Been a bit quiet here, it was election season here in the Netherlands so I’ve been (just a little bit) busy with doing interviews on social politics (the convergence of social media and politics).

Wednesday June 2 I gave a short comment on the ‘RTL Twitter debate’ on the RTL evening news. You can see the clip here. The segment talks about the purpose of the debate (i.e. Dutch politicians doing an election debate via Twitter), one of the party’s communication directors gave a short statement on the usefulness of Twitter. My view is that while Twitter is a tremendously useful tool (if used well) for journalists, researchers, students and politicians, I think using it as a debate tool does not add (enough) value to a (political) debate (compared to, let’s say, good ol’ TV).

For the weekly opinion magazine Vrij Nederland I gave some comments on the question whether or not social media are of any use during political campaigns. Arguing: “partijen hebben zich hebben overvallen door de vervroegde verkiezingen. Toen twee maanden geleden het kabinet viel, moesten de meeste partijen online nog bij nul beginnen.‘Er lagen geen plannen klaar. De partijen zijn webmensen gaan inhuren, terwijl die er al een jaar hadden moeten werken. En dat terwijl ze zoveel tijd hebben gehad. Een strategische blunder.” See the entire article here: “Heeft online campagnevoeren zin?”.

And last but not least, the game website Gamingonly.nl did an series of articles on games and politics (i.e. issues such as piracy, and games and violence). The articles feature Dutch politicians, (game) journalists and researchers, they’re definitely worth a read. Here’s the list (all articles are in Dutch):

GO! Politics: Violence and games
GO! Politics: Piracy
GO! Politics: Game addiction

Again a job opening, this time at the NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences I would love to fill (but cannot). More information here.

You will contribute to the development of a research program within the field of design of serious games, as well as collecting external funds for research programs and doing research and publishing yourself within the knowledge domain. You will be consulting in the process of curriculum innovation for the Game Architecture and Design Program and contribute to course development and education in the Game Architecture and Design program (especially in courses Serious Games and Research Methodology). You will be consulting on the integration of education and research programs and providing guest lectures in within the Academy for Digital Entertainment management and other bachelor and master programs within NHTV. You will be contributing to the development of Master programs and monitoring of PhD programs of lecturers within the Academy for Digital Entertainment management. Apart from this you are a consultant for the industry and you coach both students and collegues in our research programs.

For the academics in the house: The Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University has a vacancy for an Assistant Professor New Media and Digital Culture (1,0 fte). I would love to apply for this job but I am not done with my PhD until Q3 of next year. So you should take it!

On a different note, September 8 I did a workshop on Social Politics. There is another one October 20. Here is a great write-up about the last workshop over at Frankwatching: Social politics: hoe nieuwe media Obama naar de overwinning hebben geleid.

There’s a write-up of my September 7 talk on Social Politics as well: Drs. David Nieborg spreekt in de serie Plug in over Obama’s campagne en de invloed van social media.

Joystick Soldiers: The Politics of Play in Military Video Games has got its own Amazon page, a groovy book cover and a new shipping date. The book will not be out this month (August), but probably October. What’s the book about?

Joystick Soldiers is the first anthology to examine the reciprocal relationship between militarism and video games. War has been an integral theme of the games industry since the invention of the first video game, Spacewar! in 1962. While war video games began as entertainment, military organizations soon saw their potential as combat simulation and recruitment tools. A profitable and popular relationship was established between the video game industry and the military, and continues today with video game franchises like America’s Army, which was developed by the U.S.Army as a public relations and recruitment tool.

It’s not that big of a secret that I am, was and probably will be a huge Metallica fan. Starting out as a bass player for a Metallica cover band and rising through the ranks to become the bass player of the best blues band Holland has ever seen: the Blueband (a.k.a. the Masters of Blues). Those days are long gone. And to get my musical fix, I still rock out every now and then on my plastic surrogate bass guitar. Much to my delight Activision announced, Guitar Hero: Metallica. After playing Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, which was very mediocre i.m.h.o., this was a typical case of “please don’t suck, please don’t suck”. And sucking it didn’t.

For Dagblad De Pers I had a fast but informative interview with Guitar Hero: Metallica’s lead designer Alan Flores about him being a fan (of Metallica), about the job of so called ‘note trackers’ and about his favorite bands (Slayeerrrrrr!). I had as much fun writing this piece as I had playing the game. And if the past is any indication I will get my old band members together and have some fun headbanging and annoying the neighbors.

Much to my surprise, the editors didn’t change my semi-lame title (w00t!), which is somewhat untranslatable. The piece is online here: “Nog geen metaalmoeheid voor Guitar Hero serie” (.pdf, see page 13). Because of Dodenherdenking (WWII remembrance day) the piece was published on a Tuesday instead of ‘my’ regular Monday. The article is accompanied by a short review “Saaie geschiedenis voor puristen” on Konami’s take on Guitar Hero (yes that’s not a very historically correct remark); Rock Revolution. I didn’t like it.

