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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Right Wing Cross and a Far Left Uppercut
by Ian Bogost August 26, 2004
categories:
Political Games
Sorrent Games has released Busy vs. Kerry Boxing, a rare example of a mobile political game. The game allows you to "punch your vote" against "Bubba Bush" or "K.O. Kerry." Basically, they pasted Bush, Kerry, and other politician heads onto their Fox Sports Boxing mobile game.
Because the game doesn't really take on politics as such, it's only superficially "political." I'm probably being overcritical, but I still want to draw a distinction between games that manipulate political figures and games that enact political speech. Of course, punching W in the jaw is pretty much the political expression of choice...
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