Such a long time of not updating a blog either means really good news or really bad news. I am happy to report I have exciting news and new projects. In short, I started a new game company with a small group of talented people. More on that later this month. In this blogpost there is an overview of the activities of the last couple of months. I mostly worked on adjusting to post-PhD life, starting our company and doing interviews, writing columns and such.

My PhD was “reviewed” by dr. Linda Duits, a respected colleague from the Uni of Amsterdam. Read here review on De Jaap.nl or on her personal blog. More PhD-related coverage can be found at Eurogamer.nl where Erik Coenen wrote up an interview on game studies and my recent research.

Along the way I did several radio interviews:
- June 20, I talked to Eva Jinek at one of the longest running radio shows in the Netherlands: Oog op Morgen. This has always been bit of a dream to be there so do have a listen!
- June 22, I did a brief interview for Radio Wakker Nederland on my PhD, which can be heard here.
- June 30, an interview with NOS Radio 1 on the rise of Zynga and its possible IPO: “Gamewetenschapper over mogelijke beursgang maker Farmville“.
- July 11, a 60 minute discussion at BNR Business Radio on game journalism.
- July 20, an interview with Alexander Klöpping and Ernst-Jan Pfauth for their onetime nightly radio show. We talked about game journalism! You can download the .mp3 here (and remember, I was on at 2:40 at night!).

There is more I did on game journalism the last couple of months. Niels ‘t Hooft and I hosted a debate June 30 at De Waag. There is a review of the debate here, a brief video of the event, and there are photos over at Flickr. Over at Villamedia, journalist and author Nick Kivits wrote an extended piece on game journalism as well, worth a read!

In the meantime I wrote my bi-weekly column for nrc.next:
- “De gamer in mij wil punten, geen geld”. In: nrc.next. 2 september, p28.
- “Haat voor Bobby“. In: nrc.next. 15 augustus, p28.
- “Het kopieerprobleem“. In: nrc.next. 27 juli, p24.
- “Crunchtijd“. In: nrc.next. 15 juli, p29.
- “Games voor alle vrienden; Nieuwste hit: ‘Empires & Allies’“. In: nrc.next. 5 juli, p10. Met: Stijn Bronzwaer.
- “Dertig dagen maïs planten, naar olie boren en af en toe vechten“. In: nrc.next. 5 juli, p10.
- “Game-onderzoek is vers“. In: nrc.next. 29 juni, p12.
- “Geef een 8.5, krijg jij een reisje; Gamejournalisten worden aan alle kanten gepaaid door grote gamebedrijven“. In: NRC & nrc.next. 28 juni, p12.
- “Het is nog even afwachten met de nieuwe Wii U”. In: nrc.next. 16 juni 2011, p24.

In the world of academia there is news as well. I presented a paper in March on seriality in games. A rave review of the conference and my paper can be read here: »To be continued…«: Seriality and Serialization in Interdisciplinary Perspective.

Early July, for the Dutch blog Flabber I did a video interview on my (game) research, check out the video (or download the podcast) here.

And last but not least, mid-July I did a talk on gamification for Netwerk 023 (in Haarlem). There is a blog post and review on the talk, my presentation can be downloaded here, and a lot of pictures.

Next month I’ll do three talks. One on October 4 social media for Studium Generale (Universiteit Utecht), a talk on games and criminality at the VU (Free University of Amsterdam), and a talk October 5 on the ‘dark side’ of IT and games.

Last update has been a while. Last weeks I have been working 24/7 on my PhD and I am very happy to report that it is shaping up nicely. Just a couple more days (yes days!!) and I can announce here and wherever I have a material or immaterial presence that my PhD is done (meaning: mailed to my PhD commission). I have a date set for my PhD defense in late June, but I’ll announce the exact date and time when I have actually finished my dissertation. Yes, I am very superstitious.

As sort of a preparation for my post-PhD time I became a columnist for the Dutch newspaper nrc.next. I will do a bi-monthly column on games (together with Niels ‘t Hooft) which will be featured irregularly (probably Wednesdays). I will post links of my columns here of course and they will be syndicated on Bashers.nl as well (the day after they appeared in the paper).

