Kotaku: Ian Bogost

Finally, A Video Game Article That is Also a Video Game

Kirk Hamilton — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:00:00 EST

You may have already read Leigh Alexander's damn-near definitive recounting of Ian Bogost's satirical Facebook game Cow Clicker right here at Kotaku. But all the same, the world could use another piece about the man and his work, especially if that piece is as clever as the one that Wired just ran. More »

The Life-Changing $20 Rightward-Facing Cow

Leigh Alexander — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 17:00:00 EDT

The past year has been one of the strangest ever in the life of game designer, lecturer and author Ian Bogost. It started with the launch of the most successful game he's ever developed, and ended with him bringing it to a strange, cathartic end. More »

Video Game "Poems" Get a Luxurious Special-Edition Release

Owen Good — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 11:00:00 EDT

A Slow Year, the anthology of "video game poems" Dr. Ian Bogost wrote for the Atari 2600, has published a special edition befitting a work of art. The box is hand-crafted and bound in red leather, with foil-stamped gold lettering. The set sells for $500 and only 20 are available, but admiring it is free. More »

In Cow ClickARG, the Cowpocalypse is Nigh

Jen Schiller — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:00:00 EDT

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The Cow Clicker-ing community has been sent on a mission; discover the secrets of Cow ClickARG before the secrets discover you. More »

Video Games Let You Kill, Abuse Osama

Brian Crecente — Mon, 02 May 2011 12:30:00 EDT

Sunday night a team of two dozen Navy SEALs killed Osama Bin Laden. If all goes as planned, you will soon be able to reenact that head shot in a video game this weekend. More »

Artists That Use Video Games As Their Canvas

Mike Fahey — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:20:00 EST

Are game developers creating games, or are they creating art? In the case of the ten creators showcased in flavorwire's "10 Artists Who Use Video Games as Their Medium" I suspect it might be a little bit of both. More »

Facebook Game Satire Continues With 'Cow Clicker Blitz'

Owen Good — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 20:30:00 EST

Cow Clicker, the send-up of social gaming absurdity, has expanded its parody of all things Facebook with an application platform that offers "seamless bovine integration." Cow Clicker Blitz is a proof-of-concept of the robust leverages it can architect. Or something. More »

From the Mouths of Babes, Withering Criticism

Owen Good — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 21:00:00 EST

Tron: Legacy has been, at best, a critical disappointment. At worst, well, "a Dora the Explorer movie would be more interesting." Who said that? The eight-year-old daughter of noted video game academic Ian Bogost. More »

What If A Video Game Was Poetry?

Stephen Totilo — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:00:00 EST

Autumn leaves fall. A cup of coffee cools near a window in the winter. And Ian Bogost has done something risky. He's made four minuscule games for a dead gaming machine. And he's called these video games "poems." More »

Finding The Art In Video Games

Mike Fahey — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:30:00 EST

Where is art found in video games? Ian Bogost and a panel of experts tackled this question and more yesterday at The Art History of Games symposium in Atlanta, Georgia. More »

When the Going Gets Tough... Let the Game Play Itself

Brian Crecente — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EDT

Like many younger brothers I had a contentious relationship with my older brother. We butted heads, fought, lied, accused each other of unimaginable atrocities and genuinely despised one another — while secretly caring deeply what the other thought. More »

Water Cooler Games Closes

Owen Good — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:00:00 EDT

Water Cooler Games, a standard-bearer for intelligent discussion of video games over the past six years, has been shuttered, according to co-founder Ian Bogost in a final post made today. More »

The Real Video Game Danger: They're Too Safe?

Brian Crecente — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:00:00 EDT

The summers of my childhood were marked with scars. Good scars, not bad ones. More »

You (Sorta) Owe Dead Space To Aristotle

AJ Glasser — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:20:00 EDT

Some deep reading over on Gamasutra on game design and narrative (courtesy of Company of Heroes narrative designer Stephen Dinehart) could be my next graduate school adventure. More »

Making A Game Out Of Today's War

Mike Fahey — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:00:00 EDT

The video game industry was about to get its first major game based on a current military action, only to have publisher Konami pull the plug. What's wrong with releasing a realistic war video game? More »

Games As Journalism: A Quick Fix For A Dying Medium?

