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 2009 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 The site has been archived in full (with comments) at http://www.bogost.com/watercoolergames.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/ Speculative Realism Notes Observations from SLSA — This weekend the SLSA Conference is taking place in Atlanta, and a few things of interest to those of you who follow speculative realism are going on. For starters, I presented my keynote yesterday, on alien phenomenology. In general, the audience seemed still unfamiliar with SR and OOO, but also very curious. I took a number of useful new thoughts... http://www.bogost.com/blog/speculative_realism_notes.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/speculative_realism_notes.shtml blog philosophy Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:38:50 -0500 Alien Phenomenology Abstract for my SLSA plenary — The Society for Science Literature and the Arts annual conference is about to start up here in Atlanta. The program is online, and the SLSA folks have updated it with the abstract for my Friday evening plenary. I thought I'd reproduce it here for those of you who are interested in such things. In recent years, a small cadre of... http://www.bogost.com/blog/alien_phenomenology.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/alien_phenomenology.shtml blog philosophy Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:55:37 -0500 Pretty Girls for Nixon An image and a story on a theme, circa 1972 — Feb. 21, 1972, Mao's residence, the first meeting between Nixon and Mao, as arranged by Kissinger. Nixon: I have read the chairman's poems and speeches, and I knew he was a professional philosopher. (The Chinese laugh.) Mao (looking at Kissinger): He is a doctor of philosophy? Nixon: He is a doctor of brains. Mao: What about asking him to... http://www.bogost.com/blog/pretty_girls_for_nixon.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/pretty_girls_for_nixon.shtml blog politics Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:02:30 -0500 Atari Hacks and Demakes My Spring 2010 seminar — Some of you might be interested in this, the course description for my Spring 2010 graduate seminar/studio course, LCC 8823 Special Topics in Game Design and Analysis: The Atari Video Computer System: Hacks and Demakes In this intensive seminar, we will explore every aspect of the Atari VCS (2600), the most important early home videogame console. Based on a critical-technical... http://www.bogost.com/blog/atari_hacks_and_demakes.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/atari_hacks_and_demakes.shtml blog Atari teaching videogames Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:45:19 -0500 If You Follow Me... Twitter and Subtlety — In June 2007, Ian McCarthy and I started performing Wandering Rocks on Twitter each Bloomsday. My original explanation of our project began with the phrase "I do not like Twitter." I hadn't realized it until today, but back in June (almost exactly two years after our first effort), my name appeared on a list of 100 Educators to Follow on... http://www.bogost.com/blog/if_you_follow_me.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/if_you_follow_me.shtml blog cynicism education press Web 2.0 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:32:51 -0500 Rise, Crossover Learning from the jazz pop instrumental — I seem to wind up in the car for at least part of the early afternoon every Saturday. As a result, I've developed a habit of listening to the reruns of America's Top 40 with Casey Kasem that play on satellite radio channel 70s on 7. This week's chart was from thirty years ago exactly, October 29, 1979. The number... http://www.bogost.com/blog/rise_crossover.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/rise_crossover.shtml blog film music television videogames Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:03:51 -0500 Things I Did Instead of Blogging The miscellany of autumn — I've been a bit of a mess this week, as I'm finishing up the Newsgames book with my two graduate students and preparing my keynote for SLSA the week after next. Fortunately, interesting things have gone on without me. As I previously mentioned, on Monday, we hosted a colloquium on "how to think about narrative and interactivity," featuring Espen Aarseth,... http://www.bogost.com/blog/things_i_did_instead_of_bloggi.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/things_i_did_instead_of_bloggi.shtml blog media newsgames philosophy politics videogames Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:22:34 -0500 Now You Can Burn My Books Thoughts on Kindle and electronic editions — Apparently my publisher has started issuing Kindle editions of my books. Two are now available in Amazon's electronic format: Persuasive Games and Unit Operations. Readers might be interested to find that MIT Press seems to have taken up a different strategy with their electronic book pricing. Specifically, the Kindle editions do not necessarily cost less than the print books. To... http://www.bogost.com/blog/now_you_can_burn_my_books.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/now_you_can_burn_my_books.shtml blog Amazon.com books business writing Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:15:12 -0500 How to Think About Narrative and Interactivity A colloquium with Espen Aarseth, Fox Harrell, and Janet Murray — The School of Literature Communication and Culture at Georgia Tech is hosting what is sure to be a great colloquium next week, "How to Think About Narrative and Interactivity." It will be held 4:30-6pm on Tuesday October 20th in the Skiles building on campus (map), room 002 on the ground floor. The colloquium will feature the following speakers and topics,... http://www.bogost.com/blog/how_to_think_about_narrative_a_1.