The first column was on Dutch gamers, well, begin Dutch (cheap that is): We zijn zuinig, ook bij games – Nederlanders geven bijna niets uit in de virtuele wereld. The second column was my take on the “war” (note the brackets) on/in Libya and how many see it as being “very much like a videogame”. The second column is syndicated at Netkwesties where it has a slightly different title: “Sarkozy 1 – Gadaffi 0”.

In the last couple of weeks, I have done quite some interviews for TV and print. Let me list them here:

- February 2, interview for RTL Nieuws on the launch of Killzone 3 and the status of console blockbusters (actually this is very much what my PhD is all about). You can watch the clip here. There’s a summary here on the RTL website, which has me saying:

“Het gaat juist hartstikke goed met de game-industrie. Maar de traditionele grote game op een schijfje is wel op z’n retour.”

- February 25, I was quoted in an interview in de Saturday edition of De Volkskrant in a very good and well research article titled “Drie Nederlandse ontwikkelaars maken kans op internationale prijs”. I argued:

‘Dit is the place to be’, zegt David Nieborg, gameonderzoeker aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. ‘Wanneer je zo’n prijs in de wacht sleept, staan de uitgevers voor je in de rij om je game op te pikken voor bijvoorbeeld de iPhone.’ Alleen games van kleine onafhankelijke studio’s, die de grenzen opzoeken, worden genomineerd. ‘Het is een tegenhanger van de commerciële game-industrie die juist heel conservatief is. Drie nominaties is een hele eer voor een klein landje als Nederland.’

- March 1, live radio interview for Villa VPRO (Radio 1) on the Dutch indie game scene: “Nederlanders groots in ontwikkelen games”. Download the .mp3 here.

- Late March. I was interviewed for the Dutch magazine Nieuwe Revu on the success of Angry Birds. The article is online here “Boze vogels worden stinkend rijk: de ontwikkelaar over het megasucces van Angry Birds”.

- March 26. For the weekend edition of the leading Dutch daily NRC I had an interview on the never ending rise of the military entertainment complex. The article was accompanied by a very nice graphic. You see (and hopefully) read the interview via this photo.

And to top it all off, yesterday I did the keynote speech at the opening event for Academy Noord on social media. My talk was titled “De hype voorbij”. The room was packed and enthusiatic, see this unedited Twitter feed for realtime feedback on my talk. And wanna see what they have to say about the event and me in Frysian, check out this Youtube clip.

A brief update from the trenches. Working extremely hard to wrap up that last draft of my PhD manuscript. I’m almost there, over 95% is done. But as they say in Dutch, the latest bits are the heaviest of all. Chapter 2 till 8 (out of 8) are done and delivered and need some very minor tweaking. As we speak I’m working on chapter 1 and then it’s mostly redrafting. I’ve set my official deadline at April 1. This means that, with a bit of luck, I can defend my PhD late June. If that for some reason won’t work, it will be early September. I really, really hope to defend it before the Summer break. But how the Dutch system works is that the moment the PhD committee accepts the manuscript, I’m done. The defense is somewhat formal and maybe even very tough but is rarely (i.e. never) a deal breaker.

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Last weeks of September I had a short break and drove through Texas, good times! In the meantime, an interview was published on game journalism: “Gamejournalistiek: het vuile woord”. Do read the comments, they are as interesting as the piece itself. My take is, and has been:

“Ik denk dat een journalistieke werkwijze (of attitude) belangrijker is dan hoe je jezelf uiteindelijk beschouwt. Uiteindelijk vind ik dat gamejournalisten een bepaalde verantwoordelijkheid hebben (naar hun publiek, niet naar uitgevers of opdrachtgevers) en die ook moeten nemen.”

This Friday (October 8) I will do a lecture at the University of Utrecht (1-3pm) on the subject (game journalism). It will be in Dutch and if you’re interested to attend, drop me an email and I’ll tell you when and where (yes, you’re also welcome if you’re not a UU student!).