AJ Glasser — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:20:00 EDT

An Online Journalism Blog article says that traditional news outlets need to start making video games that either replace or improve the delivery of news stories. More »

Ian Bogost On iPhone Games: Penis Pumps, Bras and Airport Security

AJ Glasser — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:00:00 EST

Ty Colfax at G4TV has an interview up with Persuasive Games founding partner Ian Bogost who documents the agony of getting his iPhone game, Jetset: A Game for Airports, through Apple's approvals process. More »

On the 'Birth and Death of the Political Game'

Maggie Greene — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:30:00 EDT

Ian Bogost has a timely piece up on the issue of political-themed games, and their use — or lack thereof. Bogost draws a clear demarcation between politicking (which he feels most of these games do) versus politics — games have the potential to really speak towards politics, but wind up being more or less meaningless tools for politicking: More »

Artistic Sunday Timewaster: Honorarium

Maggie Greene — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:30:00 EDT

Ian Bogost sent along this link to his latest little title, this one called Honorarium: "An autobiographical art game. Assemble lectures to present. If you do well enough, you can unlock invitations to travel and speak." I've spent a bit of time with it — I guess I can sympathize with aspects of the game, since I'm the poster child for 'inability to balance life and work — wait, work IS my life.' Just as interesting, however, is his discussion of the way he created the game through Sims Carnival. EA invited Ian to create a game using the tools available through the site. And, as he points out: More »

The Wide World of Gaming: 'The End of Gamers'

Maggie Greene — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 14:30:00 EDT

Ian Bogost has an interesting editorial over at Edge Online entitled 'The End of Gamers,' a title which he admits doesn't really capture the main argument: "["The End of Gamers"] is lurid but might not capture the main argument of the piece, which is more like "Things People Do with Games." Much of his point is that other media has a wide variety of applications, and isn't shoehorned into a few limited types of uses ('entertainment' vs. 'serious' and so on). Bogost isn't arguing for 'games as art' or 'games as useful' or anything else, just pointing out that some perceptions about the industry start to break down when one considers the wide range of applications current games can have: More »

UCSD's SoftWhere 2008 — Now With Videos

Maggie Greene — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:30:00 EDT

Missed UCSD's SoftWhere 2008 conference and curious what went on? Well, video of the public portion of the conference is now popping up on the SoftWhere 2008 page in QuickTime and YouTube. A lot of big names (like Ian Bogost, above) had some very interesting presentations on a variety of topics — even my Japanese historiography professor showed up and had a lot to say about history, time, and software. It was a pretty diverse group, and owing to the zippy format, you can get a good feel for a lot of the research and ideas without spending half an hour or more listening to one presentation. Confining academics to such a short period of time? Sheer brilliance. More »

Academics vs. 'Gaming' Academics: Let the Snark Begin

Maggie Greene — Sat, 10 May 2008 16:30:00 EDT

While academia occasionally manages to maintain the veneer of being 'civilized,' academic battles of words can frequently be just as epic as anything occurring outside the Ivory Tower — even when couched in elegant language and well-reasoned points, you can tell people are out to draw blood. So it (sort of) is with Roger Travis, a classics professor who wrote a passionate plea for gamers to "turn the tables on Aarseth and other doyens of game studies" in the Escapist: More »

The Tactile Side of Games

Maggie Greene — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:30:00 EDT

Anyone who has ever had the misfortune of having a mahjong addict neighbor can attest to the double-edged sword that is traditional table games: the sensation of having smooth and cool tiles in your hand can be a pleasurable one, but damn it all if that incessant shuffling isn't irritating after hours and hours of it into the wee hours. Still, it's the positives of the sense of touch that Ian Bogost picks up on in his latest Gamasutra column. Using the classic game of Go as a starting point and ending with Rez, he takes a look at what games can do — and maybe should do — to enhance the tactile pleasure of playing: More »

