Shooting the Messenger: Barhtes, Foucault and the Death of the Author (10/10/2013)

This session we had a presentation that went further into our discussion on 'The Death of the Author'.
Below are a few of my notes. 

• Grand Narratives (Or Meta-narratives) are culturally constructed narratives which explain 'the way things are', or in other words, the bigger picture for understanding the world. For example religion, science and/or philosophy.
• The church was incredibly powerful in the past, but then of course science started to show evidence on creation and meaning through facts. As a result, the church disagreed with the scientific explanation and the gap between science and religion became bigger.
• When analysing a person's work, people tend to ask - Who made it? Whose the author? And why did they make it?
• When a painting was discovered to be possibly drawn by Von Gogh nobody particularly cared as its authenticity wasn't certain. However, when it was everyone cared about it and the painting's value rose, despite it not being as good as his other work. Thus the response to the painting changed and influenced others opinions about it. 
• Just because something is created in the past, doesn't mean it can't share similarities with modern works. Plus, this doesn't necessarily mean that the modern artist copied the past work, it just shows its relevance. For example, art arising from the Vietnam war and perhaps the Holy war could share similarities to our modern day Iraq wars. 
• Creating a collage of images can also change the meaning of each separate one in it, as they are being compared to one another and not just viewed on their own.
• Talked about the games 'Darksouls' and 'Journey' as, even though the creators may have come up with a story for them, the players will often invent their own as they are games in which the experience is the focal point. Yes, you can find out the story in 'Darksouls' through finding pages, and 'Journey' shows the player a tapestry of the history of the world. But often players enjoy creating their own narrative and thus finding their own meaning for playing.
• "The modern scriptor is born simultaneously with the text... there is no other time than that of the enunciation and every text is eternally written here and now" (Barthes, 1968). In short, the meaning of things change depending on who reads it. Thus what we have been talking about already.  
• Words, music and genres from the past are used yearly in order to inspire modern works as they adopt and expand from what they know. For example, the game 'Red Dead Redemption' reminds most players of original Spaghetti Western films including the music that, although consists of original scores, sounds similar to the music in those movies.
• Likewise, language is also reinterpreted as children will quote the characters and things they see on TV. Even the movie director Quentin Tarantino has taken quotes from other films and used them for his own movies as this is his style of film making.
• "The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author" Barthes said in 1968, though I still disagree with this statement as explained in my last blog post 'Analysing 'The Death of the Author'.' In fact, my example of the blue curtain was brought up in today's session as we discussed how different people will interpret what the artist meant by the smallest detail or description.

We also talked about how advertisements are viewed, such as the 'Grand Theft Auto' posters (see below), as many people will see them depicting women in a sexist or pornographic way. Whereas, the company Rockstar deliberately depict women like this as they want to show women stereotypes to parody the real world we actually live in. This relates to my last blog, since this kind of subtle meaning is lost on those who don't understand the parody. 

Overall the presentation summed up one meaning to me, that everyone interprets things in different ways no matter the content. Similarities may be agreed on, but differences will always be evidenced as well.

Harvard Referencing: 

• wallsave (2012) Samsung Star Gta Iv Lolly Pop Girl Poster Rage D Discussion Area Wallpaper with 2560x1600 Resolution [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.wallsave.com/wallpaper/2560x1600/samsung-star-gta-iv-lolly-pop-girl-poster-rage-d-discussion-area-626902.html (Accessed: 10/10/2013).

Analysing 'THECULTURE: The real deal?' (10/10/2013)

You can read my thoughts on the article Analysing 'THECULTURE: The real deal?' (Will Brooker) below.

The article seems to state that all the big shows such as and including X-Factor, are just set up in order to get more views and early hype for the next batch of pop stars.

It's also interesting as it seems that the show is made larger than life in order to get the audience so excited and responsive that they forget who they are cheering/voting for, this all they do is focus on a giant projection of the contestants or attempt to record footage of the event live in order to prove the fact they were there. Thus the whole experience ends up being more about the fact that the audience watched and reacted to the show, rather than the focus being the contestants themselves.
Therefore, if the content isn't nearly as relevant as it should be, the audience might as well be cheering at a brick wall. After all, they are usually reacting to the way the producers want them to and tell them to e.g. use of cues.

