Ian Bogost - Water Cooler Games - Molleindustria interviewed at Gamasutra

my affiliations

Ian Bogost - videogame theory, criticism, design

about me

contact

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.

You are reading an archived version of this article. The original URL was (loading...)

Molleindustria interviewed at Gamasutra

by Gonzalo Frasca March 1, 2006

categories: Activism Games

Gamasutra interviews Paolo from Molleindustria about the McDonald's game and other relevant issues connected with political games. Btw, the McGame got its own website Mcvideogame.com

In a clear example of tabloid tactics, the evil capitalist, CIA-funded Gamasutra media moguls try to generate frictions between the political games movements. In a moment of desperation, they ask Paolo: "Who's designed better persuasive/political games in your opinion, Gonzalo Frasca or Ian Bogost?" Bad timing, Gamasutra! Things were already tense between Ian and me after I accidentally tried to connect his hamster's brain to my Nintendo DS (let's say the DS still works). Of course, it didn't help that Ian burned an Uruguayan flag to protest against the Uruguayan anti-Zeus cartoons. However, now things are back to normality. We made up and even made out, so now we are closer than Mario and Luigi (I am Mario, btw. Ian is somewhere in between Luigi and Princess Peach)

In any case, your ruthless tactics have no power against us, Gamasutra! Between Ian and Gonzalo, the best designer is...Paolo :P

Comments (4)

Uruguay must pay for their disregard for the all-powerful Zeus, great fatherer of gods and heroes, conquerer of consorts many! Cursed be you Uruguayans whose toilets flush the wrong way and whose caviar is a mockery of its true Caspian nature!

Ian Bogost on March 1, 2006 5:33 PM

Too kind and too flattering. And beware of the blogger's self referentialism, you are an

academic!

:-P

About gamasutra, I affirmed "there's no game game industry in Italy" and the (few) guys who develop (real) video games here felt offended and banned me as "anti-patriotic".

Well, I was wrong so I'll correct myself:

1. There are some good software software houses in Italy.

2. Our pizza still rules.

3. You have to visit Florence and Venice at least one time in your life.

4. We do it better.

Paolo on March 1, 2006 6:39 PM

Self-referentialism? You haven't seen nothing yet! I propose that only Ian, Paolo and myself can ever post on this thread. We'll delete all other comments! Ok, it may be a bit too menage-a-troisish but could get some google ads from kinky websites!

Gonzalo Frasca on March 1, 2006 7:12 PM

Sorry for inflaming any bad feelings guys, I just thought it would be fun to ask Paolo and unfair question which he could only really answer by going above the question's head.

As far as industry goes, in any nation, I think us indie devs have more credibility than AAA wage slaves, but thats just me.

Patrick on March 27, 2006 5:04 PM

About the book