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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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Swiss asylum game

by Gonzalo Frasca December 4, 2003

categories: Public Policy Games

The game is not online anymore, so we won't be able to judge it by ourselves. According to this report from BBC (dated last May), it was conceived as a tool for awareness about the asylum situation in Switzerland. However, it was pulled down because ""It works with stereotypes. These are figures which don't have free will". It is possible that the game sucked, but this complaint is probably the most frequent response that you'll encounter if you build political games. I would dare to claim that games could be doomed to only work with stereotypes, because their potential is made of generalization, behaviors, the big picture (yes, I know, there are tons of counterexamples to this claim. Don't bother posting them, I am well aware of them. I am thinking aloud, but I still believe what I just said. I guess I don't have enough time right now to fully explain what I mean, but if you are interested, I wrote about this same subject on my chapter at the recently published Video Game Theory Reader).

Making videogames is an extremely complicated task. Making political videogames is almost insanely complex, basically because there are so few examples and you are likely to burn yourself unless you are very careful (obviously, if you are very careful the game will suck, so it's a catch-22 situation). Same people argue that non-entertaining games are an oxymoron. I have spent many years claiming that so-called interactive narrative is a contradiction, but I am convinced that there is a future (actually, there is a present, too) for political games. Is it going to be easy? You bet it won't.

Comments (5)

If you're interested in a free web-based game based on politics, check out Political Asylum. http://www.alteringtime.com/asylum/

What you say about political games is exactly true. There's a huge battle between making it fun and making it realistic. In Asylum's design, when they directly contradicted each other, fun won out over realism, since otherwise it wouldn't be a game.

Allen on January 6, 2004 9:45 AM

Evil Killers , Mass Murders, Rapist, and LIARS call themselves islamic muslims and pray to

a ( moon god ) they call allah, Muslims scream (allah akbar) as they cut off heads of

people who will not pray to their MOON GOD. Their lives are orchestrated by an evil book

called the (qur誕n). Muslims are killing thousands of Innocent Children, Women, and Men,

God Have Mercy. As a group of people they are some, if not the most Evil the world as ever

seen. Learn of them, fear them, OR pray to their Moon God. They teach their children that

only Allah fearing muslims are worthy of life and after life. Their aim is to destroy us,

they respect nothing; not even the lives of children. Every day there are bombings, every

day innocent people are targeted and murdered. Unthinkable atrocities take place on daily

basis. Terrorism is not an ideology, it is a tool; but the terrorists kill for an ideology.

They call that ideology Islam. The entire world, both Muslims and non-Muslims claim that

the terrorists have hijacked the religion of peace and Islam does not condone violence. Who

is lying? Do the terrorists understand Islam better, or do those who decry them? The answer

to this question is the key to our victory, and failure to find that key will result in our

loss and death will be upon us. The key is in the Quran and the history of Islam. Those of

us, who know Islam, know that the terrorists of Islam are doing nothing that their prophet

did not do and did not encourage his followers to do. Murder, rape, assassination,

beheading, massacre and sacrilege of the dead, to delight the hearts of the believers were

all practiced by Muhammad, were taught by him and were observed by Muslims throughout their

history. If truth has ever mattered, it matters most now! The root of Islamic terrorism is

Islam. The proof of that is the Quran. No matter how painful the truth may be, only truth

can set us free, Why so much denial? A nuclear disaster is upon us. This will happen. It is

not a question of "if" but "when". How many more innocent lives will be lost before YOU

open your eyes? A nuclear disaster is upon us. We urge the Muslims to leave Islam. Stop

with excuses, justifications and rationalizations,stop dividing mankind into us vs. them

and Muslims vs. Kafirs. We are One people, One mankind! Muhammad was not a messenger of

God. Terrorists take their moral support and the validation for their actions from the

Qu'ran. Your very adherence to the Islamic cult of death, is a nod of approval for their

evil crimes against humanity. We also urge the non-Muslims to stop being politically

correct, lest they hurt the sensitivities of the Muslims. To Hell with their sensitivities!

Let us save their lives,and the lives of millions of innocent people. Millions, if not

billions of lives will be lost if we do nothing. Time is running out! All it takes for evil

to triumph is for good people to do nothing. Do something! Send this message to everyone in

your address book and ask them to do the same. Defeat Islam and stop terrorism, one billion

dead evil muslims is not to many if it saves humanity. Together lets say to HELL WITH

MUSLIMS, THE Qu'ran, an the pedofile, pervert, murderer Muhammad (as he burns in HELL),..

Allah, evil God of the Qur'an, Qur'an evil doctrine of nasty, brain dead, weak minded, not

quit human muslims. ALL 9/11 terroist where muslims, all suicide bombers are muslims, all

TOWELHEADS are Muslims, do not let muslims live in your towns, they will destroy your way

of life and cause you much evil as they change your laws to comply to their lislamic laws

of the Qu'ran. Muslims CAN NOT live in peace, even with eachother. Example: Muslims hate

more that they love their childern,Muslims will tie a bomb on their own children to kill

another human. God Have Mercy.

rag on December 19, 2004 8:43 PM

This is hard to understand

Sophie Ash on February 4, 2005 12:57 PM

you will burn in hell you ignorant fool, islam will win wheter you like it or not

osama on September 4, 2005 5:18 PM

Well said.....

Oh, and by the way, you forgot to mention, Muslims are clearly idolaters, they worship (idolatrously venerate) the vile moldering bones of a corrupt, perverted, blood thirsty sinner, who has led billions straight to hell.

Yram on November 19, 2005 6:13 AM