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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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Military game teaches Arabic

by Ian Bogost July 7, 2004

categories: Educational Games

The NY Times reports on a game developed by my alma matter, the University of Southern California, specifically their Center for Research in Technology for Education, in conjunction with the Army's Special Operations Command, intended to teach Arabic language and customs to soldiers.

The interesting thing about the game is that it appears to simulate situations rather than pure linguistic patterns, including non-verbal interaction, gestures, and conversational behavior.

The game also incorporates intelligent agent design, including what the designers call a "belief system" and an "arousal level." From the article,

In a scene in a cafe, Sergeant Smith must try to find out who the village headman is. If he doesn't act properly, one of the cafe patrons will jump up and demand to know who he really is. If tensions escalate, the patron will eventually accuse the sergeant of being a C.I.A. agent.

Cool stuff, and it's nice to be able to talk about military technology that's not focused so explicitly on warmongering.

(via Grand Text Auto)

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