Ian Bogost - Water Cooler Games - Politics in Commercial Games

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Water Cooler Games

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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Politics in Commercial Games

by Ian Bogost February 26, 2007

categories: Political Games

MTV News games reporter Stephen Totilo is one of the best and most prolific game journalists out in the field. He recently write two stories about politically-charged themes in commercial games, a welcome topic.

The first is an interview with Harvey Smith of Midway Austin about giving political teeth to the forthcoming FPS Black Site: Area 51

The second is an interview with Criterion's Alex Ward, which includes a meditation on the difficulties of getting gamers to care about the political narrative in Black.