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/how_to_think_about_narrative_a_1.shtml blog computing speaking videogames Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:01:55 -0500 Art on Spec Thoughts on Kickstarter — A relatively new service called Kickstarter, which describes itself as a funding platform for artists. Writers, filmmakers, musicians, and other creators can post projects to the site with attached budgets, which visitors can fund via pledges. If the budget is met within the specified time, the project gets funded. Otherwise, all funds are returned to the patrons, like a challenge... http://www.bogost.com/blog/art_on_spec.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/art_on_spec.shtml blog art business cynicism videogames Web 2.0 Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:17:30 -0500 Disney: We Own the Concept of the Castle Fun with Infringement — Almost a year ago, I wrote about my modest success selling t-shirt designs on Zazzle.com that artfully depict the Disney World monorail announcer's characteristic Por favor manténgase alejado de las puertas. In that piece, I also drew attention to the ways products like this exert fandom by commercially exploiting holes in a property owner's own productization of itself. What I... http://www.bogost.com/blog/disney_we_own_the_concept_of_t.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/disney_we_own_the_concept_of_t.shtml blog cynicism geekery theme parks travel Web 2.0 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:08:19 -0500 She is beautiful, and I love her New Yorker parodies the New York Times — This is already a month old, but I'm just seeing it now: the New Yorker ran a set of satirical New York Times videogame reviews, in response to the Seth Schiesel fawn over The Beatles: Rock Band (to which I responded strongly, in case you forgot). My favorites: A princess has been kidnapped. Her name is Zelda, she is beautiful,... http://www.bogost.com/blog/she_is_beautiful_and_i_love_he.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/she_is_beautiful_and_i_love_he.shtml blog cynicism videogames Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:19:49 -0500 Object-Oriented Ontogeny Kids and Objects — Just to assure everyone that the torch will be passed to the younger generation, behold the following. My seven year-old has been working on analogies in her schooling, and she recently took the opportunity to affirm the wonder of the world of objects. She reads: "Happy is to sad as ____ is to ____." She thinks. Then writes: "Happy is... http://www.bogost.com/blog/objectoriented_ontogeny.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/objectoriented_ontogeny.shtml blog philosophy teaching Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:22:13 -0500 Material Permanence Or, atoms are more memorable than bits — I read this article about alternatives to paper business cards yesterday. It mostly covers electronic alternatives to business cards, from social networking sites like LinkedIn to iPhone apps like Bump. It made me think of when I first met Jouni Mannonen, a Finnish game entrepreneur. We met at the 2003 Game Developers Conference, in the unrivaled San Jose Fairmont hotel... http://www.bogost.com/blog/material_permanence.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/material_permanence.shtml blog Apple business iPhone Web 2.0 Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:02:54 -0500 The Ribs of Reform Politics and Slow Cooking — There's been a surge of discussion in the past couple days about the relationship between object-oriented ontology and politics. For one part, Levi Bryant responded to Reid Kane's concerns about what he perceived to be the "absent political dimensions" and "neoliberal alliances" of OOO and Actor-Network Theory. A liveley discussion ensued, and Levi followed up with some thoughts on the... http://www.bogost.com/blog/the_ribs_of_reform.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/the_ribs_of_reform.shtml blog food philosophy politics Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:34:57 -0500 Presentation Software Sucks Here are some features that would make it better. — I do a lot of presentations. They come in various forms: class lectures, conference papers, keynote talks, corporate presentations, and business pitches, to name a few. Often I use slides and visuals in these talks, and I do so in various ways. In my class lectures I try to use slides as a way to reinforce the key ideas from the... http://www.bogost.com/blog/presentation_software_sucks.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/presentation_software_sucks.shtml blog Apple Microsoft software speaking Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:03:34 -0500 Hegemony and Salad Shooters Cultural Studies, Politics, and Realism — If you're the kind of person who is the subject of Michael Bérubé's scathing critique of cultural studies in last week's Chronicle of Higher Education, then you've probably read it already. To summarize via citation, Bérubé argued that the impact of cultural studies "has the carbon footprint of a unicorn," and yet nobody within the field notices or cares. If... http://www.bogost.com/blog/hegemony_and_salad_shooters.