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.
This isn't the first Facebook advergame, but it's the first I've seen that really tries to take advantage of the service's social graph.
There is a new A&E television series called Parking Wars, which starts in January. The subject of the show is probably the only division of the police force not yet to have their own reality/documentary series: metermaids and parking enforcers.
Parking Wars the game is a Facebook game built to promote the show. It's very simple. When you add the app you get your own street with a handful of spaces. Some have special rules, like only red cars can park there, or that parking is not allowed. You get a couple cars to start, and you can place them on friends' streets. They start earning money if they remain there over time, but you can only cash out their value by moving them to another space. You can also earn money by ticketing violators on your own street.
I've argued that good advergames model claims about the products or services they advertise. Parking Wars interests me because it successfully gives the sense of both trying to get away with parking illegally and that of trying to stay vigilant to find those who are. Of course, I also probably like it because of my ongoing interest in mundane bureaucratic matters like parking.
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