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.
I'm happy to announce that my studio Persuasive Games has released Disaffected!, a videogame parody of the Kinko's copy store. The game puts the player in the role employees forced to service customers under the particular incompetences common to a Kinko’s store. It gives the player the chance to step into the demotivated position of real FedEx Kinkos employees. Feel the indifference of these purple-shirted malcontents first-hand, and consider the possible reasons behind their malaise -- is it mere incompetence? Managerial affliction? Unseen but serious labor issues? Disaffected is the first in (what I hope will become) a series of anti-advergames, games that enact dissatisfaction and criticism against corporations.
The game is available for free download, for Mac and Windows.
Many thanks to the small yet talented crew who worked with me on D!. And equal thanks to those who gave me feedback during the development, including especially Nick Montfort and Stuart Moulthrop. Disaffected! is also a finalist at the Slamdance Guerilla Gamemaker Competition, and it will be exhibited this weekend in Park City, Utah. We entered but were not accepted into IGF, but I have some very interesting judges comments from it which I'll be sharing soon. In the meantime, go play!
Update:
- MTV News published a very good article on Disaffected
- Disaffected! is now available on Download.com
- Coverage on Gamasutra, Kotaku, Boing Boing, Joystiq, Grand Text Auto, We Make Money Not Art, The Consumerist, and more via Technorati
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