A longer interview was published in the magazine Revu on the most controversial games published (in the Netherlands) over the last decade. Think of Carmageddon, Postal, and Bully. The interview is titled “geweldgames gaan niet ver genoeg” and has my comment on why these games have been deemed controversial (or not). There are scans of the interview here (page 1 and page 2).

Last but not least, an announcement. The KNAW (Royal Dutch Academy of the Sciences) will host a symposium and roundtable discussion on serious games with Peter Werkhoven (TNO), David Shaffer, Jeroen van Mastrigt (HKU), Pieter Winsemius (WRR), Valerie Frissen (EUR/TNO), Carla Hoekendijk, and me on October 21. If you want to attend (it’s free and open to the public), there is more information here, send a RSVP before October 15.

I interrupt my regular blogging for a commercial message. Next week (September 9 in Amsterdam), I’ll do an Emerce Expert Session, or what some would call a workshop, on social media (in general) and the Obama 08 campaign’s use of social media (in particular). In an interactive setting we’ll talk about the latest trends in social media, participatory culture, a bit about games, hybrid campaigns, social politics, Facebook, Twitter, and much, much more.

If you’re interested, there are a couple of seats left. Head over to the Emerce page if you want more information. Or drop me an email (david @ gamespace . nl), or contact Tessa Sterkenburg on: (+31) 020-820 21 31 / tessa @ thenextspeaker . com. The session will be in Dutch and can be summarized as:

De lessen van Obama – De winnende combinatie van online & offline

De verkiezingscampagne van Obama was de eerste echte geïntegreerde digitale campagne, en een zeer succesvolle. Als geen ander wist hij online enthousiasme om te zetten in offline actie. De spontane fysieke en virtuele acties van fans, aanhangers en vrijwilligers werden slim geïntegreerd in een strak geleide campagne. Tegelijkertijd werden de sterke punten van oude media (TV, radio en kranten) gecombineerd met de kracht van social media. Obama was maandenlang altijd, overal te vinden.

Niet voor niets beginnen multinationals als Domino’s Pizza, Ikea, Pepsi en Ben & Jerry’s, verzekeraars, uitgevers, non-profits, overheden, en politieke partijen langzaam maar zeker de lessen van Obama te integreren in hun eigen campagnes. Ze bewijzen zo zowel de universele kracht van Obama’s campagne, gebaseerd op openheid, interactie en communicatie, als de inzetbaarheid buiten het politieke domein.

In deze Emerce Expert Sessie wordt gekeken hoe een geïntegreerde campagne op te zetten op een manier zodat oude en nieuwe media elkaar versterken. De killer app van de Obama campagne was de “ouderwetse” nieuwsbrief. De Expert Sessie stelt hierbij niet de techniek maar de gebruiker centraal. Oftewel, wat doen gebruikers, consumenten, fans, of kiezers precies met social media, nu, vandaag? En, hoe verhoudt dat zich tot het gebruik van oude media?

Has been a while, so here’s a round-up of what I did last month (of May). For starters, I have been busy working on my PhD (and will continue to do so for the coming months). Next to that there were some cool projects I participated in. For example, May 3 I did the opening talk for Upload Cinema. The 18th edition focused on games (titled “All play and no work”) and I was a guest-curator to select the most hilarious and fascinating web clips (to be shown in Theater De Uitkijk). We had a record of 270+ submissions and 32 clips made it to the final selection. Here’s the entire list which represent (a selection of) the best web clips on games and game culture.

This month I also participated in the Bashers.nl podcast. We talked about the iPad (yes, I haz one), Little Big Planet and User Created Content, and about the book “Nintendo Magic”.

And, to top it all off, I did two talks this week:
- 2010 (May 20). “Journalistiek & Social Media”. Talk at Kringcongres 2010 at Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen (HAN), Nijmegen.
- 2010 (May 21). “Blurring Boundaries: War & Games”. Talk at ‘(new) Media and the United States’ event organized by the Netherlands American Studies Association (NASA), Utrecht.

