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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US Oil Consumption Sim
by Ian Bogost January 24, 2004
categories:
Public Policy Games
Web-based simulation company Forio has a US Oil Policy Simulation that lets you choose policy positions, Mad-Lib a presidential speech, and see the results in a graphical format.
In this simulation, you are elected President of the United States on a platform of reducing U.S. dependence on oil imports. How will you achieve your goals? You decide on initiatives that include everything from opening oil fields in Alaska to mandating improved fuel efficiency of new vehicles. Then you write a speech to the American people outlining your policies. The simulation shows if you were able to achieve your goals by 2020.
I'm specifically more interested in creating embedded experiences for communicating specificl policy positions, and then allowing refinement. One of the design strategies I think works well in complex scenarios like this one is to create a fluid environment where individual policy actions create immediate results, and the player can adjust and fine tune his or her thinking about the policy without having to re-run the whole scenario.
But this tool does give you a very fast view of US dependence on foreign oil.
(thanks to Clive again)
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