I'm more interested in culture(as opposed to PC components, ie: once the PC is built, I just want to use it). Using the PC for gaming, watching films, making music, etc.
I've been exploring that cross over area where films influence games and vice versa, which makes me think that games could be more engaging if there's an emotional tie between different characters and the players. Otherwise games(and some films) seem once removed, detached. Some games have emotional ties and players react when say certain characters die. Games could also have 'moral' dilemmas, I know some games like GTA gives you choices(and I make my own moral choices and decisions, where possible).
Slavog Zizek makes the point that gamers often choose a forceful, powerful character. It's supposed that in the game people want to be Superman rather than Clark Kent(a Lithuanian/Jewish immigrant geek invented SM after his father was shot. In his imagination he imagined himself deflecting the deadly bullet). But Zizek goes further and says that your gaming character is the real you, released from the laws and conventions that keep you meek.
I've just been catching up on Black Mirror(S4) and the first episode USS Callister explores this idea through gaming and sci fi. I think some of the Black Mirror episodes are some of the best sci fi made, exploring how tech is changing our lives now and in the future. In that episode the geeky gamer creates his own sci fi universe where he is a god and all his co workers are his slaves. It's cynical and clever. Even funny, at one point when Cole is threatened, she asks the captain if he's about to throw a fireball. So really I'm trying to understand where gaming is now and what developers can do to keep us engaged into the future.
USS Callister> <Edit by admin: Link to site showing material that may be subject to copyright has been removed>