Ian Bogost - Water Cooler Games - Gambling Away Your Friends

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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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Gambling Away Your Friends

by Ian Bogost November 2, 2004

categories: Social Games

Fantastic. Friendster Pachinko lets you gamble your friends (or someone else's friends) as if they were pachinko balls. A great example of a data visualization, and a great commentary on the uses of social network software to boot.

(via Joi Ito)