In case you’re wondering what keeps me so busy, it’s that I’m fully emerged in preparing quite a load of lectures and talks. I updated the “Upcoming Presentations” section accordingly. Most of them are lectures at my university, but on April 23 there’s a more open event which looks promissing, a discussion on the future of games with practitioners, academics and the public. There are even more talks in the future, but some of that has to be confirmed. Anyway, here’s the rundown:

- 2009. (March 27). “Burgerjournalistiek. Het begin van het einde of een nieuw begin?”. Hoorcollege in de reeks “Oriëntatie Nieuwe media: Nieuwe media en digitale cultuur“. Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam.
- 2009. (April 2). “”Productie versus consumptie”. Hoorcollege in de reeks “Web 2.0“. Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam.
- 2009. (April 6). “Werken (of niet) in de Creatieve Industrie”. Hoorcollege in de reeks “Oriëntatie Nieuwe media: Nieuwe media en digitale cultuur“. Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam.
- 2009. (April 16). “Making money online”. Hoorcollege in de reeks “Web 2.0“. Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam.
- 2009. (April 23). “De toekomst van games”. Deelname discussie: The Future of Games. Cultuurhuis Diamantslijperij, Amsterdam.

Read an interesting Master thesis the other day of a University of Amsterdam student, Pieter-Paul Walraven. His thesis was very worthwhile so I decided to interview him for Dagblad De Pers. We did a Q&A on the future of the game industry in China and how Chinese game culture differs from Dutch game culture. Eye-opening stuff!

‘Het gaat niet lang duren’ – Pas op: de Chinezen komen.

In addition I did a small review on the Wii game House of the Dead: Overkill, loved it. Dom schietspel werkt verslavend:

Er gaat geen dag voorbij of er wordt gemopperd door doorgewinterde gamers die zich in de steek gelaten voelen door Nintendo. De Wii staat stof te happen en wordt enkel aangezet tijdens familiefeestjes. Maar nu biedt uitgever Sega biedt soelaas, al is het maar voor even. Met het uitstekende House of the Dead: Overkill wordt een gapend gat gevuld in het eendimensionale spellenaanbod van de Wii.

(…)

Shoring up our economy
And putting it back on the right track.
So health care reform
And reducing taxes
And reining in spending
Has got to accompany tax reductions
And tax relief for Americans.
And trade.

(…)

(Sarah Palin To K. Couric, CBS News, Sept. 25, 2008)

From Slate.com

After four hectic days in Amsterdam I’m back in Cambridge. Just in time for the VP debates tomorrow and to get back to work at the wonderful place that is GAMBIT. In the meantime I did an article for De Pers on Grand Theft Childhood – The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games. The piece is based on a (very good and insightful) lecture of both authors here at MIT. Check out the piece here: “Veel opportunistisch onderzoek naar gewelddadige games – ‘Wetenschappelijke regels leken overboord gegooid’”. There’s also a .pdf version, of course, see page 19. The book is a worthwhile read for anybody who played games the last decade. Go. Buy. That. Book.

Also on that page is a short explanation of the DRM issues with Spore with the brilliant title “Spore laat sporen na” (thank you, thank you).

There’s more coming soon. I’m working on some great stuff and the input I get here at GAMBIT is helping my PhD in many ways. Only downside of being in the US are those pesky region locked consoles (damn you Wii & Xbox 360).

On a more somber note, a lot of my friends and colleagues had to endure the downfall of the free newssheet DAG. Although my newspaper is/was a (direct) competitor of DAG I feel very sad about the somewhat sudden end of DAG and wish all those involved the best of luck in the coming days and weeks.

This very moment I’m at Logan International Airport (Boston, USA), waiting for my flight to Amsterdam. I am invited as a keynote speaker at Picnic. I will be back “home” this Friday, just in time to see the first presidential debate. It will be weird to visit Amsterdam as a tourist and I already look forward to go back to Charlestown, to get my 2pm Latte at DnD, to watch The Daily Show live, to endanger my life in Boston traffic (by biking), and to watch Fox News again (“Governor Palin, why are you so awesome?”).

My Picnic 08 keynote is about virtual worlds (and games and social networks) and is part of the Picnic Young Special. The speakers (& projects) include Donkeypedia, Eric Klopfer, Josephine Dorado, Games Atelier, Yo! Opera, Wrts Mobiel, MobileMath, Mijn Naam is Haas, Art2Unite and more. I will be part of Immersive Virtual Learning Worlds at 2pm on Wednesday. See the rest of the program here.