Petz and Babyz were software toys for adults, not for kids, at least not explicitly. They ran in a process on top of the Windows desktop, and the pets and babies literally moved around in the foreground, as you worked. They were little creatures and characters you could interact with ....

None of these observations change Ubisoft's strange assertion that girls want shopping and childcare, but the history of the titles make other observations possible. For example, Ubisoft is also just recycling old IP rather than reinventing these games from whole cloth.

Bogost says that the brand value has apparently evaporated, necessitating that miserable deliberate misspelling - but how much value did it have in the first place? And does currency with the inching-towards-menopause market in the 90s really have any impact on how well it does with tweens and teens in 2007 and beyond?

Imagine Game History [Water Cooler Games]

I love video games and I love the games industry, so I used to worry about this a lot. I wanted my games to find a home in the traditional commercial sector. I wanted to delight or impress my big league colleagues. I even thought that maybe one day my style of game would justify a place on the shelf next to their games. And maybe some day it will.

I still have nothing but respect for my more traditional industry colleagues, but I've stopped worrying about impressing the games industry and its pundits. Or at least, I've stopped worrying about impressing them first.

I gotta give a lot of these guys credit - defending a position gets old - so hopefully this issue will be put to bed for a while. Not every 'edutainment' game needs to aspire to Civilization, and a little more diversity in opinions and creativity rarely hurts.

Persuasive Games: How I Stopped Worrying About Gamers And Started Loving People Who Play Games [Gamasutra]

Documentary games aficionado Ian Bogost has unearthed an interesting mod that uses Medal of Honor: Allied Assault to create the Paris Riots.

In the game, the player takes on the role of police responding to the rioting in the suburbs of Paris. A very interesting concept, that is still very much in its early stages. Bogost points out that all that is available so far is a very basic demo. Make sure to check out this trailer as well. Brian Crecente

Have a Paris Riot [Water Cooler Games]

Fight, fight! I love when academics dust it up over publications, its so mentally invigorating... and subtlety catty.

Big brain gamer Henry Jenkins of MIT fame takes to task, quite politely, Ian Bogost of Watercooler Games fame about Bogost's review of his new book: Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Collide.

The critique critique looks at Bogost's take on Reality and Fiction, Affective Economics and, God help us, Bogost's use of the word "buttery" to describe the book. The longish, intellectually stimulating counter-point is just part one of what appears to be the makings of another book. Brian Crecente

A Response to Ian Bogost (Part One) [Henry Jenkins]

The keynote was delivered by Stephen Johnson, of Everything Bad is Good for You fame, and speakers include WatercoolerGames Ian Bogost, Smart Bomb's Heather Chaplin and Raph Koster.

The event highlights the growing importance of this once marginal effort to educate and inform through games. The conference includes an expo with nearly a dozen very interesting and informative games presented. Some of the titles include Bogost's Disaffected, Sundanese-life simulator Darfur is Dying and anti-capital punishment game Death Penalty Fun.

Missing from the expo was Columbine Super Massacre RPG, which I heard was in the works to make an appearance. If there's any place that such a game could get a thoughtful review and some interesting comment, it would have been at the Games for Change conference. I'll have to ping Bogost when he gets back to see if it was discussed. Brian Crecente

Games for Change

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