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Political cartoons? Nah! Games!

May 24th, 2007 (Visited 4828 times) Tags:

This is actually huge: The New York Times is going to use games as “editorial commentary” akin to cartoons. Needless to say, they chose to use Persuasive Games titles for this. Congrats, Ian!

Quite a big step for the industry. It basically renders moot the question of whether games are capable of higher expression. Now, here they are recognized by a paper of record as being just as valid as political cartoons and editorials. Maybe at some point we’ll see one up for the Pulitzer.

Definitely a step beyond the question of whether games can be art or have redeeming qualities, I think. Take that, Jack Thompson.

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7 Responses to “Political cartoons? Nah! Games!”

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Water Cooler Games - CNN Gets in the (News)game wrote on June 4th, 2007 at 4:33 pm:

[...] several mentions of how the release represented a milestone in games as a medium (for example, at Raph Koster and Game [...]

nah nah wrote on June 16th, 2007 at 10:54 pm:

[...] Raphs Website » Political cartoons? Nah! Games! Political cartoons? Nah! Games! This is actually huge: The New York … 6 Responses to Political cartoons? Nah! Games! Jump to reader comments » | Leave … G http:/ / http://www.raphkoster.com/ 2007/ 05/ 24/ political-cartoons-nah-games/ [...]

Reader Comments

Ian Bogost said on May 24th, 2007 at 3:57 pm:
Thanks Raph. I’m super excited about this, and I’m looking forward to doing more of it. I think there’s a ton of improvements we can make, of course, but that’s part of the excitement — really having the opportunity to build out this genre in a venue that can make it matter.
Steven Davis said on May 25th, 2007 at 6:01 am:
It is worth noting that traditional newspapers used to run a variety of games (at least in the late 19th century)… and, of course, they still do with crosswords and Sudoku. Most were variants on what we would now call “The Game of Life”(TM?) from a game design perspective, but they were often used for political and social commentary.

Newspaper Game Image

Another sample
Trucegore said on May 25th, 2007 at 6:36 am:
Wait, being put into, or used by the New York Times, is the marking of “capable of higher expression“.

Ok.
Ola Fosheim Grøstad said on May 25th, 2007 at 6:59 am:
If U.S. newpapers are going the same way as Norwegian ones they probably try to turn their net-editions into something fresh and eye-catching out of despair… trying to capture the new generations… So I don’t share your optimism for the recognition of “new art-forms”. Media-houses should be desperate in an age where they can be outperformed by blogs and wikipedias. And I think they are.

Still, fun to see new opportunities for interactive applications!!
Raph said on May 25th, 2007 at 7:29 am:

Wait, being put into, or used by the New York Times, is the marking of “capable of higher expression“.

No, no… we always knew games were capable of it (it’s not like these newsgames are new). But having a mainstream media outlet recognize it means that to some degree society can see games as capable of higher expression.

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