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.
Earlier this month I mentioned that Jane McGonigal and I have been playtesting our new public game Cruel 2 B Kind in San Francisco. The two live playtests we ran (well, Jane really ran them on the ground, while I stared obsessively at our server) were tremendously useful and we've made a bunch of changes, updated the rules, taken some things out, put new things in. Jane liveblogged both playtests (1, 2) and collected some public reaction. You can also see photos from the playtests on the game website, and more on Flickr.
By the way, Jane was just named to Technology Review's 2006 TR25 list of Young Innovators Under 35. Woot, go Jane!
The official premiere of the game is next weekend at the Come Out and Play Festival in New York. Live in or near the city and have a mobile phone? Please register to come play! A full description of the game is also featured on Boing Boing today.
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