Ian Bogost - Water Cooler Games - Knowledge is Nothing. Tenure is Everything.

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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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Knowledge is Nothing. Tenure is Everything.

by Ian Bogost March 21, 2008

categories: Educational Games , Political Games , Social Games

Thanks to David Wessman on the IGDA Education SIG mailing list for pointing out Survival of the Witless, a card game about the academic tenure process. The title above was the game's tagline.

It’s a brutal game, where the most common card is "ass-kissing" (to simulate the most common action in academia). Three to eight players try to collect enough writing cards and a contract to finish their book, and enough influence with committee members to win a tenure decision.

In addition to Ass Kissing, other cards you could play in the game included Seduction, Bold New Theory, Student Boycott, and Gossip Attack. There are more images on the Board Game Geek page linked above.

But why, you might ask, did I tick the box for the educational category for this game?

The chairman of the blue-ribbon panel reviewing the tenure system in Massachusetts bought two dozen and handed them out to the panelists, instructing them to play it. Several universities adopted it as part of their graduate student orientation, to display what sort of life they might expect after receiving their doctorates. And at least one case of adultery was exposed through play of the "Seduction" cards.

Unfortunately the game, originally published by Avalanche Press (scroll down), is out of print.