End of the Universe

Obviously, if you’re going to describe reality with numbers then you inevitably make some assumptions. One such an assumption would be that no one will have more than 2^31 gold. Or, more precisely, “214,748 gold, 36 silver, 48 copper.”

Of course, this type of limitation has happened before. Although not necessarily number-based, Mario is a plumber not because of any other reason than that designers tried to give his outfit more detail despite limited hardware, thus resorting to overalls.

Okay fine. So WoW has a financial maximum and Mario was destined to be a plumber. So what? Well, today I discovered Bogost & Montfort’s Platform Studies. Loosely described as a book series that investigates “the relationships between the hardware and software design of computing systems and the creative works produced on those systems,” there seems an increased focus on these types of limits. It suggests to me that the narratological universe of video games is curbed by their material hardware properties. Insert exposé on Marxist theory here. I thought that computer technology was going set us free. To a limited degree, I suppose.