With a background in film and new media studies, his main focus is on digital games and play. As part of the NWO-funded research programma Transformations in Art and Culture, he finished his PhD dissertation on processes of negotiation between stakeholders (both players and the developer) in and around the massive multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft (a trade edition is expected autumn 2012). He has written and presented on a variety of topics, including the relationship between film and games, digital game history, pervasive games, and social network site games. His current research interest deals with how devious and deviant play practices also known as cheating shift control and agency over the rules of play, both in traditional games as well as in participatory, pervasive media like location-based smartphone apps.