Ian Bogost - Water Cooler Games - September 12th reaches 100.000 players

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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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September 12th reaches 100.000 players

by Gonzalo Frasca October 26, 2003

categories: Activism Games , Newsgames , Political Games , Public Policy Games , Social Games

100 thousand persons have played Newsgaming.com's September 12th during the last few weeks. When I launched this journalistic/political game I knew I was taking quite a risk with its design/scope, but I am thrilled at seeing how well it is performing. So far, reviews have ranged from an interesting experiment in political speech (Henry Jenkins, MIT Technology Review) to an inane piece of offensive crap (Greg Kostikyan).

This is my first post on the subject after the game launched; I have tried not to get into the discussion in order to not interfere with the games ideas. Nevertheless, I will be publishing soon an article where I analyze the game from a theoretical point of view, as well as describing the issues that we faced while designing it. Stay tuned.

Comments (11)

Game designers and academics Ian Bogost and Gonzalo Frasca have begun a new blog called Water Cooler Games that "explores the emerging field of games [that] want to do more than simply being fun: they want to make a point,...

grandtextauto.org - Opinion-Changing Play on November 3, 2003 4:32 PM

The Movies Game: From the official site, "The Movies isn't just a detailed simulation. Being successful in the game is a great way to earn money and prestige, and to finance your next projects. But you are actually creating motion...

ChapmanLogic - From Video Games to Media Games on November 4, 2003 1:35 PM

I've been emailing a link to everyone I know.

Bravo!

isaac on November 30, 2003 4:56 AM

Gonzalo,

That 100,000 does not include the players at the offline exhibit in San Francisco!

Actually, I am writing to let you know about an essay, really an editorial, that just crossed my desk. It was published in the Jewish News Weekly in San Francisco, and is by Michal Lav-Ram, a journalism student at SFSU, originally from Israel. Title is "Since when did suicide bombing become a game of any kind?"

The article focuses on Kaboom, which shared the newsgames PC with Sept. 12, Antiwargame, and the Political Arena: Usurper movie.

Final paragraph:

"For all too many people, the suicide bombing game will not be a game. Rather, it will be a harsh and violent oversimplification of a horrible crisis, neatly packaged via computer game--straight into the impressionable mind of a 13-year-old."

Again, readers, this refers to Kaboom, not Sept. 12, but it gives you an idea of the kinds of reactions we were getting.

Henry

Henry Lowood on May 5, 2004 5:59 PM

Turns out the editorial I mentioned is available online:

http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/22268/format/html/displaystory.html

Henry

Henry Lowood on May 5, 2004 6:57 PM

Turns out the editorial I mentioned is available online:

http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/22268/format/html/displaystory.html

Henry

Henry Lowood on May 5, 2004 6:57 PM

Hey, Henry, thanks for the link. Personally, I do have big issues with the suicide bomber game too, but as a researcher I find fascinating that a game can withdraw such powerful reactions. I am currently at a Game Design Research Symposium here at ITU and I did a presentation on political games where I argued that their success can only be measured by the amount of hate mail that they trigger.

You are right, that doesn't count the Yerba Buena visitors. Actually, the 100.000 figure is kind of old now. According to my stats, we are well over 200.000 unique online players and about to reach a quarter of a million sometime soon.

Frasca on May 8, 2004 5:18 PM

Hi Gonzalo,

Sorry, I only realized after the comment that the original statistic was rather old.

However, it gave me an excuse to send you the link. Yes, I was glad to get the reaction, too. My only quarrel with her point of view is that she did not acknowledge that alternatives were presented on the exhibit kiosk (Sept. 12, Antiwargame), but that was also part of her point--that she couldn't even get onto the machine.

Best,

Henry

Henry Lowood on May 10, 2004 4:56 AM

Hi Gonzalo,

thanks for this game, which I see in the frame of reference of 'Games of the oppressed'. It's a nice example of alienation-technique, leading the gamer to expect a simple 'shoot' em up'-mechanism, and confronting him instead with a systemic simulation, where he/she has just not enough degrees of freedom (in fact just one) to interact properly with his gaming-surroundings; like being given a baseball glove to thread a needle. Different games.

I can understand Kostykian's sentiment (antiamerican crap), but I think he didn't get the point of this game at all. From my POV it's a plea against the habituation of man-made rules, leading to accept a certain pattern of behaviour as 'naturally' given, without the necessity of reflecting that *you* maybe able to choose to a certain degree what game you're playing: A shoot-em-up, a strategic wargame, or a social simulation.

Wey Tan on February 26, 2006 3:00 PM

That is one crazy game. Even Today it still gets some action.

Larry

Larry on December 6, 2006 4:01 AM

That is one crazy game. Even Today it still gets some action.

Larry

Larry on December 6, 2006 4:01 AM

About the book