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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Take Back Illinois: Economic Development
by Ian Bogost October 13, 2004

Take Back Illinois: Economic DevelopmentThe fourth of four sub-games in the Take Back Illinois Game is now available. This sub-game covers the issue of economic development in downstate Illinois.

You can also read my general description of the game, the first sub-game, about Medical Malpractice Reform, the second sub-game, about Education Reform, and the third sub-game, about local participation.

This completes the Take Back Illinois Game series. I hope you'll experiment with all the sub-games individually and together, as your performance in each of them does affect the way the other games play. For example, better performance in the Education sub-game reduces the employment training time for citizens in the new Economic Development sub-game.

Finally, don't forget to play Activism: The Public Policy Game as well.