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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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Playce: games as navigation
by Ian Bogost December 10, 2006
categories: Casual Games , Game Design

Steffen Walz has an interesting little project up, which he calls playce. It's essentially a portfolio site, but you can choose to navigate it by playing one of four small arcade style games. I think I enjoyed shooting down the paratroopers to navigate most :). When we talk about non-entertainment games, or serious games or whatever, usually we think about content innovation, but Steffen's effort here suggests that there are plenty of other, less explored opportunities for games as a part of everyday experiences.

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Steffen lets us know that his site has been nominated for a SXSW web award in the portfolio category. You can vote for it in a people's choice award, here: http://www.sxsw.com/peoples_choice/