‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there’. This “old saying”1 is delivered by John Koenig at the start of his video introducing the term he coined anemoia. As you will have see...

Videogame preservation has been on my mind quite a bit lately after Sony announced that it would stop producing physical PlayStation discs from the start of 2028. Lots have been written about across the gaming sphere online with those against this idea dominating the discourse. Their anger is understandable, even if what Sony is planning to do wasn't exactly a surprise. Videogame sales in the US and UK have been shifting towards digital for the past decade. This contributes to the rationale used by Sony. Capcom have also revealed information that 93 percent of its game sales are now digital...

Yes, it's another post on AI. Whilst, I don't write too many posts on it myself (I wrote around 7,000 words on it for a journal instead) you've probably come...

Since my previous post a "new" Star Fox game was announced suddenly. Not quite out of nowhere as with Fox McCloud's recent appearance in the Super Mario Galaxy film (something I wish they hadn't revealed before the film had even come out) it was pretty apparent Nintendo was hinting at some kind of upcoming release. What was revealed though was not a new game but another reimagining of Star Fox. On the surface this looked like a remake of Star Fox 64[1] but there was a bit more to it than that. Plus, Star Fox 64 is a "remake" of...

I recently delivered my annual lecture on nostalgia and hauntology to my Masters students. As planned part of the discussion moved on to discussing videogame remasters and remakes, along with a bit on how the "ship of Theseus" fits in. Part of this also extended into what we actually mean by a remaster as opposed to a remake, and then onto how not all remakes take the same approach. During discussions about the Final Fantasy VII Remake, given how much that game ultimately detracts from the original, calling it a 'remake' seemed an inaccurate word to use to describe it...

For just over a year I've been using Obsidian. I used to use Notion for some of my personal/research note taking, but increasingly found it clunky...

Just over a week ago I watched We Are Making A Film About Mark Fisher. Given how central Mark Fisher's work was (and continues to be) for my research, having the opportunity to watch a film about him at my University was obviously something I wasn't going to miss. This isn't a "review" of the film for multiple reasons. The first is that this isn't a commercial film, they refer to it as a "DIY film", but it's far more polished than it sounds. You could call it a passion project, you could also call it a call to arms....

AI is not the future. And before all the AI bros come after me, think about what AI is. For now, I’m not even going to get into the wider concerns of AI. First we need to think about what AI is. Although, when I say AI I do mean generative AI. So, the problem that AI has with the future is that fundamentally it is reliant on the past. The data that it is trained on is past content. Meaning that when it creates something new it is doing so based on the old content that it has appropriated....

In the previous post I started talking about being nostalgic for a future, because the inability to imagine a different one is contributing to the feeling of loss that is required for nostalgia to be present. If it is still present, then it’s not really nostalgic, but it can be hauntological as the continued presence from the past is lingering to haunt the present. In regards to the relationship the present has with the future we can consider it as twofold. It can be hauntological due to the reliance on the past, or we can deem it nostalgic due to...

I’m finally properly starting the research and writing process for an upcoming chapter on Anemoia, specifically it’s relationship with the future. I will be doing as I’ve done before with larger research projects and use blogging as a means of supporting the process. That doesn’t mean that you will find the actual text here, even in large fragments. Instead, this is a publicly facing test bed for ideas, thinking aloud to identify what might work, what doesn’t, and what might be missing. I’ve been thinking about this project for the past couple of months, but because I’ve had to step...

Increasingly it is difficult for me to properly put together a “Game of the Year” list. Part of that is due to not finishing that many games because I’m constantly swapping between them. Not because of a particular dissatisfaction, but because I love playing different games. Yet, what has become really apparent over the past couple of years is the sheer amount of games from previous years I’m playing. To a certain extent this isn’t a radically new position for me, as I’m often obtaining older games that I didn’t get round to playing. This was especially the case during...

Back at the end of October Microsoft announced that Halo was coming back. Before getting players’ hopes up too high about a new game (which is coming one day), it was revealed that we would be going back to where it all began, with (another1) remake of Halo: Combat Evolved, called Campaign Evolved (because they are evolving the campaign and also there is no multiplayer mode). Plenty of discourse followed this, yes there was the usual vitriol, but what was particularly noticeable - and understandable - was an atmosphere of confusion or bemusement. Whilst this is the second time that...