Further more, from reading this article I noticed many similarities to the popular fictional series 'The Hunger Games' in which children are cast into an arena to kill one another. However, before all that, they have to get sponsors, individuals from the same district who want to see them dead, as without them they won't get support in the arena. Support might be food, medicine or weapons which they might receive if they are able to convince both the sponsors and their audience to like them.

This links to the article, as the band referred to (Little Mix) are shown crying and talking about bullying. Thus being subjects that the audience can relate to and empathise with, therefore improving the groups chances of winning. Granted, these emotions may not be an act, but they show a human side which is engaging for the audience. However, these can also be exaggerated to gain sympathy and votes.

Similarly, these reactions that may or not be manufactured are shown on TV programs that are. After all, even though many claim to be live and reality programs, usually everything they need to say or perform is scripted down to every move and emotion the audience see. This is underlined when occasionally the unexpected happens e.g. wardrobe malfunctions.
Other shows such as X-Factor include I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, Big Brother and Strictly Come Dancing.

Added Notes (16/10/2013): 

Recently axed 2013 X-Factor contestant Lorna Simpson said that the show was rigged. Granted a lot of her arguments sound as if she just wanted to complain because she lost e.g. "I had some middle-aged woman’s wardrobe. I’m 26! Why are you trying to hide me? You’ve hidden me enough." sounds more like something someone who is jealous would say, and considering I don't watch the show I can't say if she was good or not. 

However, she did say "It’s unfair. X Factor set me up to go out in the first week. They underplayed me... it was set up." because she wasn't featured on the show as often as the others, and “They know the outcome of the whole competition. It’s prepared. It’s TV and they have to be ahead.”. These were interesting comments as both sound similar to the points raised in the article we discussed which stated "X Factor reflects back only what we give it." shortly followed by "Outside is the world of fake bloggers, rigged votes, structured reality, YouTube pop stars, holograms in pantomime and protesters in comic-book masks; albums from dead singers, scripted political debates, simulated flash mobs, arrests for Facebook pages, Twitter rumours, online bomb threats and TV marriages shorter than an advert break. As Baudrillard said of Disneyland, the arena's artifice exists to convince us that the world outside is real. In fact, that world looks an awful lot like The X Factor."


Harvard Referencing:

• Bagwell, M (2013) Axed 'X Factor' Contestant Lorna Simpson Says The Show Is A 'Set Up'. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/10/15/x-factor-lorna-simpson_n_4099532.html?utm_hp_ref=email_share (Accessed: 10/10/2013).

Analysing 'The Death of the Author' (8/10/2013)

'The Death of the Author' as written by Roland Bathes (1968) I felt wasn't the best read. Like the previous paper 'Viewers Make Meaning' I felt the subject matter was interesting, but the way the writing was phrased and its vast amount of examples overshadowed what the content was meant to be about, and in general made the read longer than it had to be.

That said, I feel that Bathes in a nutshell was trying to say that, just like the artist, it's not up to the writer to decide what the meaning is, it is up to the reader since different narratives will mean different things to whoever reads it. For example, an analytical person might read a poem about a blue curtain and think the blue represents sadness. Whereas the poet's intention was to merely write a poem on a curtain that just happened to be the colour blue. Obviously this can also be vise versa.  

Although I was asked to anaylse this paper, I feel that I can not agree with it. No artist or writer sets out to create something without meaning. Yes, the viewer can interpret it all they like, but the creator always means to try and provoke something from their work. Whether it be something as simple as making someone think something a character in a comic book does is cool, or trying to provoke the horrors of war in a best selling novel through the experiences of a solider.
At the same time though, it is up to the reader to decide for themselves if they like the characters/stories or not and whether they empathise with their situation, which might depend on many things such as the reader's age, gender, ethnicity, background or culture etc. This being said, I feel that readers will always gravitate towards reading the things that best match their interests and their experiences, unless they are reading things they have been asked to read for specific purposes.
Of course, some types of writing need to be read more accurately than others e.g. recipes and instructions.

Still, if all writers work were interpreted in the same way then things would be boring. Yes, it is sad for a writer to see someone doesn't like their work. Yet someone else will love it. Perhaps this is just like what we discussed before where a photograph is only perceived the same way by viewers who have similar experiences, thus linking more closely to my previous paragraph. 

Overall, from reading this I have thought about my own writing and now understand that when you are writing for a certain genre, then you should include elements of things that its likely demographic will have experienced or feel strongly about. Thus not only appealing to them, but also making them feel those connected emotions and decide for themselves what the narrative means to them.

