Water Cooler Games http://www.watercoolergames.org/ Water Cooler Games is a forum for the uses of video games in advertising, politics, activism, and other everyday activities, outside the sphere of entertainment. en Copyright 2010 Fri, 01 Jan 2100 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Water Cooler Games is Closed - Please Read http://www.watercoolergames.org/archives/001056.shtml Water Cooler Games is now closed. Thanks for reading all these years. The site has been archived in full (with comments) at http://www.bogost.com/watercoolergames. For my take on "videogames with an agenda," you might want to read Persuasive Games.

I am now blogging at Bogost.com. This RSS feed now contains posts from there (after this one), although you might want to update to this feed instead: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ianbogost.

—Ian Bogost, August 2009

]]> 0000@http://www.watercoolergames.org/ An Atari Travels My VCS Goes to GDC — As you may remember, I brought my Atari out to GDC for the Independent Game Festival. It's been having an unusual time indeed during its travels, and I believe it hasn't seen this much excitement in some 33 years. Here are some highlights: In the Delta SkyClub Stowed under the seat in front of me At the baggage carousel In... http://www.bogost.com/blog/an_atari_travels.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/an_atari_travels.shtml blog Atari travel videogames Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:17:17 -0500 Exergames, Microtalks, Nuovo Sessions, and More My 2010 Game Developers Conference schedule — This week is the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. For those of you who want to catch up with me there, here's my speaking schedule for the week: Tuesday and Wednesday I'm co-hosting the Serious Games Summit (with Ben Sawyer and Jane McGonigal). I'll be moderating two panels there, as follows: Wednesday 3:00- 4:00 Room 133, North Hall, Seriously,... http://www.bogost.com/blog/exergames_microtalks_nuovo_ses.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/exergames_microtalks_nuovo_ses.shtml blog speaking videogames Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:49:33 -0500 Exhaust Objects Thoughts from an Atari 1978 Board and ROM — In anticipation of the Independent Game Festival next week, today I constructed the first two cartridges of A Slow Year. More on that soon, but for now I wanted to share the object below, residue from the construction. It's a board holding a 2k mask ROM for an Atari game. The photo probably stands alone as far as a blog... http://www.bogost.com/blog/exhaust_objects.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/exhaust_objects.shtml blog Atari philosophy videogames Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:30:15 -0500 We Have Never Been Threshing Winner, Weirdest Use of a Combine Metaphor — From Moral Leadership in a Postmodern Age, by Ron Hill: If modernity acted like a combine harvester, sweeping away the old crop and transforming it into uniformly square bales, postmodernity allows some of the crops to survive and even to be replanted amidst the bales. It's sort of awesome. Maybe just because I love combine harvesters.... http://www.bogost.com/blog/we_have_never_been_threshing.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/we_have_never_been_threshing.shtml blog farming philosophy theory Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:04:20 -0500 Shell Games On the achievementalization of the world. From my "Persuasive Games" column at Gamasutra. — In a widely disseminated talk at DICE last month, Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center professor Jesse Schell made a provocation: can game-like external rewards make people lead better lives? To answer the question, Schell explored hypothetical scenarios that might combine awards of XBox Achievements-like scrip with emerging sensor networks that would track our everyday behaviors. Teeth brushing might earn... http://www.bogost.com/writing/shell_games.shtml http://www.bogost.com/writing/shell_games.shtml writing games writing Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:15:49 -0500 Philosopher Slab Poems, in Pixels and Letters Also, win a copy of a book I haven't yet written — Sometimes serious ideas emerge from the strangest places. Last week Harman tossed an offhand question onto his blog: Who is the most overrated philosopher?. It sparked quite serious discussion all over. So serious that before long, Harman found himself wondering if an anthology of opinions on "overrated philosophers" could indeed become a serious work of philosophy. I now find myself... http://www.bogost.com/blog/philosopher_slab_poems_in_pixe.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/philosopher_slab_poems_in_pixe.shtml blog art books philosophy writing Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:44:03 -0500 How to Turn Heavy Rain into a Restroom Simulator The Urinal Sublime — I'm still working my way through Heavy Rain, and I'll save my comments about the game until I finish. For now, I broke it in an interesting way that's worth sharing. When you are playing as Norman Jayden in the police headquarters, it is possible to go into the men's room. One plot element requires this, but later you can... http://www.bogost.com/blog/how_to_turn_heavy_rain_into_a.