Ian Bogost - Water Cooler Games - Night of Bush Capturing

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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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Night of Bush Capturing

by Gonzalo Frasca September 21, 2006

categories: Political Games

Both Ian and myself have been incredibly busy, so -it happens- this game went under our radar. I'll simply tell you that it's a FPS where you have to capture Bush. It's a mod for another political game, called Quest for Saddam, and according to sources, it's been released by an organization called the Global Islamic Media Front. All the info, including links to download + gameplay video, can be accessed at Ed Halter's blog. Halter- who is the author of From Sun Tzu to Xbox- has posted an update on the game and wonders if there are any other sources that confirm the origins of this game. It wouldn't be the first time that political games had been wrongly attributed to extremists. I agree and we should wait and see before jumping to conclusions. If you have any extra info, feel free to post it as a comment (via La Petite Claudine)

Comments (3)

Hello guys,

just played the game, even though I am not a great gamer, it took me an average of 4 minutes to finish each level, and when I played my way into the last level(No 6.to get Bush)the game didn't seem to have an End.

here is my first thoughts :

- It is an Al Qaeda propaganda game, a media message to the world as any other video tape portraying their mission worldwide, I think gamers will not get interested in it and it will not affect their believes for sure.

- I think it was developed using old version of torque engine called V12, or maybe a new mod of some old game???.

- I think it was developed by one or two programmers with no graphic artist involved.

- I was surprised that it wasn't available in Arabic, English only??????

- It reflects the view points of the most extremist Moslems in the world, I am really disturbed about such game, the game was full of hate to any opposing side.

cheers.

radovan on September 24, 2006 3:03 PM

After looking at the two games, it's obvious that it didn't take much effort to skin this game for a pro Al-Qa'eda content. So much so, that the creator of Quest for Saddam claims to be pursuing legal action against the Global Islamic Media Front for stealing his intellectual property.

I've got a review up at gameology wherein I compare the two games' content and speculate on their relationship.

zach

zach whalen on September 26, 2006 7:25 PM

Great analysis Zach. Thanks for pointing us to it.

Ian Bogost on September 27, 2006 1:58 PM