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/hegemony_and_salad_shooters.shtml blog criticism philosophy Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:59:49 -0500 Speculative Realism Aggregator All your blogs are belong to us — Of the many exciting aspects of speculative realism and object-oriented ontology, one of them is the movement's strong presence online, especially through blogs. I realized that I've been having a hard time keeping up with all the SR-related blogs, so I created an aggregator that slurps them up, labels them, and puts them all in one convenient place. Since this... http://www.bogost.com/blog/speculative_realism_aggregator.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/speculative_realism_aggregator.shtml blog philosophy writing Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:17:50 -0500 Peanuts, by Charles Bukowski Schroeder played the piano and all of the girls loved him. — I'm not a big fan of fanfic, but I am quite enamored of appropriations of pop culture that shed surprising new light on their source material. For some time, my favorite example of this sort of thing has been Garfield Minus Garfield. By removing the titular cat from each comic strip, Dan Walsh exposed "the existential angst of a certain... http://www.bogost.com/blog/peanuts_by_charles_bukowski.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/peanuts_by_charles_bukowski.shtml blog art literature Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:12:03 -0500 Super Bogost Land My Videogame Cameo — Federico Fasce's games consultancy Urustar makes videogames for use in communication strategies. As a part of their launch, they have created Urustar - The Game, which you can play from their website. I seem to appear, in pixel form, in the game's opening. I think it's a good likeness. As you'll see if you play through, another, more well-known character... http://www.bogost.com/blog/super_bogost_land.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/super_bogost_land.shtml blog videogames Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:22:45 -0500 Little Black Sambo On the aftermath of an accidental racial slur in Scribblenauts. From my "Persuasive Games" column at Gamasutra. — The distinctive feature of 5th Cell's critically-acclaimed Nintendo DS game Scribblenauts is its enormous dictionary of terms, any of which can be written to summon objects to solve puzzles in the game. Just about anything you might want to write, from "acai berry" to "zygote," gets transformed into a functional object. With well over twenty thousand words represented, some are... http://www.bogost.com/writing/little_black_sambo.shtml http://www.bogost.com/writing/little_black_sambo.shtml writing criticism politics race videogames Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:54:28 -0500 Computing as a Liberal Art Thoughts on Education, Research, and Progress — I recently read Paul Lockhart's incredible essay "A Mathematician's Lament" [PDF]. Lockhart, a mathematics teacher at Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn, wrote the piece in 2002, but it wasn't published until last year, on Keith Devlin's monthly column. "A Mathematician's Lament" begins with the nightmares of a musician and a painter, both horrified to see their art forms turned into... http://www.bogost.com/blog/computing_as_a_liberal_art.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/computing_as_a_liberal_art.shtml blog computing education Sun, 20 Sep 2009 14:25:18 -0500 Buy Me Cashback available — I've been trying out Microsoft's new search engine Bing, mostly out of curiosity, and partly to see how alternatives to Google feel for everyday use. Naturally, one of the first queries I conducted was an ego search. The results are reasonable enough, but what really caught my eye is that I am for sale. Given the tough economic conditions, I'm... http://www.bogost.com/blog/buy_me.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/buy_me.shtml blog computing Web 2.0 Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:12:09 -0500 Philosophers are Worse Than Videogame Fans A Visit to the Bestiary — When I was a philosophy undergraduate student, I had a life-changing experience in a class on the philosophy of language. It was a good class, as undergraduate classes tend to be: I learned the basics of a subject had known little about previously. The course was taught by a newly minted PhD whose specialty was that subject. She was young... http://www.bogost.com/blog/philosophers_are_worse_than_vi.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/philosophers_are_worse_than_vi.shtml blog criticism philosophy videogames Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:05:36 -0500 Husserlian Souvenirs Or, my Dad read Logical Investigations and all I got was this lousy coffee mug — I realize the world is not entirely comprised of philosophy jokes, but sometimes it sure seems that way. I just came across this Personalized Name Gift - Husserl Mug on Amazon.com: Curious, but not chortle-inducing... until I read the product description: This is a brand new custom made coffee mug imprinted using the latest sublimation technology. This process embeds the... http://www.bogost.com/blog/husserlian_souvenirs.shtml http://www.bogost.com/blog/husserlian_souvenirs.shtml blog philosophy Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:46:56 -0500