{"id":28,"date":"2003-07-30T11:54:33","date_gmt":"2003-07-30T09:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesperjuul.dk\/ludologist\/?p=28"},"modified":"2003-07-30T11:54:33","modified_gmt":"2003-07-30T09:54:33","slug":"sonys-upcoming-handheld-game-machine-is-3d-always-the-way-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/2003\/07\/30\/sonys-upcoming-handheld-game-machine-is-3d-always-the-way-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony’s upcoming handheld game machine: Is 3d always the way forward?"},"content":{"rendered":"

More details are emerging about Sony’s upcoming game handheld, the PSP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There seems to be nothing really new about the device, rather it’s an amalgam of current technology and conventional projections for the future:<\/p>\n

Sony is taking a page from Nintendo’s GameCube by introducing a new small disc format (60mm), the “Universal Media Disc” (“Universal” apparently means “Proprietary”.)<\/p>\n

It will also feature wireless gaming capabilities like the Nokia N-Gage. (Though Wi-Fi rather than Bluetooth.)<\/p>\n

This is nice enough, and lots of tech specs pointing to better 3d. But what I’m less sure about is whether we are really always<\/em> looking for more 3d capabilities? The Gameboy games I enjoy are all 2d: Chu Chu Rocket, Denki Blocks, Zelda, Advance Wars, but the 3d Super Monkey Ball jr. does nothing for me. I could be wrong, but I feel that 2d is more natural when playing on a small device – especially when in a train, car, or on a plane.
\nMy non-corroborated explanation would be that when your body and what you are interfacing with is fixed on a desk and a chair, you can use your brain’s center for motor control to navigate in a 3d game world, but that when your body or the Gameboy is moving, your brain is preoccupied with controlling the body and can’t really spare that energy on the 3d game world.
\nSo this would be the argument that portable gaming will always be primarily 2d.<\/p>\n

Similarly, it appears that 3d games take more time getting used to than 2d – I’ve seen lots of small kids (and older non-gamers) having a really hard time interfacing with a 3d world, moving their bodies instead of using the gamepad etc… Is 3d always less casual than 2d? Is Sony barking up the wrong tree?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More details are emerging about Sony’s upcoming game handheld, the PSP. There seems to be nothing really new about the device, rather it’s an amalgam of current technology and conventional projections for the future: Sony is taking a page from Nintendo’s GameCube by introducing a new small disc format (60mm), the “Universal Media Disc” (“Universal” … Continue reading “Sony’s upcoming handheld game machine: Is 3d always the way forward?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}