First Session (3/10/2013)

Start of Year 2!

Our first session was to 'understand a peice of text', something that sounds obvious and yet is harder than it seems. This can be due, for example the amount of text morphing into one another due to the length of the paragraphs written, or the words being too technical and therefore the reader struggles to understand them. Thus this session was to help break down more complicated papers in order for us to read and understand them better.

One technique you can use in order to break down the meaning in a paragraph is by first reading it and then afterwards writing next to it a sentence (or word if you can think of one) to sum up what it meant. Thus making it clearer, but also making it easier to remember key points.

Our lecturer also asked us what the term 'Viewers make meaning' means?
Some of us answered 'How an audience interprets something?'.
And others answered 'The Viewers interactions create meaning?'. 

With these different responses we were then asked to read the paper 'Viewers Make Meaning' and write down our thoughts.
The following is what I made of it.

The emotions felt by the on-looker of an image affects the way a certain group or an individual reacts to the image. For example, it may be happiness from a past memory contained in a personal photograph that another wouldn't understand if it was not there own. Likewise, it could be sadness that no one else could feel as they don't have the memories to evoke that emotion. Thus, memories help determine our feelings when looking at things that provoke them. This might be a visual image, but it could also be triggered by smell, taste, sound or touch.
For example, what do you feel when you look at the image of the apple below? Apple pie? Adam and Eve? "An apple a day keeps the doctor away"? The poison apple in Snow White? It would be interesting to discus this with others as the amount of responses could be huge.

Fig 1:

Groups of individuals can also experience the same emotions and similar memories. Whether it be family related or fan related. For example, myself and others may despise the 'Twilight' movies, but there is also a fan base that will defend them and enjoy them. What we see as idiotic, they see as beautiful and so on.    

One thing the lecturer mentioned, which I have mixed feelings about, is 'its not up to the artist to come up with the meaning for their work as others will always see it in another way'. Thus even though one may want their work to convey happiness, a viewer may see it as sadness. This could be due to connected memories as mentioned above.

Things can also be lost on a viewer. For example, people with delicate skin may appreciate/recognise an ad like Olay, whereas others won't. They may know what Olay is (fig 2), but not feel a connection to it. The same can also be said for those that play games and those that don't as seen with the recent advertisements for 'Grand Theft Auto V' (fig 3). Players will most likely recognise the ads due to their art style and not their title which is often in small print on the ads. Because of this often non gamers don't understand what the advertisements are for, and thus like the Olay posters do not relate to them.

Fig 2 and 3:

On a side note, I was wondering what would happen if you gave memories to someone who didn't have the experience themselves. Would they be affected by such a memory? And could you perhaps use emotions in order to manipulate someone? It could be something as simple as turning a bad experience at a restaurant into a good one from someone else's experience. Or maybe something medically useful, such as curing depression by making almost everything bring back natural happiness. Then ofcourse this would bring up the most profitable use, weapons. Yes, emotions could perhaps be used as a means of fighting. It could be a new age of emotional warfare where you could avoid death by simply altering the mood and feelings of your opposition.
Such an idea has already been touched upon in 'Metal Gear Solid 4' where soldiers would have their fears and guilt suppressed by nano-machines, and in the same game this strategy was used against them. Therefore, seeing this actually come about one day wouldn't surprise me, especially considering how effective emotions are at affecting not only a person's decisions, but also their entire personalty!

Fig 4:

Finally we were told that we would eventually be putting together a project so we needed to think about what content we would want to write about e.g. sexuality, gender, ethnicity, religion etc.
Also, we were given another similar paper to the last one that we were asked to read and write our thoughts about for the next session, this one being named 'The Death of the Author' by Roland Bathes (1968).

Harvard Referencing:

• Fig 1: Johnson, S (2013) Supply Chain Excellence, that's a good Apple! Available at: http://www.uandu.com/tech-ops/supply-chain-excellence-thats-a-good-apple/ (Accessed: 3/10/2013).
• Fig 2: muttonbones (2012) Olay - Alexa & Dennie [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.muttonbones.co.uk/blog/home/olay-for-saatchi-dubai-shot-by-alexa-singer-with-hairmake-up-by-dennie-pasion/attachment/olay-theia2/ (Accessed: 3/10/2013).
• Fig 3: Vas, G (2013) The Largest Grand Theft Auto V Ad Stares Down The Streets Of L.A [Online Image]. Available at: http://kotaku.com/the-largest-grand-theft-auto-v-ad-stares-down-the-stree-1133191511 (Accessed: 3/10/2013).
• Fig 4: Richardson, B (2012) Metal Gear Solid 4: 10 Predictions [Online Image]. Available at: http://www.gamesradar.com/metal-gear-solid-4-10-predictions/ (Accessed: 3/10/2013).