Ian Bogost on Advertising in Games

Maggie Greene — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:30:00 EDT

Ok, so a billboard in a driving game may make sense — but what about games where it doesn't make sense? As Ian Bogost points out, "Would an orc order pizza? Does a dystopian planet from the future need a pacer drink?": More »

Ian Bogost on Spore's Universal (?) Appeal

Maggie Greene — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:30:00 EDT

After taking Spore's creature editor for a spin at the ICE 2008 conference and watching the average, non-gaming public's response to the editor, Ian Bogost has some opinions on the universal appeal of Spore (or lack thereof). Unlike The Sims, Bogost says, Spore is facing a significant challenge in getting to the general public: More »

Ashcraft & Crecente = Hall & Oates?

Maggie Greene — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:00:18 EDT

Ian Bogost sent along this little gem, created in a moment of procrastinating from writing an article: More »

Play By Not Playing: Relaxation and Meditation in Games

fdemarco — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:00:00 EST

I wasn't sure what to expect when I checked out the Relaxation and Meditation in Games session I was assigned to. Would it even be interesting? Well, some of it was and some of it wasn't, as you'll see. More »

Gaming Vignettes: Hush

Maggie Greene — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:30:08 EST

Ian Bogost has an interesting analysis of a little 'rhythm' game called Hush, a USC Interactive Media student produced number that uses the 1994 Rwandan civil war as a backdrop. The point of the game is to keep your child calm by singing a lullaby — letters that drop slowly down the screen and must be pressed when they're at their brightest on screen — lest the Hutu patrol finds you (the screen cuts to red, leaving little doubt of what happens if you fail). True vignettes are found rarely in gaming, but Bogost thinks that despite the flaws, Hush points to how vignettes could be incorporated successfully into games and gaming culture: More »

Get Your Fat On: Fatworld Coming Out Monday

Maggie Greene — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 14:30:35 EST

Ian Bogost's Persuasive Games is releasing their latest serious game addressing (surprise!) the issue of obesity on Monday. Entitled Fatworld, the game purports to examine "the relationships between obesity, nutrition, and socioeconomics ...." During his guest editor stint here at Kotaku, Bogost described Fatworld as "something like Animal Crossing meets Super Size Me." More »

Where Are The Christmas Games?

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:20:43 EST

Ian Bogost—of Persuasive Games, Water Cooler Games and Kotaku guest-editing fame—wonders in print via Gamasutra where the holiday-themed games are. Alongside a quick primer on winter, Christmas and Hannukah specific content, such as Christmas NiGHTS for the Sega Saturn and The Sims 2 Holiday Stuff, he explores the potential gain that publishers and developers could reap from throwaway titles that appeal to the holiday spirit. Sure, there are a few snow and ice levels thrown about, but no one's taking Christmas seriously. More »

Weird Artistic Timewaster of the Day: Passage

Maggie Greene — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:00:25 EST

We mentioned Kokoromi's Gamma 256 event a while back, run during the Montreal International Games Festival. Ian Bogost (over at Water Cooler Games) gave a nod to one of the game entries for the contest (which encouraged the smallest/most irregular aspect ratio, with the caveat that resolution could not exceed 256X256) called Passage, a sweet memento mori game that's one of those loose, free, and arty little diversions. There are Mac, Windows, and Linux versions over the the Passage site, and even a note from Jason Rohrer to read after you play the game. It's a weird little game, but sweet, and worth spending a couple of minutes with. But weird. Just remember you can move in all directions. More »

Bogost on 'Video Game Zen'

Maggie Greene — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 13:00:26 EST