For the coming months I will be less busy with talks and the like. There are some interviews I did last week which will be published the coming weeks, but other than that, expect more sporadic updates on this site as I am slowly getting into crunch mode with my PhD.

November of last year I gave a talk on money and social (i.e. new media &) politics for students of the Hogeschool van Utrecht. My talk was part of a larger project, they also talked with a lot of other stakeholders in this debate (e.g. campaign managers, politicians, etc) and the end result of their work is a collection of essays and debate summaries called “Mes in de Democratie – Over partijpolitiek en burgerparticipatie”. The 14-paged booklet (.pdf 1.8mb) can be downloaded here.

Thursday March 11 I will give a talk, “De visuele taal van virtuele oorlogsvoering”, at Nest for the Texture Maps exhibit. In my presentation I will dig deeper into the blurring boundaries between physical violence (war) and virtual warfare (games), the never-ending rise of the military-entertainment complex and, of course, wargames (particularly America’s Army and other First Person Shooters). Recently read this book “War 2.0 – Irregular Warfare in the Information Age“, which offered an insightful perspective on these themes, so I’ll try to incorporate their argument into mine. See you there!

Time: 8pm
Location: The Hague
Entrance: Free

It will be one of the last events I will undertake before I go into ‘crunch-mode’ the coming (six) months to finish my PhD. Tuesday March 2 I will moderate an evening of Pecha Kucha style presentations titled “FAQ Masteravond Media- en Cultuurwetenschappen”. Utrecht University scholars, students and alumni will talk (fast and to the point) about their research and it will be my duty to host the event. I will open the evening with a short keynote on the ins and outs (or the good, bad and ugly side) of media studies related scholarship, titled “de zin en onzin van Media- en Cultuurwetenschappen”.

The evening will start at 7pm and will officially last till 10:30 (drinks afterwards of course). The venue is Studio T (downtown Utrecht) and the programme looks promising (very diverse!). Entrance is free, but Studio T is small so if you’re coming, send an email to blik.tijdschrift[at]gmail.com (NB Im not part of the organization). The event is in Dutch. More information about the event (and the programme) are to be found here. Hope to see you there!

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Last Tuesday (January 26), I participated in a debate on “Individu 2.0”. The debate was hosted by Christian student organizations to prepare for their Easter gathering where they will tackle religious and societal issues. As an outsider/expert I was asked to share my thoughts on the mediatization of everyday life, together with Jan van der Stoep (affiliated with the Christelijke Hogeschool Ede). It was an insightful debate. Jan and I agreed on many counts which made the debate a little bit less spectacular, but for me it was good to have some outsider conformation on some deep felt thoughts and opinions on new media.

What I did not expect was that the debate would spark the interest of two attending journalists of the two leading Dutch Christian newspapers. At the end of the debate the students asked about my views on (Dutch) politics and new media, as well as the rise of the Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders. In a nutshell, I think social networks (Youtube, Facebook, Hyves, Twitter etc), could be a valuable (additional!) avenue to discuss politics and to voice one’s concerns about the deep seated fear (and sometimes hatred) towards “others” (i.e. non-native Dutch citizens). I might be hopelessly naive here, but I think engaging in a debate in this particular case (through movies, pictures, blogs, etc), and taking the concerns of those-who-fear very seriously (instead of trivializing the Wilders supports’ genuinely felt fear-of-others) could be one way out of a xenophobic, divided political future. There’s way more to this issue, and my argument is much more nuanced, but this is one of the points I made during the debate.

The debate’s media fallout was illustrative and focused on my views on social networks and politics and used my quotes in their headlines. The best article ended up in the newspaper (first link). The two other articles surfaced immediately after the debates on the newspapers’s websites.

- ‘Gebruikers netwerksites zijn machthebbers’. Nederlands Dagblad. January 28, 2010, page 6.
- „Twitter en Facebook zijn machtige wapens”. Reformatorisch Dagblad. January 27, 2010.
- ‘Netwerksites gaan Wilders stemmen kosten’. Nederlands Dagblad. January 27, 2010.