Is 'Flower' the new 'Fantasia'? (15/6/2013)

If you were to tell me that a game in which you play flower petals moving in the wind was more significant than most modern games, I would laugh and say it was impossible. How could flower petals convey a story or character as seen in recent great titles such as the latest 'Tomb Raider' or 'The Walking Dead?'.
Yet some how 'Flower' manages to do all this and more, as I will explain below.

I wasn't sure at first where to put this blog post as the game relates in a number of ways to my studies. Therefore I made a list to explain why I feel 'Flower' is the new 'Fantasia' of video games in relation to my modules.

Art:
If anyone tells you 'Flower' isn't art then clearly they don't know what they are talking about! 'Flower' is a wonderful looking game (as seen in the images below) which succeeds in making all the plant life in it act naturally. It also blends colour and lighting perfectly in order to create a soothing atmosphere which is relaxing and calming to look at. This is why, when halfway through the game everything shifts to darker tones e.g. darker environments, thunder clouds and electrical appliances left in the ground (the only things that can harm you), it makes for a great contrast to its first brighter environments.

It's not just a game, it's an experience. You shouldn't ask why, but rather sit back, relax, and look at its splendour and how it comes up with new ways for the player to sore and interact with the environments presented in it.
Therefore, I decided to compare the game to the classic animated Disney movie 'Fantasia' since the latter combines wonderful visuals and audio as further mentioned below. 

Audio: 
One of the reasons I love 'The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker' so much is one that many other players may not notice. This being the way it incorporates music, not only in the background, but also into its combat. Each strike the player unleashes causes a note to play which also affects the background music. Therefore when I started to hear notes play from every flower you bloom in 'Flower' I was filled with nostalgia, as this technique is one that adds to the experience without relying on just foley.
From doing this the developers were able to control certain sections of the game's rhythm. Sometimes the player merely passes through the flowers at their own pace, whilst at other times the player flies through canyons at break neck speed sending a chorus of notes playing with every twist and turn. These notes go well with the music which is subtle at first, but truly succeeds in creating atmosphere with just simple piano music playing.
Another reason why I compare the game to the movie 'Fantasia', is that it contains a plethora of tracks which are meant to tell the story, rather than dialogue or exposition.

Further researching online I discovered that the composer, Vincent Diamante actually worked directly with the development team in order to make sure each flower was strategically placed so as the player would send a chorus of notes when he or she flew into them. I also found out that the more petals the player gathered the more instruments played. I had not noticed this before.
Since the music and gameplay are two sides of the same coin it shows that the developers wanted the music to take as much of a role as the gameplay itself. 

Creative Writing:
Even without dialogue or context to the world, the game still somehow manages to allow the player to invest in its world and embrace the concept of playing petals blowing in the wind.
The game starts with just a single potted plant in a grey and dull apartment in the middle of a noisy and busy city. By selecting the drooping plant, however, the player is transported to a field of grass where they start as a single petal from that same flower and proceed to blow through the wind in order to collect others. As the player completes each new area, which is presented by new potted plants both the environments the player plays in and the apartment changes, becoming lighter and brighter with each newly created flower.
I found this to be a very interesting way of telling a story. It seemed to suggest what the world would be like without life, but then how amazing anywhere can look when life is present. In this instance plant life as seen below.

Context:
Finally, I decided to put this post onto Context as the game can be interpreted in a number of ways.
Is it a game soley to be viewed as art? Or is it meant to bring the player's attention to issues such as global warming and the fears of technology devouring the landscape? Afterall, wind turbines and the remains of broken electrical systems can be seen repeatedly within the game, especially when the latter makes the ground around them darker and lifeless.
Perhaps it can be viewed as an allegory for life and creation in general? Maybe even how people 'blossom' since the environment around the potted plants get brighter and better looking as the game continues (seen in the images above).
Afterall, the game was always meant to provoke positive emotion and act as "an emotional shelter" (Carless 2009).

