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.
Yesterday we were chatting with Ian and we brainstormed about what a "Death of a Crocodile Hunter" would look like. Not that we were considering doing such a game -actually, we discarded the idea as disrespectful and moved on. But ever since I worked at CNN, everytime that a major news event grasps the world attention, I like to think about what a game about such thing would look like.
Well, the world is wide indeed and somebody actually made a newsgame about the death of Steve Irwin. You play the role of his wife and you must kill the stingrays in order to avenge your dead husband. My first thought was: OMG! But on a second look, I don't feel bad about the game. Certainly, it is not going to be funny to a lot of people, particularly Irwin's family. However, the game itself is kind of cute and the revenge theme is definitively more appropriate than a game where Irwin fighted against the stingrays by himself. I wonder how this is that different from people who tell jokes during funerals? The game has a comedy tone but it is not mean-spirited (at least not to me) I am glad that somebody out there proved me wrong on my initial thought about the "don't-go-there" feeling about a croc hunter obituary game. Needless to say, I'm sure a lot of people will disagree...
Information is Beautiful
The Art History of Games
The Art History of Games
Objects & Things
Object-Oriented Ontology Symposium
Comments
Shane on Information is Beautiful
Jeff Medcalf on Information is Beautiful
Shane on Object-Oriented Ontology Symposium
Ian Bogost on Object-Oriented Ontology Symposium
Shane on Object-Oriented Ontology Symposium






