Ian Bogost - Water Cooler Games - Gaming Techniques for Citizen Engagement

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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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Gaming Techniques for Citizen Engagement

by Ian Bogost May 27, 2004

categories: 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 looks at three main areas: (1) The need for more effective citizenship engagement techniques; (2) The commonality between gaming and citizenship engagement; (3) Recommendations based on developing more effective democratic environments

The paper also cites several example games that were new to me:

Smart | Connect, a game designed to engage young people in local issues

Super Shagland, an amusing platformer indended to engage young people in HIV awareness. Pay attention to the "virilometer" as you play.

(thanks to Barry)