May 24, 2007

This Just In: Newsgames Hit the Big Time

by Andrew Stern · , 4:22 pm

Wow! Ian and crew at Persuasive Games (and sister blog Water Cooler Games) have landed the first of a new series of their games on the op-ed pages of the New York Times website!!

Read all about it at WCG, and check out today’s NYTimes opinion page. Their first new newsgame, Food Import Folly, apparently made within this last week, addresses the FDA’s limited ability to inspect imported food. (You need to be a registered TimesSelect reader to access the game, which I already happened to be; I think you just need to fill out a one-time registration form.)

To have newsgames published by a top-tier news outlet is a major event — making this new game genre “fully realized”, I’d say. Hearty congrats to Ian and crew for this important and very impressive achievement.

11 Responses to “This Just In: Newsgames Hit the Big Time”


  1. noah Says:

    Yes indeed!

  2. dr. b. Says:

    Times Select is $50 a year which I have always thought was just mean for those of us who already subscribe to the regular paper!

    I do, however, think that this is a good thing :-)

  3. andrew Says:

    Ouch. Sadly this will greatly limit the audience for these games, then. Maybe they have server bandwidth issues to worry about, and can’t easily offer it to all readers for free?

    I think I signed up for TimesSelect when it was first launching, during a free promotion.

    It looks like you can get a 2 week free trial though… And home subscribers are supposed to get it for free.

  4. Ian Bogost Says:

    Ouch. Sadly this will greatly limit the audience for these games, then.

    Well, except for all the people who actually subscribe to TimesSelect or get home delivery ;). The Times puts all their op-ed content behind the subscription wall, which is admittedly an unusual move, but at least it’s not inconsistent.

  5. andrew Says:

    I meant relatively speaking, if it weren’t in TimesSelect; even so, it’s huge!

    Ah, if all op-ed is in TimesSelect, then it’s just their policy, nothing to do with bandwidth issues or something else.

    btw, can you tell us anything about how this amazing arrangement came to be?

  6. dave Says:

    There is a University subscription to Times Select. If you have a .edu email account you can get Times Select for free, or at least used to be able to at this url:
    http://www.nytimes.com/gst/ts_university_email_verify.html

  7. Ian Bogost Says:

    btw, can you tell us anything about how this amazing arrangement came to be

    The short answer is, we asked them if they wanted to do it, and after a lengthy discussion it worked out. A couple journo friends, including Clive Thompson and Chris Suellentrop, were instrumental in connecting us, but it’s amazing what can happen sometimes if you just ask :)

  8. Dennis G. Jerz Says:

    Dave, thanks for that news.

    I wasn’t able to play the game on Firefox 2.0.0.3, but it worked fine on IE7.

  9. Educational and Editorial Games « Emily Short’s Interactive Fiction Says:

    […] l. I’m thinking about these issues partly because I recently saw the announcement of Newsgames — games being included in the New York Times […]

  10. noah Says:

    And, for those who haven’t seen it already, now CNN is on the Persuasive Games bandwagon!

  11. andrew Says:

    The NYTimes is now freeing up all of their TimesSelect content, to be available to all regularly registered readers. So future newsgames should be freely accessible!

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