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author: admin
generator: pandoc
title: Plans
viewport: 'width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes'
---
admin
2013-01-31T07:55:21+00:00
Here are some of the following ideas I've had for some future posts. I
would normally have just started some drafts and just left them there,
but I think that since the ideas are so meaty, perhaps just mentioning
them would be entertainment/thought-provoking enough in itself.
1. {.alignright
width="355" height="246"}Recent sales data
([Eurogamer](http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-25-nintendos-wii-u-sales-struggle))
on the *WiiU* suggests that the platform might be struggling to
prove popular. I'd very much like to look into the important factors
involved in past video game console launches.
2. My interest in computer hardware engineering/design has lead me to
[this page](http://www.unixhub.com/docs/misc/cpu.html) on past
famous or otherwise influential CPUs. As a result, I'd like to study
the effects of computer hardware on video games. A quick thought I
had was whether the jump to hardware capable of 3D visuals in the
90s necessarily lead to 3D platforming, or whether something similar
could be said about 2D visuals. Central to this is the broader
question of whether computer hardware could *determine* video game
content.
3. More narrowly, I'd like to inspect and assess the hardware of the
WiiU and the corresponding next-gen *PlayStation* and *Xbox*
consoles.
4. Having just done some reading on epistemology/the philosophy of the
mind--schools of thought such as
[idealism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idealism) and
[physicalism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physicalism), characters
such as
[Berkeley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Berkeley) and Kant--I'd
like to conduct a discussion on the philosophy associated with
virtual reality. I find
[Lacanian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan#The_three_orders)
concepts of Real, Imaginary, and Symbolic fascinating on this
subject. The discussion that Slavoj Zizek makes in his
book *Parallax View* remains a favourite of mine, and I'd really
like to include it. Against a lot of the mind-oriented theory is the
equally interesting physicalist injunction that video games are
really just the effects of electricity and the organisation of atoms
in hard-drives and semiconductor integrated circuits.
5. I just received a copy of *Banjo Tooie*, and it would be pretty cool
to compare and contrast it with its predecessor.
6. Playing *Sonic 2* and *3*, and reading about *Nights Into Dreams*
and the Sega *Dreamcast* development makes me interested to study
the artistic traits of video game legend, programmer Yuji Naka.
7. I'm coming to believe that a lot of the nostalgia that gamers have
for the Mega Drive/Genesis-Super Nintendo 'console war' era is the
result of an illusion created and maintained by marketing and
advertisements. I'd like to test this idea by looking at sales data
and other forms of concrete evidence.
There's so much interesting stuff to write on! I just need the time!