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.
After several years of preparation, I'm excited to announce that my new book Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames is now in print and shipping from your favorite bookseller, say Amazon.com for example.
The book is about how videogames make arguments. I offer a theory of rhetoric for games, then I discuss a great many examples from commercial and non-commercial games, focusing on the areas of politics, advertising and learning. The book should be of interest and use for academics, designers, policy makers, marketers, educators, and general readers interested in the culture of videogames.
You can read more about it on my website, or at the MIT Press website.
I owe a debt of gratitude to the readers of this website, who have helped me hone my thinking about games and persuasion on and offline. You all got a collective acknowledgment in the preface... little reward I know, but I do appreciate those of you who visit or RSS us here regularly.
Oh, and did I mention that you can buy it on Amazon.com? Right now even?
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