and it's funny too: the "Esuvee" is a sort of wooly monster beast. You can also watch the ...

by Ian Bogost April 11, 2005

Police Profiling Game

Public Policy Games, Social Games

NorthJersey.com reports that New Jersey State Police has commissioned a game to help state troopers understand and counteract racial profiling. It's a significant project, with $650,000 committed to WILL Interactive to develop the game. I'm not sure how much of a game it will be. The article tells the story ...

by Ian Bogost March 13, 2005

Unicef Games for Kids

Activism Games, Public Policy Games

I just found out about Unicef Games, a small but growing game portal for the well-known advocacy and fundraising organization (thanks to Barry). It seems Unicef has created two games so far, World Heros and Halloween Coin Toss. Halloween Coin Toss is quite simple and really has nothing to do ...

by Ian Bogost February 3, 2005

Destroy the Rainforest Game

Activism Games, Public Policy Games

Ok, it's really a game about preserving the rainforest, but it's pretty terrible. The Rainforest Foundation has commissioned Congo Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Bark. The game is a sidescrolling platformer. The player controls a monkey or a bear or something who has to avoid flying chainsaws. It's ...

by Ian Bogost January 17, 2005

More Game-based Charity

Public Policy Games, Social Games

Two more examples of game-based charity. First, Xenopi Studios, who publishes and distributes games online, has announced the "Good Samaritan Games" Initiative. They plan to donate at least 10% of sales to charity, with a new charity or non-profit selected at some (yet undefined) interval. Second, Shooter Group, who also ...

by Gonzalo Frasca January 12, 2005

Unicef Games

Public Policy Games

More and more NGOs are using games. Now's the turn of Unicef. If you go to Unicefgames.org, you can play World Heroes (where you must go around the world, gathering donations) and Halloween Coin Toss (about tossing coins into Unicef charity boxes). The games are simple and cute, targeted to ...

by Ian Bogost October 18, 2004

Live from the Serious Games Summit DC

Activism Games, Business Games, Educational Games, Public Policy Games

I am back from our London show opening (pictures soon) and here in DC for the Serious Games Summit. The conference has a very "official" feel, thanks to CMP, which is an important step. Oddly, no badge lanyards tho, only pins. Aren't lanyards the sign of officialness? Anyway, I'll do ...

by Ian Bogost October 13, 2004

Take Back Illinois: Economic Development

Political Games, Public Policy Games

The fourth of four sub-games in the Take Back Illinois Game is now available. This sub-game covers the issue of economic development in downstate Illinois. ...

by Ian Bogost October 6, 2004

Take Back Illinois: Participation Now Available

Political Games, Public Policy Games

The third of four sub-games in the Take Back Illinois Game is now available. This sub-game covers the issue of participation in local politics. You can also read my general description of the game, the first sub-game, about Medical Malpractice Reform, and the second sub-game, about Education Reform. Update: An ...

by Ian Bogost September 29, 2004

Announcing the launch of Take Back Illinois: Education

Political Games, Public Policy Games

The second of four sub-games in the Take Back Illinois Game is now available. This sub-game covers the issue of improving public education in the state. You can also read my general description of the game and the first sub-game, about Medical Malpractice Reform. ...

by Ian Bogost September 29, 2004

Announcing the launch of Activism, the Public Policy Game

Political Games, Public Policy Games

It's a busy month in the world of political games. I'm very happy to announce that my studio Persuasive Games has just released Activism, the Public Policy Game, sponsored by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The game asks you to create a virtual activism plan, promoting the DCCC's goal of ...

by Ian Bogost September 22, 2004

Persuasive Games releases "Take Back Illinois"

Political Games, Public Policy Games

Take Back Illinois is an integrated four-part strategy game that challenges players to play through key issues facing Illinois voters in this year's state legislative election. The game was commissioned by Tom Cross and the Illinois House Republican Organization. The game was designed by me (Ian Bogost) and created by ...

by Ian Bogost September 1, 2004

Bureaucracy Games

Public Policy Games, Social Games

Yesterday I spent three hours at the Georgia DMV getting my new drivers license. Three hours. That's one hour waiting in line outside the office, one hour waiting for my number to be called, and a third hour waiting for my license. Gimme that old time bureaucracy. I saw a ...

by Gonzalo Frasca August 19, 2004

Man shall not live by bread alone: UN Game

Public Policy Games

The United Nations will launch a game about world hunger. Here's a BBC article with some screenshots (I just hate when they mainly show cutscenes graphics rather than gameplay pics. I know they look better, but who cares?). There's a particular paragraph in the article that has scared me: "From ...

by Gonzalo Frasca August 16, 2004

Will play for food

Public Policy Games

Wired reports on The Fantastic Food Challenge, a videogame created to inform and educate Food stamps recipients on food-related habits. For those not familiar with this US system, it is basically a conspiracy from the richest nation on Earth to keep their poor fat and unhappy, instead of encouraging a ...

by Gonzalo Frasca July 30, 2004

Games in the City

Public Policy Games

As much as I love all the Maxis games, I am a bit tired of hearing SimCity being quoted everytime somebody wants to make a point about urban planning. I mean, don't get me wrong, SimCity is one of the most relevant cultural products of the 20th century, right next ...

by Ian Bogost July 27, 2004

The Truth is pretty bad

Advergames, Game Design, Public Policy Games

The American Legacy Foundation's ongoing anti-smoking campaign truth has released a game created by Templar Studios based on truth's "Crazy World" ad campaign. Here's what Templar's president Peter Mack had to say about the game: The game, which is aimed at a wide audience, ages 18-50, was created to show ...