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/how_to_turn_heavy_rain_into_a.shtml blog videogames Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:01:59 -0500 A scientist, a philosopher, and an engineer walk into a conference... — Courtesy of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, I bring you a cartoon comparing scientists, philosophers, and engineers. It speaks for itself, of course, but I'll make two observations about it nevertheless. First, the cartoon thinks it's mocking scientists and philosophers, but when I read it, it's the engineer who looks like the idiot. Second, the philosopher panel offers a particularly efficient... http://www.bogost.com/blog/a_scientist_a_philosopher_and.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/a_scientist_a_philosopher_and.shtml blog humor philosophy Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:33:34 -0500 A Slow Year Nears Updated Screenshots and Trailer — As the IGF approaches, I have a few updates to relate about A Slow Year. First, expect to see a number of interviews with me about the game emerging over the next two weeks. The first is on Rock Paper Shotgun, and I'll report back when the others drop. My favorite line from the RPS piece, "I hope the game... http://www.bogost.com/blog/a_slow_year_nears.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/a_slow_year_nears.shtml blog Atari videogames Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:02:40 -0500 Materialisms The Stuff of Things is Many — The past few days have witnessed a flurry of comments on the use and misuse of "materialism" in philosophy, starting with Gratton and continuing with Harman (1, 2) and Bryant. Gratton hits the nail on the head when he asks, "What kind of material would we even be talking about?" Indeed, it's become increasingly difficult to understand from what material... http://www.bogost.com/blog/materialisms.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/materialisms.shtml blog film philosophy Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:52:02 -0500 Pascal Spoken Here Learning about Learning Programming from the Apple ][ — Among the many, many things we talk about when we discuss curriculum for the Computational Media degree is how to make learning programming facile and appealing all throughout a student's career. Many sub-problems arise, for example, how can one help students learn new languages and environments after they've become familiar with one or two? Just after having some of these... http://www.bogost.com/blog/pascal_spoken_here.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/pascal_spoken_here.shtml blog Apple computing education programming teaching Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:08:42 -0500 Chicken's Revenge Hacking Freeway — Today in my Atari Hacks, Remakes, and Demakes class we talked about disassembling binaries and doing graphical hacks. These are the simplest kind of ROM hacks to do, as they only require changes to data in the disassembly, which is usually relatively easy to find and identify. My in-class example involved hacking David Crane's Activision title Freeway. My simple hack... http://www.bogost.com/blog/chickens_revenge.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/chickens_revenge.shtml blog Atari programming videogames Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:08:58 -0500 Mel Brooks, Ontologist from Videogaming Illustrated, October 1982 — One of my students found a bunch of old computer and videogame magazines and shared them with me last week. I've been slowly perusing them as time allows, and I found something surprising in the October 1982 issue of Videogaming Illustrated. It's from a multi-page feature called Star Words, in which different celebrities, mostly actors, offer their impressions of videogames.... http://www.bogost.com/blog/mel_brooks_ontologist.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/mel_brooks_ontologist.shtml blog philosophy videogames Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:44:36 -0500 "People are More Important than Things" What the Wall Said — One of my students found and snapped this plaque at last week's Art History of Games symposium. When mounted in an art museum like the High, an inscription this strives to remind its visitors that they stand above the artifacts held hostage in the galleries, despite the apparent attention paid to (and the incredible sums paid for) those artifacts. It... http://www.bogost.com/blog/people_are_more_important_than.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/people_are_more_important_than.shtml blog art philosophy Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:05:50 -0500 Check-Ins Check Out On check-in mechanics and games as loyalty programs. From my "Persuasive Games" column at Gamasutra. — I am one of those frequent flyer freaks. I count my elite qualifying miles and plan trips to maximize their accrual. I orchestrate complex bookings based on the class of service available and my ability to upgrade it. I can tell you which seats are optimal on a Delta 767-300 versus a 767-400. I can explain the intricacies of award... http://www.bogost.com/writing/checkins_check_out.shtml http://www.bogost.com/writing/checkins_check_out.shtml writing games travel writing Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:57:19 -0500 Information is Beautiful ...but it's not necessarily informative — My next book, Newsgames: Journalism at Play (co-authored with my graduate students Simon Ferrari and Bobby Schweizer), is being prepared for publication, and it should hit the streets in late summer of this year. In anticipation, I'll try to offer some occasional previews of the content we cover in the book. One of the chapters in Newsgames covers infographics, exploring... http://www.bogost.com/blog/information_is_beautiful.