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author: admin

generator: pandoc

title: Plans

viewport: 'width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes'

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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!