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The Game of Life: A case study of video games as social platforms

Introduction Human connection, the feeling of being accepted or even loved. What does human connection look like in our digital day and age? Dating apps like Tinder are obviously a very modern tool of people reaching each other, but...
Book review: Virtually You by Elias Aboujaoude, MD

Book review: Virtually You by Elias Aboujaoude, MD

The humankind is moving online. Our work, relationships, communications, banking and even shopping can be done online today, and where possible we’ll happily take the easy ‘one click away’ shortcut, because it’s faster, more efficient and more convenient. For...
MMORP-FPS

MMORP-FPS

Introduction In Money for Nothing, Steven Shaviro claimed that the virtual life is getting more and more intertwined with the real life, focusing a lot on its economic aspect (Shaviro, 2007). He discusses the book “Play Money” by Julian...
John Doe is addicted to Twitter

John Doe is addicted to Twitter

From ambient awareness to addiction to the virtual world of tomorrow When your social life is only one Tweet away “What are you doing?” or in more recent words “What is happening?” is a question that can be answered...
Virtually Yours! The Meteoric Rise of Virtual Game Goods

Virtually Yours! The Meteoric Rise of Virtual Game Goods

In the space of just over a decade, virtual game goods have gone from being a black market cottage industry to an extremely successful business model for gaming and social networking virtual goods industries. This evolution, caused by player...

The Real Bubble of Virtual Worlds.

With the world economy  recovering from the greatest financial crisis in modern times, researching its effect on the virtual economies that people playfully or laboriously engage with in online worlds would be interesting, relevant and difficult.  The supposed correlation...

Second Life meets FaceBook: Why do we like being part of a virtual community?

Even though Levy‘s writing style is not my favorite (and that is probably because I am getting used to the Dutch style, very to-the-point), I still can handle it (probably because, in the end, I’m Italian and his mother...
When virtual life mixes with real life

When virtual life mixes with real life

Sherry Turkle talks in ‘Video Games and Computer Holding Power’ (1984) about Jimmy, a fourteen year old. Jimmy isn’t gaming (with the game Space Invaders) and thinking of winning and losing. He wants to see how long he can...

Social Networking Sites, “To Be or Not To Be?”

Ali Balunywa The famous phrase “to be, or not to be” comes from William shakespeare‘s Hamlet prince of Denmark (written about 1600), act three, scene one. It is one of the most famous quotations in world literature. “ To be or...
Second Life as ‘YASNS’

Second Life as ‘YASNS’

Danah Boyd is a doctoral candidate in the School of Information at the University of California-Berkeley and a Fellow at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Her research focuses on how American youth use networked publics...

PICNIC 08 – YOUNG Seminar: Virtual Spaces

Amsterdam 25 September http://picnicyoung.nl/ The motto of this seminar is that bringing computer simulations and games into the classroom will have a positive effect on the learning abilities of students. For a new media academic this can’t be very shocking news. Modern...
Web 2.0 + Second Life

Web 2.0 + Second Life

WEB 2.0 consists of Cooperative Behavior, Education, Information Storage and Retrieval, Interpersonal Relations, Organizational Innovation, Social Behavior, User-Computer Interface, Online Systems, collaboration, knowledge, participation and community. According to Best, the characteristics of Web 2.0 are: rich user experience, user...
A Comparative Review of Two Books on Second Life

A Comparative Review of Two Books on Second Life

I, avatar, the culture and consequences of having a Second Life – Marc Stephen Meadows Published by: Voices that Matter € 23,09 Second Life: verhalen en reportages van een tweede leven – Ilja Leonard Pfeiffer Published by: De Arbeiderspers...