Adios, Water Cooler Games

August 15, 2009

It's a sad day when one of the web's most intelligent game-oriented sites rides off into the sunset.

And so it is with Water Cooler Games, operated since 2003 by Georgia Tech prof Ian Bogost and researcher Gonzalo Frasca. Both academics are also accomplished designers of provocative, issue-oriented games.

We note the following in the site's RSS feed this morning:

Water Cooler Games is now closed. Thanks for reading all these years. The site has been archived in full (with comments)... For my take on "videogames with an agenda," you might want to read Persuasive Games. I am now blogging at Bogost.com...

—Ian Bogost, August 2009

Because the issue-oriented focus of Water Cooler Games often intersected with that of GamePolitics, WCG was frequently cited here on GP. We will miss it, but it's good to know that it will live on in an archived version.

UPDATE: Ian Bogost has posted a lengthy commentary on the WCG closure:

From my perspective, the Water Cooler Games project was very much a success. The fact that so many venues now exist for discussing of what we coyly called "videogames with an agenda" speaks at least in part to the influence we exerted.

More so, the site had been immensely useful in helping me conduct research. My 2007 book Persuasive Games drew many examples from titles we covered on Water Cooler Games...

Closing WCG opens up new opportunities for my writing, on this site and elsewhere... The truth is that I've said most of what I want to say about [political games, advertising and games, and other topics covered on WCG]...

GP: We wish Ian continued success and the best of luck going forward...

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Comments

Re: Adios, Water Cooler Games

Submitted by Edward2 on Wed, 09/29/2010 - 09:14.

İstanbul'da araba kiralamak için Oto Kiralama sitesinden Araç Kiralama yapabilirsiniz. Bununla beraber Vip Araç Kiralama ve Rent A Car işlerinizi Kiralık Oto sitesinden yapabilirsiniz. Digitürk ve Digitürk Yayın Akışı için Digiturk sitesine girebilirsiniz. Parke modelleri için İstanbul Parke sitesine girebilirsiniz. Kiralık Araçlar için ve diğer Kiralık Araçlar için web sitelerimize girebilirsiniz.......

Thank you informationn..

Jeep Kiralama hizmetleri için kiralik jeep sitesine, Digitürk kampanyalari, Digitürk Plus, İstanbul digitürk bayileri için digiturk sitesine girebilirsiniz. Digitürk kampanyalari için ise digitürk kampanyalari
sayfasına, günlük yayın akışı için ise digitürk yayın akışı sitesine girerek yayın akışını güncel olarak takip edebilirsiniz.
Araba Kiralama, Oto Kiralama ve araç kiralama hizmetlerini yapmak için, şöförlü araç kiralama veya şöförlü minibüs kiralama sayfalarına gidebilirsiniz. Bütçenize göre araç kiralama yapmak istiyorsanız, ekonomik araç kiralama, spor araç kiralama, lüks araç kiralama, panelvan araç kiralama ve
vip araç kiralama sayfalarına giderek kiralık araçlarınızı görebilirsiniz.
İstanbul genelinde parke sitesi olan bahçelievler parke ve istanbul parke sitesine bakarak, parke modellerini görebilirsiniz.
sanalika oyununu oynamak için sanalika oyna sayfasına gidebilirsiniz. Birbirinden güzel hileler için sanalika hileleri sayfasına, en yeni Metin2 Hileleri için ise
Metin2 Hileleri sayfalarına gidebilirsiniz. Hepsinin haricinde digitürk sitesine giderek, digitürk paketleri kısmına giderek digitürk üyelik paketlerini görebilirsiniz.
Bu kadar basit.. Degil..

Re: Adios, Water Cooler Games

Submitted by MrKlorox on Sat, 08/15/2009 - 21:11.

I felt that reading about these type of games was always, without an exception, more fun than 'playing' them.

Re: Adios, Water Cooler Games

Submitted by ibogost on Sat, 08/15/2009 - 11:12.

Thanks Dennis, for the kind words.

