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.
So many things to post about. First, CMP launched the Serious Games Source (www.seriousgamessource.com), a site on games and all things serious. Among its feature stories, there is "Why we need a corporation of public gaming, a very thought-provoking article by David Rejeski, which triggered a must-read post from Wonderland's Alice (who happens to be a BBC employee.) There is plenty more to be read at the source, includying The State of Serious Games in Japan.
But wait! There is more stuff to read. Thanks to BusinessWeek, we learn about Pulse!, a hospital-themed serious game funded by the Office of Naval Research and developed by Breakaway. The article discusses the familiar problem of calling it a game or not, in order not to put off non-gamers. If you happen to attend to E3, the game will be discussed at the Games for Health meeting.
Last, but not least, a very good analysis of Kojima's MGS series as philosophical commentary. It was published last January, on The Escapist, and written by Pat Miller.
Well, that should give you enough reading material for the rest of the week. I know, life is not fair. I wish I could be playing X-Men Legends II on my PSP -one of the few reasons to own a PSP- but, alas, here I am posting at WCG before moving back to writing my thesis. Life ain't fair but the sun is shining here in Southern France and that's enough for me.
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