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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Gamespot on political games
by Ian Bogost August 13, 2004
categories: Political Games

Gamespot has just published an article on political games, featuring some quotes from me, a mention of Gonzalo's September 12, and quotes from Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi and political game pioneer Chris Crawford. Nice stuff.

Update: The article mentions some comments I made (well, sort of made) about a hypothetical Fahrenheit 9/11 game. I just found this rumor over at the cool new Rumor Engine: Games:

Capcom is in talks with Michael Moore and his production company for a Fahrenheit 9/11 game based on the movie. It is expected it will be released for PC, Playstation 2, and XBox.

Hmm... now, a rumor is just a rumor of course, but it's still interesting to play along...

Comments (4)

What do you mean "I made"? The blog records are clear: http://www.watercoolergames.org/archives/000188.shtml. I suggested it first and that entitles me to a free trip to Florida with Michael Moore, free rides at Disneyland and all-you-can-eat cotton candy (It'll be great to see how much cotton candy Mr Moore can eat). Ok, ok, Ian, you can join us.

Now seriously, I am not taking the Fahrenheit 9/11 rumor seriously at all for many reasons. The first is that the game should get out before the election. After the election, it would be quite useless. Secondly, Capcom!!! Of all game developers, Capcom??? I don't think the franchise is compatible with Capcom's action-driven games.

That being said, cool, cool, cool to see Gamespot paying attention to political games!!!

Yep, I agree that the rumor is just that, a rumor. Still, someone made it up, of their own volition, and put it on that site.

I'm working on your trip to Florida now... :)

Maybe a Street Fighter style game.

Watch out - Ashcroft is using his "Let the Eagles Soar" attack!

This article seems like a great way to open a dialogue between the inherent political stances of any game that broaches the topic of war (as metaphor, as revisionist history, etc.), the role of brief interactive experiences that act as a sort of "political cartoon" - delivering a message through the experience but not necessarily a full-blown game, and the "political games" that exist and are being developed, and whether or not it is at all possible to make a game like that and not have it be swayed toward any particular viewpoint.