Critical Gamer did an exstensive interview about idealism in the game industry, and game journalism in particular. In the interview I talk about the ‘problem’ of games journalism, the ‘games journalism lifestyle’ and what games journalism should be. The interview was done by Utrecht University student Snezana Nedeski and can be found here.

For Bashers I wrote a book review on “The race for a new game machine: creating the chips inside the Xbox 360 & the Playstation 3″. Concluding:

Heb je het geduld om door de halfbakken managementtips en de verhalen over slapeloze nachten van Shippy en Phipps heen te lezen, dan biedt The race for a new game machine de broodnodige verdieping om eerdere en toekomstige hardwareontwikkelingen binnen de gamesindustrie net weer iets beter te kunnen duiden. En met Natal en Move voor de deur is dat alles behalve een overbodige luxe.

For Bashers.nl I now have two regular, monthly contributions. There’s the monthly podcast; the latest version discusses issues as piracy, Nintendo’s and Microsoft’s line-up, Bioshock 2, and the question whether or not games should be “fun” (and if that is even a good question).

Additionally, I will write a monthly book review on a game related book. This month was on “Fun, Inc. Why Play is the 21st Century’s Most Serious Business” by Tom Chatfield. From the review:

Voor die gamers (en niet-gamers!) die zich niet, zoals veel Bashers-redacteuren, dagelijks met games bezig houden als studenten, journalisten, ontwikkelaars of onderzoekers is Fun, Inc. dan ook een soort van opfriscursus. Een gedegen boek dat nergens echt spannend wordt en dat je in alle rust kan naslaan om te weten wat er gezegd wordt over de discussies die nu spelen over games.

Rather than the somewhat traditional list of what made 2009 remarkable (for me), I wrote a book review of 2009′s three best game books: “De 3 beste boeken over videogames“. To be sure, there are way more (and arguably better) books published last year, but these three books are best suited for the Bashers.nl audience (many of which are not scholars or students) and I have read them cover-to-cover.

The list consists of:

1. Montfort, N., & Bogost, I. (2009) · Racing the beam: The Atari Video computer system · Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
2. Gilsdorf, E. (2009) · Fantasy freaks and gaming geeks: An epic quest for reality among role players, online gamers, and other dwellers of imaginary realms · Guilford, Conn: Lyons Press.
3. Juul, J. (2009) · A casual revolution: Reinventing video games and their players · Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

I promised on Bashers.nl to make the book review a monthly feature, so expect the next book review (somewhere) in February. Tips on good game related books (the newer, the better) are always welcome of course (contact me at David @ gamespace . nl)!

Also on Bashers.nl, an email discussion between me and Niels ‘t Hooft on 2009′s mega-hit Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, in which we reflect on realism in games, mediated warfare and the potential and expectations of big games such as these. See: “David en Niels over Modern Warfare 2″: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

Every once in a while I get an invitation to get early access to a game. Sometimes this means coming to an office in The Netherlands, but sometimes this also means traveling to some part of Europe. Much to my delight I was asked to come and see Rockstar’s new sandbox game Red Dead: Redemption. In London I got to see an extensive playthrough of three missions followed by the opportunity to ask any question I wanted. To be honest, I was somewhat skeptical about the game. Cowboys? How can an openworld game in the Wild West be interesting and provide some kind of meaningful play?

My first impression has been a good one. Similar to Grand Theft Auto 4 a year ago, Red Dead: Redemption has some serious potential. Even better, this is a game I would like to play, which, in my world, is the golden standard. Dagblad De Pers published the story yesterday: “Dwalen door de eindeloze leegte van het Wilde Westen” (.pdf see page 13). The story came out exactly the way I had it in mind. My main angle was to focus on the openness of the game and to give the reader a hint of the incredible scale of the project. With the help of my editor the story came out exactly the way I envisioned it. Up to, hopefully, the next exclusive!

Always wondered how the business of game server hosting ‘works’? I did, so I wrote an article on it for today’s Dagblad De Pers. The article is based on an interview with i3D.net‘s marketing manager and deals with issues such as the low entrance barrier for new companies and the importance of an online community. Read the article online here: “Gameservers – Verhuurder van digitale trapveldjes“. In addition I did a review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine: “Beter dan de film“.

On a totally unrelated note. This Thursday is the annual CSN conference. I won’t be a speaker, but I will attend and the program looks interesting. Urs Gasser from the Berkman Center will be there (author of the book Born Digital), and Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester. There are still tickets, so if you don’t have plans, do drop by.

The last couple of weeks I have been doing various lectures (at the University of Amsterdam) and a series of talks for cultural institutions and various other parties (through The Next Speaker) on Obama’s implementation of digital media during his succesful bid for the White House.

