Ian Bogost - Water Cooler 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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/.!

by Gonzalo Frasca July 1, 2004

categories: Political Games

I am chiming in from the other side of the world while Ian is getting some rest after working so hard on the upcoming "Opinions". I am thrilled to see that the New York Times article got slashdotted, as well as Persuasive Games. Among the interesting stuff posted is Contractopoly, created by the Center for American Progress, what seems to be a response to the GOP Kerropoly. Again, not really a game but rather a Flash animation using a game metaphor, but worth seeing anyways. There is a link to what seems to be a forum-based game called Political Asylum.

Comments (2)

Here's another one from the thread, very simple but perhaps more rhetorically effective than Kerryopoly:

John Kerry Medal Toss

"With John Kerry's Medal Toss you get to throw your military medals over the fence onto the White House lawn just like he did. Now you might not think it is right to throw you medals away in some kind of symbolic action, but that's okay they're not really your medals."

The /. thread is enormous. I don't know if I'll make it all the way through.

Ian Bogost on July 1, 2004 4:01 PM

"The exact ludological term is 'lame.'"

Rotfl!

Walter on July 1, 2004 9:27 PM

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