New Media M.A. Research Blog | Media Studies, University of Amsterdam

Crowdfunding indie games, catering the long tail.

The latest trend in gaming is definitely the abundant supply of indie games releasing across all platforms. Indie Games are games created by small studios who usually consist of only a few people. They are generally released on digital platforms...

By Wannes Sanderse on 09/16/13 1

Xbox One the E3 fall

Many gamers have most likely watched or been to the E3 this year. The E3 was special this year, because of the next-gen consoles of Microsoft and Sony. Microsoft showed their Xbox One and Sony showed their PlayStation 4....

By Michael Kerssens on 09/12/13 Comments Off

Virtual reality rebooted: Can duct tape fix (virtual) reality?

‘Imagine a wraparound television with three-dimensional programs, including three-dimensional sound, and solid objects that you can pick up and manipulate, even feel with your fingers and hands. Imagine immersing yourself in an artificial world and actively exploring it, rather...

By Natta Frank on 09/11/13 Comments Off

Women in games 2013: one step forward, two steps back

Even though it’s now common knowledge that 47% of gamers are women, the gaming industry and geek culture keep struggling to be more inclusive, as 2013 has already had its good share of controversies, tough debates and hateful Tweets...

By Matthieu Foucher on 09/09/13 1

Remediation in Grand Theft Auto

Remediation is definitely one of those well-known concepts that new media scholars can discuss about for hours. According to Bolter and Grusin, remediation is the representation of ‘old’ media in new media. Characteristics of television and radio, for instance,...

By Wessel Schillemans on 09/09/13 Comments Off

IT IS NOT JUST A GAME

It was not far ago when in order for you to have a video game experience you had to purchase a game package which included a DVD and instructions. Nowadays, with the evolution of the internet, games are bought...

By Alexandros Valarakis on 09/09/13 1

From Coin to Movie Ticket: the changed currency in the gaming industry

Amazing voice-acting, a great and mature storyline, emotional depth and solid directing while keeping the action tense and gripping. Judging from this praise above many would be inclined to say the subject matter here is a big budget Hollywood...

By Vincent Sloof on 09/08/13 Comments Off

Forgotten Realms: Revisiting the Classics

The revisiting of favourite films and novels is a common practice, in fact for many, the notion of ‘re-reading the classics’ can be even more enjoyable and enlightening than their initial interpretation. Yet for gaming, which has always and...

By Joseph Jackson on 10/03/12 1

Backdrop of Economic Gameplay in World of Warcraft: The Effect of Goldfarmers

The first computer game which could be played by multiple users at the same time and used a virtual world as environment was created in 1978 and was called Multi-User Dungeon. This game represented the first of its kind...

By Alex Maat on 09/09/12 Comments Off

Getting real

“We have lived through more than half a century of being constantly told that the future of food was artificial, the future of books, newspapers, medicine and school was virtual. And that we would soon deal entirely with computerized teachers...

By Patrycja Szumacher on 09/08/12 Comments Off

GLITCH/NO_GLITCH

The following report covers two sessions on the theme ‘Error’ for the MA New Media course ‘critical media art’. The first session was a presentation by Rosa Menkman, showing a lively mix of portfolio work and critical theory on...

By Martijn Dorresteijn on 02/26/12 Comments Off

Gaming can save the world – A gamer’s perspective (interview)

Could it? I may have exaggerated Jane McGonigal’s thoughts on gaming’s potential possibilities, but her optimism and enthusiasm may well agree with the title. McGonigal talks of gaming’s collaborative potential, that if harnessed correctly, could lead to better and...

By Christopher Mead on 10/31/11 Comments Off

New Media in Brazil: An interview with the curator of FILE

FILE stands for International Festival of Electronic Language and is the biggest festival of new media in Brazil. The event happens annually in São Paulo and eventually in other cities of Brazil and holds projects, installations, screenings and presentations...

By Juliana Paiva on 10/29/11 Comments Off

Social culture in the game industry

Video games have changed dramatically over the last decades. There is obviously a big gap between 1958’s Tennis For Two and the games we play now on our consoles or PC. Of course, the rapid evolution of new technology...

By Renoud Netjes on 10/03/11 Comments Off

We fought the fight – and we’re still fighting- Wikipedia and Tek9.

So you’re thinking, ‘fight’… ‘battle’? What kind of nonsense is this guy stirring up? How can you fight Wikipedia? Good question. The only answer to that is yes, it’s possible, and most importantly, probable if you’re intending on making...

By Christopher Mead on 09/29/11 Comments Off

Korean gladiators from a distant galaxy

Most people just aren’t interested in watching videogames. They’d rather be playing them. That may be the case in Europe or in the United States but not in South Korea. In South Korea watching videogames is a national pastime,...

By Wouter Timmermans on 09/16/11 Comments Off

Master New Media; a logical choice.

The first week at the Master New Media was interesting and it gave a good view of what we will do in the upcoming year. It is nice to see that the classes consist of so many students from...

By Daan Fliervoet on 09/15/11 Comments Off

pre-CONDe’s campaign to organize the 21th Ndesign

Ndesign is the national congress for design students and professionals in Brazil, it is the largest congress in this area in the country and one of the largest in Latin America. It is organized by a commission made of...

By Mario Gesteira on 09/11/11 7

Thoughts on the Contemporary Gaming Landscape

This post is a bit of an experiment. Basically, it's a summary of what I would like to write my thesis about. In the spirit of open collaboration, I'd like to know what you think of this idea. Obviously,...

By Laurent Hubeek on 04/27/11 Comments Off

Exploring the Zone of Alienation

Please, allow me to indulge myself. Let me tell you a tale about a book, a film, a series of video games and what is perhaps the world’s eeriest man made disaster area. I’ll even throw in a bit...

By Laurent Hubeek on 11/01/10 Comments Off

I Played Kinect, and I Liked It

During my recent travels I came across a demonstration for the Xbox 360 Kinect in the Zurich Hauptbahnhof railway station. For those that don’t know, the Kinect is Microsoft’s latest peripheral for the Xbox 360 that allows gamers to...

By Ronen Shay on 10/31/10 5

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...

By Sander Jansma on 10/24/10 1

Gently Down the Stream: Advances in the Digital Distribution of Video Games

The landscape of video game distribution is changing. Despite its relative youth, the video game industry has known quite a few different distribution methods already – tapes, floppy discs, CDs, DVDs and now direct downloading and streaming services.

By Laurent Hubeek on 10/18/10 6

A short essay on how Remediation can ruin Your gameplay

Being disappointed by certain facts of various remakes of games is an extremely common feeling for a nowadays gamer. Especially while living in times where technological evolution outruns the concepts of game-makers. As smaller companies struggle to come up...

By Bart Brodzki on 10/15/10 2