Tis the season for lots of stress - the holidays and end of semester hysteria usually leave me wanting to crawl under a rock and hibernate for a few weeks - so Ian Bogost's latest Persuasive Games column for Gamasutra was a welcome read through. The topic this time is on what makes a truly relaxing game. fl0w and Cloud, for all their appearances of being 'meditative' and relaxing games, are what Bogost terms 'lean forward games.' That is, they're twitchy and responsive and don't exactly lend themselves to a truly relaxing experience, no matter how soothing the visuals may be. He also gives a nod to my favorite series of relaxation-through-repetitive-task games: More »

Ian Bogost Signing On

bogost — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 10:00:00 EST

While Crecente's off in Australia buying Kevin Bloody Wilson albums, he invited a few people to fill in as guest editors. I'm happy to be here all week disrupting Kotaku with my perverse interests (hint: not cake). More »

"Can They Be Important?": Games and Art and Relevance

Maggie Greene — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 20:00:32 EDT

I don't always agree with Ian Bogost, but I almost always enjoy reading what he has to say. Sexy Videogameland brought up Ian Bogost's address at the Southern Interactive Entertainment & Game Expo earlier this month. He spends most of it talking about poetry - since people love to cry 'How is this relevant to my life?' - and ties it into the game industry. You're probably going 'What in the hell does Archilochus have to do with video games?'. I'd suggest you just read the address: More »

What's In a Word? The Meaning of 'Casual' Gaming

Maggie Greene — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 17:30:20 EDT

Ian Bogost is back with another Persuasive Games column, this time talking about the perception of the term 'casual' - we tend to think of casual as equalling informality (as opposed to 'formal' games for the hardcore market). It's the 'casual Friday' association, if you will - something that the current casual market encourages with the types of games being churned out. But what if we looked at the casual market in a racier light: instead of boring and staid, what about thinking of casual in a new way. Like ... casual sex? The gaming equivalent of the one night stand? Interesting and exciting for an evening, but not meant to be turned into a long-term relationship. Fleeting, different, and disposable - Bogost says that this sort of 'casual,' with no emphasis on long-term play, could benefit the current and future crops of casual games: More »

Mr. Robot: The Final Discussion

Brian Crecente — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 22:00:21 EDT

OK, time to kick off the final discussion for Mr. Robot. Hit up the link below to join in the campfire. Remember this time around we are discussing the game up to the end of the cryo room. Joining us today is Georgia Tech professor Ian Bogost, the author of Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames and a recent guest on the Cobert Report. So get your questions ready and hop on the link. If the room is full please follow along here, I'll be keeping an eye on the discussion and trying to post questions from here into the room. More »

'Skinning Politics'

Maggie Greene — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 13:30:48 EDT

Ian Bogost has an interesting little post up on his Water Cooler Games about 'skinning games' - wrapping a pretty standard game mechanic in a fresh new wrapping, in this case wrapping standard-issue combat games in the covering of a serious political topic, an oil crisis 20 years in the future. Frontlines: Fuel of War is a regular game in the guise of a 'serious game;' certainly not the first, but it's interesting to see exactly where they put the emphasis: More »

Bogost! Colbert! Talking!

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 09:20:49 EDT

As mentioned earlier. So if you don't have a television or live in a country with foreign TV, watch away. More »

Bogost Hits Colbert

Brian Crecente — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:00:55 EDT

Water Cooler Games' Ian Bogost let me know last week he was going to be on The Colbert Report. He sounded half totally freaked out and half jazzed. I don't blame him. I don't know how I would stand up to that eyebrow, and god forbid Colbert releases both on you. More »

Designing for Tragedy

Kim Phu — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:40:00 EDT

Gamastura has a very intriguing article by Ian Bogost, an academic video games researcher, game designer, and educational publisher. Looking back at the events before and after the Virginia Tech shootings, Bogost doesn't so much play devil's advocate to the mainstream's opinions of the happenings as he does trying to see everything from a different point of view. For example, he re-examines the V-Tech Rampage flash game by Ryan Lambourn and wonders if this was Lambourn's own way of creating a cry for help. The article also tackles in what ways video games are allowed to mimic life, even when its subject is a tragedy based in the real world. Definitely worth a read. Kim Phu More »