Water Cooler Games - Videogames go to Washington!

Videogames go to Washington!
December 23, 2003 - by Ian Bogost

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 (6) | Post a Comment | TrackBack (2)

Comment from Andrew Stern on December 23, 2003

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.

Comment from Johny Zuper! on December 27, 2003

Are you mad?

Comment from calvino on December 29, 2003

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.

Comment from konkeydong on January 8, 2004

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

Comment from Ian on January 9, 2004

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.

Comment from JQPalmer on January 16, 2004

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

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Excerpt: 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...
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