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History of Gaming

Do you want to know the amazing story of how video games came to be the way they are today? I found this great 5 Part documentary series that takes us through Pong being made on an oscilloscope( I think ), to the Virtual Worlds we have today. And every beautiful Ms. PacMan, Legend of Zelda, Tetris and Leisure Suit Larry story in between. Although it talks mostly about Atari's scandals, it touches on others. Like the feud between Nintendo and Sony that dates back to the change from cartridges to disc. I loved this series. It was like my own personal histroy in front of me. Every console, every hype, to live through that. Fuck the Baby boomers and thier Televisions. We have FREAKN! VIDEO GAMES!!!!

You wanna know how long I've been playing Video Games? Well, I remember as a kid recording programs over the radio onto a cassette. Then on a camping trip to Washington, to help stop a highway being built in the neighborhood, (my mother the activist), we actually plugged in the Atari to the RV. Started playing the cassette tapes for hours, and finally after about 3 tries it would work!!! Voila! We had an amazing video game with 10 monochromatic pixels. Those were the days when software and games were all free. Now, according to the worldometers, Some 8 million $ have been spent this year on Video Games. Nice.

Discovery Channel - Rise of the Video Game Level 1
Discovery Channel - Rise of the Video Game Level 2
Discovery Channel - Rise of the Video Game Level 3
Discovery Channel - Rise of the Video Game Level 4
Discovery Channel - Rise of the Video Game Level 5

Note to all you "Viral Marketers". I'm sorry but if you don't know about video games, you have absolutly no idea why this video clogging Utube.

Dark Night Viral Campaign

Many people wonder how Viral Campaigning works. Many beleive that all you have to do is make a funny video woth a cat and that will spread the message. Sorry, that was about 2-3 years ago. The truth is nowadays you have to create a Multi Media Alternate Reality Game. Otherwise known as an ARG. There are puzzles spread over the internet, areas to communicate with other players, real world phone calls and emails. This is how you create a Viral. Not just a 30 sec. clip but an allround Media experience, puzzle and immersion. These are the types of projects that my students have been developing over the last few years. One of the first of my DVTG students created on his own, with no budget, an alternate reality game that spread from temples in Thailand, lockers in London, phone calls from New York and the Vatican. Using the tools available all over the internet with free sites, this is how Alternate Reality Games are spread. Below we see a video of the Dark Night Campaign, and there are 2 of the Transformers virals that were spread. Those videos spread from the transformers is called, "The Rabbit Hole". Or the first video trigger that leads one into the Alternate Reality Game.

A BOY AND HIS BIKE!

Since I've been back in Amsterdam, I have been unable (too lazy) to get a bike. My old one, is dead somewhere near GabeB's place and I can't find the key. Marc had another bike which he lost the key to outside my house since August. Good condition though. I finally got around (was awake and in the country, and remembered that I could) to going to the bike shop across the street to get the lock taken off. They do this between 10 and 12 on Saturday. I mean seriously, when you go out on a Friday night, the last thing you think about is getting a bike lock sawed on a Saturday morning. I finally got to it, and Marc even threw in a new seat for it. What a great friend! He has a video and some great pics on his blog here. I can't tell you how nice it is to have a bike again in Amsterdam. After cleaning it, throwing on some stickers (need to customize your bike in Amsterdam always), and putting the seat on, we went for a ride in the VondelPark. I was so happy, like a kid who just got a new bike for Christams. That's really how it feels. Even in these rough times, it is with a little help from my friends like Marc that help me through. MARC YOU ARE MY HERO!!!!

HELLOO GERMANY!

So last weekend or so I was in Berlin to Speak at a workshop, and I did an interview with gruenderszene as well as some other journalists. In any case gruenderszene posted the video interviews as well as a nice writeup. In the interviews I talk about twitter, the difference between entrepreneurs in Europe, United States, and Israel. I also talked briefly about my thoughts about how there should be a fund by technology VCs and investors that be given to artists to try and understand the meaning of what we are building. Of course this is already happening, becuase artists will always do this, but it helps stimulus when they can actually live off of these crazy pieces they do. It's an idea that Paulo Cohello says will come but in years time at Le Web. Well here are the videos. They are posted on gruenderszene.de. The translated post is here.

WARNING! IRAN VIDS R DISTURBING

Yesterday I saw this video come up onto facebook. Now I see it coming in on youtube. I had trouble watching it the first time, and it does not get better. It is the cold harsh truth of what is happening in Tehran at the moment. I must warn you that the video is extremely difficult to watch as you see and young girl killed by gunfire in Tehran, Iran. The videos and images coming out of IRAN via social media is mind blowing and you have to ask yourself, where to get the context without journalists there? These are citizen reporters. They are reporting, and it is up to us at the moment to filter these stories, verify them and make sense of what the context is. We have to be our own journalists for ourselves. Not something everyone is ready to do, espically when material such as this video is flashing across our facebook, twitters and blog posts. WARNING it is very graphic. update: Crooksandliars.com has more about the details of what happened.

Brand Talk with Friends

Joking around with friends about the Adidas campaign "Impossible is nothing". Rose Bertins tells the story.

Is TV so Bad?

I haven't had a TV in Holland for a little over a year now. Actually I never really watched dutch TV to be honest when I did. When Bicyclemark skyped Amserdamize and I if we wanted to be on TV, we said sure why not? A friend of his Shylo (fun geek girl who loves games) +, was asked to be on about the whole Twitter and Iran story. She was friends with BicycleMark and he called us and we went with the 4 of us there. I cannot devulge all that happend but it was lots of surprises. I thought it was going to be some Dutch sitting around a table drinking coffee talk type of program which they have mastered. Nope it was a revision of the classic "The Gong Show " but now with audience support and twitter. Something called " NON". I broadcasted backstage via my live stream and some stuff after wards on Qik . But to really see how it went, just watch the clip. Warning it is in Dutch, and it makes no sense at all! A BIG SHOUT to Zenuno for recording this and putting it up for us so quick! and ANOTHER BIG SHOUT to J.P. Oosterom that took the twitpic. Love ya guys!

Milo Xbox of AI friends

Xbox and Steven Spielberg have gotten into a project called "Milo". It is scarely like A.I. that was made by Spielberg, and really shows how far the "Tamagochi" Phenomenon can happen. When we feel lonely our laptops and our games are our new friends. Scary and sick but this is how it is going. But does Milo have a soul? Do these inatimate items that we had as kids, such as the blanket, doll, or star wars figure we loved have a soul? A new generation of imaginary Virtual Friends is about to occur. Get ready, because everything ios about to change! Thanks for the tip GabeB!