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/information_is_beautiful.shtml blog art books games journalism writing Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:04:39 -0500 The Art History of Games Day 2 and Exhibition Opening — We're already into the third and final day of the Art History of Games symposium, and as an organizer I haven't even tried to blog the talks. You're best bet is to check out coverage online (Gamasutra covered part, but not all, of yesterday's sessions), or to review the Twitter stream on hashtag #AHoG. Last night's exhibition opening was great;... http://www.bogost.com/blog/the_art_history_of_games_3.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/the_art_history_of_games_3.shtml blog art games speaking Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:31:27 -0500 The Art History of Games Day One — This evening we began the Art History of Games symposium here in Atlanta, organized by Savannah College of Art and Design - Atlanta and Georgia Tech. After introductions, myself and my co-organizers John Sharp and Michael Nitsche presented a discussion of the concept of an art history of games. Then John Romero presented his keynote "Masters among Us," about learning... http://www.bogost.com/blog/the_art_history_of_games_2.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/the_art_history_of_games_2.shtml blog art games speaking Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:06:16 -0500 Objects & Things DiSalvo joins the party — My colleague Carl DiSalvo, who will participate in this April's OOO Symposium, has started up a blog: Objects & Things. The site will offer another perspective on objects, that of design. I've added it to the SR Aggregator.... http://www.bogost.com/blog/objects_things.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/objects_things.shtml blog art design philosophy Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:45:00 -0500 Object-Oriented Ontology Symposium April 23, 2010 at Georgia Tech — I'm happy to announce that we'll be hosting the first Object-Oriented Ontology Symposium at Georgia Tech, on Friday April 23, 2010. Speakers include myself, Levi Bryant, Graham Harman, and Steven Shaviro, with respondents from the local Atlanta area: my Georgia Tech colleagues Hugh Crawford, Carl DiSalvo, and Eugene Thacker, and John Johnston from Emory. I'm really looking forward to it.... http://www.bogost.com/blog/objectoriented_ontology_sympos.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/objectoriented_ontology_sympos.shtml blog education philosophy Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:00:11 -0500 The Sanitary Handheld Public Rhetoric and the iPad — I swore I wasn't going to write anything about Apple's newly announced iPad, but I suppose it's unavoidable. Instead of its benefits or flaws, however, what's interested me the most about the gadget is the public reaction to its name. It seems that back in 2007, MadTV wrote a spoof of Apple's raging devicitude, in the form of a parodic... http://www.bogost.com/blog/the_sanitary_handheld.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/the_sanitary_handheld.shtml blog Apple iPad iPhone Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:07:10 -0500 The New Nerd Mafia Me in the Best of Atlanta — The Atlantan just put out their annual Best of Atlanta issue, and it includes a "design" section which features a handful of Georgia Tech researchers, myself among them. You can read it online; you'll just have to navigate to page 34-35, where the article begins. There are some zingers. As a preview, behold the start of the spread:... http://www.bogost.com/blog/the_new_nerd_mafia.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/the_new_nerd_mafia.shtml blog design press videogames Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:06:25 -0500 Year of the Woman What the state of women in Hollywood's tells us about women in games — Today I listened to NPR On Point on the ride home. The topic was "A big year for Hollywood women?", with film critics Manohla Dargis and Nicole LaPorte discussing (and deflating) recent buzz about the "Year of the Woman" in movies. If you listen to the show online, you'll be struck by how much the conversation about women in film... http://www.bogost.com/blog/year_of_the_woman.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/year_of_the_woman.shtml blog film videogames Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:01:11 -0500 The Marketplace of Ideas Louis Menand's new book on professors and professionalization — Via Peter Gratton, I've just read Slate's detailed review of Louis Menand's new book The Marketplace of Ideas, about the state of the university and the anxiety of the professoriate. Given that my own feelings about such matters are far less measured and far more informal than Menand's, I'll look forward to reading the book, since he clearly covers many... http://www.bogost.com/blog/the_marketplace_of_ideas.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/the_marketplace_of_ideas.shtml blog education politics Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:57:30 -0500 A History of the World in 100 Objects From the BBC and the British Museum — Yet another high-profile slate of objects to report. The BBC and the British Museum are collaborating on a set of radio programs detailing a history of the world in 100 objects. The objects are drawn from the collection of the British Museum, and the radio program begins tomorrow (18 January). The BBC has also produced a multimedia explorer that... http://www.bogost.com/blog/a_history_of_the_world_in_100.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/a_history_of_the_world_in_100.shtml blog art philosophy Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:05:05 -0500