by Ian Bogost July 19, 2004

Chris Crawford needs Java Developers

Console & PC Games, Political Games, Public Policy Games

Well-known game designer and political game pioneer (Balance of Power) has announced that he has released the code for his 1990 enivronmental strategy game Balance of the Planet into the public domain. His goal is to get a version working on contemporary equipment. But the project needs Java developers. If ...

by Gonzalo Frasca June 25, 2004

Honoloko

Public Policy Games

(thanks Chris Franklin) The World Health Organisation and the European Environment Agency have produced Honoloko, an enviromental computer game. Based on the BBC story description plus the image on their site, this seems to be a simulation game, with no right or wrong answers but just a playground where to ...

by Ian Bogost May 27, 2004

Gaming Techniques for Citizen Engagement

Game Design, Political Games, Public Policy Games

Chris Quigley, from the British organizational consultantcy Delib, has published Game On: A thought paper on the use of gaming techniques for citizen engagement and e-participation (120k Word Doc). Here's the abstract: In this paper Chris Quigley examines the applicability of gaming techniques in citizenship engagement and e-participation. The paper ...

by Ian Bogost May 22, 2004

International Debt Relief Game

Educational Games, Political Games, Public Policy Games

Baltimore agency The Berndt Group created Bridging the Divide, a game meant to teach players about International debt relief, for an unnamed international institution. Here's the blurb from their website: We designed this interactive, educational Flash 5 game for an international institutional client to serve as a teaching tool for ...

by Gonzalo Frasca April 30, 2004

AgoraXchange

Public Policy Games

Tate Online is sponsoring an interesting project in political game design called AgoraXchange.net. It's motto is quite provocative: "Make the Game, Change the World". The basic idea behind it is to create an online community for discussing the design of a "massive multi-player global politics game challenging the violence and ...

by Ian Bogost April 26, 2004

Shock and AWE

Political Games, Public Policy Games

Thanks to Gamespot (found via Terra Nova) for their article on the Asymmetric Warfare Environment (AWE), the military training tool built by virtual world company There. According to the article, " the massively multiplayer simulation will be used by military personnel to train troops in urban situations before they are ...

by Ian Bogost April 20, 2004

Army not so bad, say gamers

Console & PC Games, Political Games, Public Policy Games

Wagner James Au wrote a story last week for Salon called John Kerry: The Video Game, about how video games have influenced young people's opinion about the armed services. Here's a good tidbit: A third of the country's young people have an elevated view of the Army, not foremost for ...

by Ian Bogost March 5, 2004

Everybody loves securities fraud

Public Policy Games

Marc Prensky of Games2Train just launched the Corporate Greed Mini-Challenge. ...

by Ian Bogost February 24, 2004

Between Ares and the Muses

Political Games, Public Policy Games

Eimi d'ego therapôn men enualioio anaktos kai museôn, eraton doron epistamenos (I am first the servant of Lord Ares and also of the Muses, familiar with their lovely gift)       -- Archilochus, 7c BC Andrew Stern points out a Popular Science article about more DoD-funded military modeling of military and ...

by Ian Bogost January 24, 2004

US Oil Consumption Sim

Public Policy Games

Web-based simulation company Forio has a US Oil Policy Simulation that lets you choose policy positions, Mad-Lib a presidential speech, and see the results in a graphical format. In this simulation, you are elected President of the United States on a platform of reducing U.S. dependence on oil imports. How ...

by Ian Bogost January 3, 2004

Serious Games, Rhetorical Speech

Educational Games, Political Games, Public Policy Games

There's a nice article in the Baltimore Sun about Serious Games, specifically focusing on Maryland's many local game studios and their work on games for military training. Registration is required to read the article. I am encouraged by and highly respectful of the idea of games for training and education. ...

by Gonzalo Frasca December 8, 2003

Wilson Center Hosts First Annual DC Serious Games Day

Public Policy Games

This Tuesday is Serious Games Day at Washington, DC. All I can say is I wish we were there. If you are lucky enough to be around the area, this is a must for people interested in games with an agenda. Check out the press release. ...

by Gonzalo Frasca December 4, 2003

Swiss asylum game

Public Policy Games

The game is not online anymore, so we won't be able to judge it by ourselves. According to this report from BBC (dated last May), it was conceived as a tool for awareness about the asylum situation in Switzerland. However, it was pulled down because ""It works with stereotypes. These ...

by Ian Bogost November 20, 2003

Tobacco Baron (Norwegian)

Activism Games, Political Games, Public Policy Games

Jill Walker points out a rhetorical game that simulates a tobacco empire, Tobakkbaronen. The game seems elaborate and high in production value, but it's all in Norwegian, so I'll just quote from Jill's commentary on it: It's a strategy game, done in Flash, where you play a tobacco baron and ...

by Ian Bogost November 10, 2003

Drug policy shufflepong

Public Policy Games

The folks over at theDailyGrind.net in Australia have released Detox, a social commentary game on the futility of certain kinds of drug policy. The game allows the player to control medical, mental health, law-enforcement, and social services. ...

by Gonzalo Frasca October 26, 2003

September 12th reaches 100.000 players

Activism Games, Newsgames, Political Games, Public Policy Games, Social Games

100 thousand persons have played Newsgaming.com's September 12th during the last few weeks. When I launched this journalistic/political game I knew I was taking quite a risk with its design/scope, but I am thrilled at seeing how well it is performing. So far, reviews have ranged from “an interesting experiment ...

by Ian Bogost October 22, 2003

Health Games Discussion List

Political Games, Public Policy Games, Social Games

Ben Sawyer from Digital Mill and the Serious Games Project announces a new listserv on Games for Health. Here's what Ben sez: This new listserv will allow a unique community of game developers, researchers, policymakers and healthcare professionals to explore how to work together to utilize games and game technology ...