i recommend LaTeX and Matlab (or Octave, the open source version) for writing and creating graphs. Writing huge reports in Word is a huge waste of time (try reformating just a tiny bit, the whole file changes; or changing references .... a nightmare). It is worth starting NOW with something more sophisticated, in your third year you will hardly have the time to get yourself acquainted with LaTeX and some more advanced graphing software ... first year is still the year where you have the most time!

same here. i have to submit my thesis in september/october, and everybody around here is asking me if i already have finished my first draft ... but i am still EXPERIMENTING to get enough data to make a fourth chapter. no literature review (well, i have written papers, but the lit. review in the thesis must be longer) yet, no introduction, no conclusions. just three content chapters. i am feeling like crap too, especially when i see how many publications other people have and how little i have. but i guess nothing can be done at this stage anyway, just do your best and hope it is enough. i am trying to keep my spirits up, but as for you, facebook people telling me how far ahead they are, are not helping at all!

lets face it - the number of good supervisors is pretty low, there are bound to be a lot of complaints .... besides, where else when not here is it possible to let of a bit of steam? if i complain to my family/friends they only say "why do a phd in the first place?" ... no understanding there. this forum is perfect, lots of people in the same situation!

postdocs are not hard to get in the US. i also do my PhD in Europe; one guy in my group got a postdoc @ Stanford uni just through a short phone interview. apparently the good US universities have so much money lying around, they can afford quite a few postdocs, and competition is not that fierce, because the salary is low compared to an industry job - at least in science/engineering. all people i know who wanted a US postdoc got one without any problems (all with European PhDs).

i also tend to the opinion of the majority here.
if you are an EU-student it will be difficult to get a place, if you are a non-EU student, you will get a place at nearly any university! every international student is seen as a money cow that can be milked! and they will certainly not let you fail, another advantage.
There is actually quite a discussion in the UK, about some universities accepting international students no matter what, because of the money issue! Make sure to pick a university that doesn't have a reputation for doing that, otherwise you can end up in a course where a not small number of people hardly speak any English!

forget about books - there will hardly be any anyway. how long has ONLINE gaming been going on? a couple of years tops!

to find workshops/conferences/journals just use google....it took me 2 seconds to find

http://www.humlab.umu.se/cultureandcomputergamesstudyingonlineactivities

which seems pretty much up your alley!

make a paper trail yourself! it doesn't matter, if the guy doesn't remember what he told you, you do and you can write things up after each meeting and either send him an email with the writeup or if he doesn't like that, set up a private wiki and post your reports about the meetings and your progress there (that's what i did). whenever my supervisor comes along with something we already discussed or dismissed the last couple of times i just point to my wiki. that usually works like a charm....

don't take it personal! from my experience for many supervisors phd students are either a nuisance or a paper producing machine that at best doesn't require any input from their part but still adds their name to the publications :-(

choose something that has not been done to death yet. social networking has been quite a hot topic in recent years, web marketing is getting picked up right now, but online gaming communities for instance are not covered very well in research. it also helps to read papers in recent workshops/conferences about the subject - how advanced are the papers? sometimes, when a new field "comes up" it is quite easy to publish something, because the 'easy' ideas have not been covered yet.

initially i started out my phd on a field (in computer science) which has been treated for the past 30 years - not a very good choice it turned out, after 2 years i changed course and now i am doing something quite novel (only 5 years or so research in it), which is excellent for me - lots of publications, lots of ideas to try.

i am german but do my phd in holland.

if the trip to the conference is already paid, can't you ask someone else in your group (ie another phd) to present your work? some people like to go to conferences quite a bit (like me) and they will be happy to make the trip for you
is it in a nice place or some tiny English town?

it is not normal, that you are asked to pay for conferences yourself!

for some conferences there are travel grants for phd students available, try to submit to those. also, always take on your supervisor as a co-author, if the paper get accepted and you don't get the travel grant tell him to go (if not at least one of you registers for the conference, the paper is kicked off the accepted paper list) - if he wants to increase the number of his publications, he will register himself. not ideal for you, but at least you get the publications.

i am not sure if it is normal, but everybody around here tries to calm me down with the same sayings. i am already 1.5 half years into it and still don't see my topic miraculously popping into my head. so before you start to panick, wait another year :)

thanks, luckily i made it!
at 5am i pressed the "submit" button

sunday evening and i am stuck in the office probably the entire night because of a deadline tomorrow morning :-(
it wouldnt suck half as much if other people would be working as well, but tonight i am the only one in the lab. totally boring!!!!!!!!