This week Valve finally announced its new hardware, no, not a Steam Deck 21, instead the Steam Machine (again, after first trying a decade ago). But that’s not all, a new Steam Controller was announced (keeping the same same as the original Steam Controller from a decade ago), and also the Steam Frame which is Valve’s latest VR headset. The Steam Deck has been a solid success for Valve, selling around 6 million units. This number might not sound too impressive, and might seem far less considering how much talk there is around the Deck in gaming circles and also...

Anemoia, ‘nostalgia for a time you never experienced’. In the previous post I introduced this term and I have continued to think about it in readiness to follow it up...

Part of my PhD research was trying to understand how in the context of videogames there are players around the world who claimed to feel nostalgia for videogames they have never played (anecdotally I had also felt this). Part of this I put down to the cultural memory that existed alongside the medium contributing to a general awareness of the wider canon of significant titles. For example, you might not have played a Final Fantasy game, but it is highly likely that you are not only aware of it but are familiar with its iconography. Another notable factor that explored...

This week Microsoft announced that not only would it be rejigging the three different variants of its Game Pass subscription service, but it would also be raising the prices; with the full and most expensive version (Ultimate) rising to $30/£23. For a company worth almost $4 trillion(!) and one that was able to easily complete one of the most expensive ever acquisitions with the purchase of Activision/Blizzard/King for almost $70 billion, it’s not a good look. Let alone that if we think back just a few months ago when Microsoft let go (fired) 9,000 people, with many of those linked...

It’s been almost exactly a month since my previous post. One in which I was celebrating blogging continuously for 10 months. Long story short, I’ve been incredibly busy with work, which included me travelling to China teaching about videogame design and the wider industry. So, whilst I have been talking a lot about videogames, I haven’t had any free time to write about videogames. A couple of months ago I also started another blog alongside properly reviving my original personal domain which now contains my biography and bibliography. This was something I called a “microblog” but it has quickly become a more...

I’ve been blogging pretty consistently for the past 10 months or so now, most of which on this blog, but now also on my other “microblog” which is linked to my personal domain. The desire to get back into blogging was mostly inspired by how the act of writing helps keep my writing acumen in shape. Blogging was a particularly helpful means of getting my PhD written in the second half as it feels less of a challenge to get something written. Just by doing some writing has helped me with my research, whether it be trying to get my...

The public beta for Battlefield 6 is just wrapping up and so far things are looking promising. However, that’s not to say that we should assume that everything will be perfect upon launch. Partly because the Battlefield series does not have the best track record. Even well regarded games such as BF4 launched in a poor state. The other, is that this is an EA owned title, who have an even worse record and the suits in charge will always favour profit at all costs, unless public opinion turns absolutely dire that they are forced to concede slightly, as was...

Like many people today I listen to my fair share of podcasts. My friend first introduced me to one that was essentially just a repackaged version of a Radio...

Microblogging without the social media aspect.Extended thoughts that come to mind. You can find my in-depth posts on videogames and nosta...

For years I've had the domain jsweeting.me which has always been a basic website that contains general professional facing information about myself, rather...

For years, like many, I used Chrome for all of my web browsing needs, both on my PC’s and on my phone. I even had a Chromebook at one point. Part of this stemmed from using Firefox for a good few years during the 2,000s and noticing it gradually get worse. Then here was Chrome a fast “lightweight” browser that just worked, no tinkering needed. For years it was just that, but gradually it too became bloated. Except, it wasn’t just that, as Google were actively making it worse, in large part because Chrome was a window through which Google...

As part of its misguided "Online safety act" in the UK the Government is now forcing internet based services to add additional changes in order to verify a...

For the first post of a new blog type thing I always start with a post titled Hello friend. This is inspired by Mr Robot which pretty much starts off with...

After speaking with a fellow researcher of nostalgia, I’ve had a statement that he mentioned rattling around in my head. That is about being “nostalgic for the future”. Part of why this stands out for me is due to my research around hauntology and the relationship that media has with it. In short, media (videogames, film, TV, and music) are struggling to imagine a different future. Not only in what these media forms depict but also how they reincorporate elements from past media forms. This contributes to what Mark Fisher refers to as “lost futures” which instead are replaced with...