@GoodRobotUs
Just to be clear, although I do run a game studio that makes games of the ilk we covered, WCG was never a company. It was a research blog Gonzalo Frasca and I ran.

Also, I've hardly gotten out of the business of covering these games, as the post linked above indicates. If anything, I've been digging into more specific applications, such as journalism.

Re: Adios, Water Cooler Games

Submitted by GoodRobotUs on Sat, 08/15/2009 - 13:16.

Ah, my misunderstanding :)

Well, good luck for the future, either way.

Re: Adios, Water Cooler Games

Submitted by GoodRobotUs on Sat, 08/15/2009 - 11:05.

Well, my best wishes to Ian Bogost, whatever he decides to do next, can't say I was a massive player of WCG stuff, but it was still interesting to see a company look at that aspect of the gaming.

Poll

Shout box

E. Zachary Knight: That is absolutely nuts there. As bad an experience XBox Indie Games was, the problems weren't with the self published side of things. Forcing a publisher onto independent studios is not going to help.05/22/2013 - 10:43am

MaskedPixelante: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-05-22-microsoft-wont-let-indies-self-publish-on-xbox-one And the hits just keep on coming.05/22/2013 - 9:20am

E. Zachary Knight: AE: You beat me to it. That's what I get for taking the night off.05/22/2013 - 7:40am

E. Zachary Knight: To continue the confused and convoluted messaging system present in EA, They are making Wii U games: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/192753/EA_is_working_on_Wii_U_games_after_all.php05/22/2013 - 7:33am

Imautobot: I gotta admit, I seriously believed Microsoft was going to "Bring It" with this new console. But they failed, and I think that failure might be Epic.05/22/2013 - 7:27am

Andrew Eisen: Well, the Xbox One reveal certainly had an interesting affect on the big 3's stock prices. https://twitter.com/AndrewEisen/status/33705126448977100805/21/2013 - 10:45pm

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/so-the-xbox-one-reveal-screwed-up-a-lot-of-peoples-kin-509179256 So The Xbox One Reveal Screwed With Some People's Kinects05/21/2013 - 10:36pm

Zen: On a funny side note...both of my boys have already voted NOT to get the Xbox One as soon as they found out Minecraft won't transfer lol. Some people have priorities damnit! ;)05/21/2013 - 9:27pm

Andrew Eisen: Here's the full quote on EA making Wii U games according to Neogaf: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56112105/21/2013 - 8:19pm

Andrew Eisen: Xbox One may not be always on but that doesn't mean you can use it without an internet connection. http://kotaku.com/xbox-one-does-require-internet-connection-cant-play-o-50916410905/21/2013 - 7:39pm

Andrew Eisen: Polygon says EA's CFO says it is developing games for Wii U but doesn't provide that quote. http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4351844/ea-developing-wii-u-games05/21/2013 - 7:11pm

Andrew Eisen: Well, I was right. Both Sony and Microsoft's consoles will be out by the year's end and both will be significantly more powerful than the current gen.05/21/2013 - 5:06pm

james_fudge: thnx05/21/2013 - 4:47pm

Zen: Just to let ya know...you called it the "Xbox 260" in the backwards compatibility article lol.05/21/2013 - 4:26pm

Zen: @PHX Awesome, I will hit those up after class tonight. Going back to college finally! :) My kids have had a blast telling ME to do my homework now lol.05/21/2013 - 4:19pm

PHX Corp: @Zen I sent you a friend request on both PSN and XBL, just a heads up05/21/2013 - 4:16pm

Zen: I noticed it with the football players when EA showed off Madden as well.05/21/2013 - 4:11pm

Zen: Is it just me or is call of duty hitting the "uncanny valley" with their nicely modeled faces and dead looking eyes? I found it distracting and seemed actually "less" real to me lol.05/21/2013 - 4:10pm

james_fudge: it sounds like if you have an HD reciever you'll be able to use it with a pass-through cable... not 100 percent sure yet05/21/2013 - 2:41pm

james_fudge: happening now http://majornelson.com/2013/05/21/xbox-one-architecture-panel/05/21/2013 - 2:20pm

All shouts

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