One of the talks was at the Marketingdag voor de Podiumkunsten at De Reehorst in Ede. The cultural sector has its own magazine; MMNieuws and in their latest number (vol 10, ed. 2, page 6-7) I wrote a two-page piece on Obama’s campaign: “Ja, wij kunnen het ook! – Obama’s nieuwe media campagne van binnenuit”.

If you are interested in a lecture on why Obama won because of new media, contact The Next Speaker for more information.

Today Dagblad De Pers published my analysis of Facebook as a (new) game platform. I enjoyed researching this, as well as writing the piece, as Facebook is in many ways such a new platform (compared to hardware platforms as the Wii or Xbox) and at the same time a very familiar one, i.e. hosting short & simple casual games. The article is online here: “Facebook maakt je trots en gelukkig“, but do check out the .pdf of the newspaper (page 15) which contains some Facebook game reviews, and nice pictures. The article also contains bits and pieces of an interview I had with Sebastien de Halleux, chief operating officer of Playfish. Playsfish develops games for Facebook and is quite succesful at that.

For Bashers I wrote a (p)review of Battlefield Heroes, the f2p (free-to-play) shooter for the PC. The game is still in beta, but there’s much to discuss. How will the social networking features be implemented, how will the project evolve, when will it launch? There’s already some discussion going on here “De enorme potentie van Battlefield Heroes“. As the title of the (p)review suggests, I think the project has some serious potential. We’ll see.

And also on Bashers, a link to an interesting VPRO documentary “Trendspotting San Francisco“. The docu is available online, so in case you’ve missed it, watch it!

Last months I dug into the world of podcasts. While I have had an iPod for ages and podcasts have existed for years, the concept never appealed to me. Such a shame, because there’s so much valuable stuff out there. From lectures to book launches, and from game podcasts to political discussions, it’s all there. So when Niels from Bashers.nl asked me to do a Bashers-podcasts I gladly took him up on the offer.

In the 80 minute talk (which is indeed a bit long) we discussed GDC topics, America’s Army 3.0, Modern Warfare 2, the new Nintendo DSi and a range of other topics. I had a great time and I love the format. I hope there will be more opportunities to do this.

The podcast can be downloaded as a MP3 here, M4A here, or launch iTunes. There’s more information and discussion (on the podcast) at bashers.nl.

On a related note, last Monday I helped on a story for Dagblad De Pers on OnLive and wrote a small review of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Ultimate Edition (PS3), the .pdf is downloadable here.

Wrote a short op-ed article on Twitter for the University of Amsterdam magazine Folia. Title: “Kroeggesprek in 140 tekens” (.pdf) on pages 8 & 9. My conclusion:

“Uiteindelijk is Twitter zo waardevol als je zelf wilt dat het is. Het blijft een online kroeggesprek dus het blijft altijd wat rumoerig en soms hoor of zie je dingen die totaal overbodig zijn – of zelfs een beetje gênant. Het is dus vooral zaak de juiste mensen te kiezen om de kroeg mee in te gaan. Andersom geldt hetzelfde. Hoe relevanter, grappiger of interessanter jouw tweets zijn, hoe meer mensen bij jou in de kroeg komen zitten.”

The title of this blogpost surely will lead to a) a significant increase in my readership and b) moreee spam! The title refers to two newspaper articles I did today for Dagblad De Pers. The first one is a feature article on MadWorld (the “ultra violent” Wii game) and the second a short review of Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad (Xbox 360).

“Sega verandert de rol van de Wii als familieconsole – Geweld in de overdrive of: een Japanse Tom & Jerry”
&
“Onfunctioneel bloot in Onechanbara”

I tried my best to provide a fair & balanced point of view on MadWorld. Personally Im somewhat ambivalent about MadWorld. As I a game I enjoy(ed) it, it’s very well designed, engaging and fun. On the other hand, you are (at least I am) very aware of what you’re doing (mutilating and torturing bodies that is). The style of the game is very Tom & Jerry (i.e. cartoonish) yet also very gratuitous. The biggest question for me is not so much is MadWorld a good game (it is), but whether it will get away being the way it is, considering the current climate of policy crafters trying to ban violent games. For politicians MadWorld just seems to be another stick to slap people like me (who enjoy this kind of “adult” entertainment) with: “Look what kind of perverse stuff there’s out there”. Again, Im very ambivalent about myself being ambivalent (you’re still there?), I wish I could just enjoy myself with gratuitous interactive violence without that constant voice in the back of my head whispering: what kind of moral panic will emerge because of this game?. We’ll see.

And about the sex thing? Well games & sex don’t mix. Period. Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad sucks (No pun intended. At. All. You perv.)