You may have noticed the lack of weekly FoliaNostra (the University of Amsterdam magazine) game columns. FoliaNostra.nl has been closed down (not temporarily I guess) and Folia is under ‘new management’. Former chief editor Marcel Hulspas moved to the daily newspaper Dagblad de Pers. Which by the way has an interesting two-page article today on the Dutch involvement on the war in Iraq. Now my involvement with FoliaNostra.nl is over I made all 19 columns I wrote available here on gamespace.nl. The links are below or at the Journalism (online) section.

Game columns for FoliaNostra 2006-2007.

- “When it’s done!”. FoliaNostra.nl. February 1, 2007.
- “Het Wii-virus”. FoliaNostra.nl. January 25, 2007.
- “Meer, meer, meer Warcraft!”. FoliaNostra.nl. January 18, 2007.
- “Games en emotie”. FoliaNostra.nl. January 11, 2007.
- “Een bloederige handgranaat en een kettingzaag”. FoliaNostra.nl. December 21, 2006.
- “De Wii die niet kwam, maar wel won”. FoliaNostra.nl. December 14, 2006.
- “FoliaNostra in Second Life!”. FoliaNostra.nl. , 2006.
- “Exclusiviteit als wapen”. FoliaNostra.nl. November 30, 2006.
- “Beursbezoek”. FoliaNostra.nl. November 24, 2006.
- “Hoezo micro?”. FoliaNostra.nl. November 16, 2006.
- “Ongelofelijke anticipatie”. FoliaNostra.nl. November 9, 2006.
- “Engelse Les”. FoliaNostra.nl. November 2, 2006.
- “Lees vooral de bijsluiter!”. FoliaNostra.nl. October 18, 2006.
- “Slavenarbeiders of workaholics?”. FoliaNostra.nl. October 12, 2006.
- “Gitaarhelden en drumkoningen”. FoliaNostra.nl. October 10, 2006.
- “De soap die Playstation 3 heet”. FoliaNostra.nl. October 10, 2006.
- “Geen nagelvijl en handcrème”. FoliaNostra.nl. October 10, 2006.
- “De esthetiek van het zombies slachten”. FoliaNostra.nl. September 18, 2006.
- “Begin het jaar goed”. FoliaNostra.nl. August 26, 2006.

Some weeks ago I finished the book ‘Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot’ by Julian Dibbell. I met Dibbell in Athens, Greece at a games conference. He had a brilliant and quite funny talk about his adventures and his book. So today in Dagblad de Pers a piece on making money online. What are the ramifications when you are making money in World of Warcraft or Second Life? The idea of contacting the Dutch IRS (de Belastingdienst) came after I had to do my own taxes (always a big pain in the butt) and I had to phone the BelastingTelefoon. I did a sort of ‘mystery-call’, asking “Do you know Second Life” (answer, no), do I have to pay taxes (answer, we don’t know) et cetera. The ending of my phone conversation of the newspaper piece and of Dibbell’s book are eerily similar (Dibbell also called the tax services, and that’s how I got the idea). Dibbell had to send a letter to the head of the tax department. I was advised, after talking over 30 minutes on the phone, to do the same. Didn’t plan it this way, but it makes a nice newspaper ending nonetheless.

The piece can be downloaded (.pdf) here for free of course. My article, titled ‘Virtueel geld: box 1 of box 3?’ is to be found at page 19.

Oh and there is a nice easter egg next to the article. Read the subsection ‘Onderzoeker of spelontwikkelaar’. I think it’s funny :). (Anyone with a good answers can win 794 Super Nintendo games ;).

Check this out. A dude from Kewaunee, Wisconsin is selling of his Super Nintendo collection on Ebay, which includes “every game COMPLETE IN BOX with manual and most inserts!”

“Up for auction is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I used to be an avid collector of video games, but as times changed I decided to sell off my collection. The majority of it I have sold of piece by piece, but I no longer have the time or energy to do that. Many of you remember me from selling my NES collection a few months back and that was very good, but this collection is definitely my pride and joy.”

So please forward donations to davewantsall794SuperNintendogames @ gamespace.nl. There’s a picture after the break.
Read the rest of this entry »

Today I did a lecture on Second Life for the Hogeschool van Amsterdam in… Almere. For a day called Pimp your web yo! It was a short explanation of some of the work and writings I did on SL. I stated six theses:
1. Second Life is a game.
2. You can do everything you want in Second Life.
3. Second Life is completely new (and has no precedents).
4. Second Life is (all about) sex.
5. Second Life is the new Internet.
6. Currently Second Life is a hype (but for all the wrong reasons.Suffice to say, all but 6. are wrong.

Last week (March 9, 2007) I did a short interview for het Financiële Dagblad. The full text is embedded after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »