Ian Bogost - Water Cooler Games - Videogames go to Washington!

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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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Videogames go to Washington!

by Ian Bogost December 23, 2003

categories: Political Games

We are happy to announce that we've just finished developing the first ever official campaign video game - the Dean for Iowa Game, commissioned by Dean for America.

Political videogaming has now reached official status. This is an important moment in the world of political games and game rhetoric, since never before has a candidate, let alone a US Presidential candidate, officially embraced games as a viable communication medium.

We'll look forward to telling you more about this soon, but for now, just play the game.

- Ian & Gonzalo

Comments (8)

This just in — Ian Bogost and Gonzalo Frasca have just released a new political game commissioned by the Howard Dean for America presidential campaign! In "The Howard Dean for Iowa Game", you try your best to help Dean win...

grandtextauto.org - Dean Gaming on December 23, 2003 8:19 PM

Great work guys! Very impressive, and amazing how you accomplished it in such a short amount of time. I'll be excited to see the reaction among Dean supporters and in the media in general.

I especially enjoyed trying to hand out as many leaflets as possible, it's pretty fun. Makes me feel for those people who do it out in the cold in real life.

Andrew Stern on December 23, 2003 8:25 PM

I clicked and clicked, handing out pamphlets, canvassing door to door, and holding up a Howard Dean sign in public....

game girl advance - Clicking for Dean on December 24, 2003 5:25 AM

Are you mad?

Johny Zuper! on December 27, 2003 8:26 PM

Good stuff, you guys should be proud. However, I don't think you could really say it's the first political video game. I've seen several games before, notably the Tony Sanchez for TX Governor campaign.

calvino on December 29, 2003 9:28 PM

wasnt there a jesse ventura game for when he ran for governor?

konkeydong on January 8, 2004 11:31 PM

Jesse Ventura talked about using games in his re-election campaign, but then he chose not to run. So, as far as we know, there never were any games.

ibogost on January 9, 2004 12:34 AM

Great trend! Looking foward to voter registration!!!!!!!!!!!!

JQPalmer on January 16, 2004 12:57 AM