Conclusion:
Overall, I am very glad I was able to finally play this gem of a game, which was released way back in 2008. Thus I feel slightly guilty that I only just got round to playing it, as this game is VERY important to the games' industry. It's a beautiful brightly coloured game that proves that games can explore themes and stories without having to tell the player them directly, or resort to violence and explosions to keep their attention, which many people still believe to be the case including a reviewer (Darrell) who said "While blissfully soaring through a flowery meadow is probably the exact opposite of shooting someone in the face, I still enjoyed playing Flower." (this made me smile).

I look forward to sitting down and playing the companies next game 'Journey' which my colleagues have spoken about with great respect and positive reviews. It is also the first ever game to win a BAFTA which will make playing it even more interesting.

I can only hope more games like 'Flower' are made in order to show the world that video games are just as important a medium as any existing one today, and that they can also be considered works of art which I believe has been true for years.

Harvard Referencing: 

• Darrell. (2012) Darrell's Review and Light Apartment screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://joystickunicorn.com/flower-game-review/  (Accessed: 15/6/2013).
• Soundingames. (2012) Dark Apartment screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://www.soundingames.com/index.php?title=Noise (Accessed: 15/6/2013).
• ThatGameCompany. (Unknown.) Night time screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://thatgamecompany.com/games/flower/ (Accessed: 15/6/2013) 
• Wikipedia. (2013) Flower (Video Game) Wikipedia. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_%28video_game%29#Reception (Accessed: 15/6/2013).
• qubahq. (2010) Day time screenshot [Online image]. Available at: http://qubahq.com/2010/03/gotta-play-flower/ (Accessed: 15/6/2013).

Analysing films - 'Pan's Labyrinth' (4/6/2013)

Having watched 'eXistenZ' last week we were shown a popular foreign language film today known as 'Pan's Labyrinth' by Guillermo del Toro. We watched this movie in particular as we will be analysing the concepts of fantasy next term in more detail. 

My analysis:

Having watched half the movie when I was younger I was not looking forward to watching it during the session as I remembered a lot of its bloody moments which I didn't enjoy watching. However, watching the whole thing with the knowledge of when to look away, and being less affected now by the sight of blood I found it to be a very good and interesting movie.

It's a fantasy movie heavily grounded in a real world scenario e.g. post Spanish civil war (1944). Therefore it gave its audience a recognisable starting point that allowed them to believe in the world, despite the fantasy elements that appear throughout.

The story itself follows a little girl named Ofelia who loves fairy tales. She moves into a forest house with her mother who is pregnant with the baby of the cruel captain who is hunting rebels who are hiding in the area. As the movie progresses however, the girl finds a labyrinth next to the house which houses a faun (see below) which tells her that she is in fact the lost Princess Moanna and that if she completes three tasks she will be able to return to her kingdom alongside her real father.

This was an interesting film as many of the members of my group analylised it in different ways. Personally I felt the fantasy world may have been the girl's imagination and like most children a means of escapism. This would make sense during a time of war as she would most likely want to try and forget about as much of it as possible. However, due to this time of war her imagination may well have been corrupted and therefore not a traditional child's fantasy world as seen in her books. That's why the fantasy world may be creepy and bloody at times.  

The escapism may also come from the fact that the girl does not want to live with the captain and would prefer to go back to the city. Therefore being offered the role of a princess and the opportunity to live in a palace with her natural family forever is something she desires (similar to most children today who wish to be princesses). This escapism continues when (spoilers ahead) the girl dies at the end and goes to her kingdom e.g. heaven and a fairy tale ending despite the fact that the girl died in our world. Her escapism is even more obvious when you realise all the fantasy stuff happens when she is on her own which is underlined at the end when the the captain sees her talking to herself and although she believes she is talking to the faun he is not visible to the captain.
She is also told constantly not to read fairy tales and therefore her belief in them only grows stronger.

Group discussion on Fantasy:

After watching the movie we talked about it and fantasy in general. You can read my notes below.

• Be aware of the world outside your game world. What makes it believable for the player? e.g. Is it historically accurate or does it take elements from other genres? 
• Is the fantasy in the movie actually the fantasy world or is it the war torn world? This is something viewers could debate when watching the movie.

Interested by the ideas of the movie and the subject of fantasy in general I decided to ask if the same/similar story had been told with a soldier in the main role instead of a child. For example, suffering from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and therefore stepping into fantasy to escape reality?
I asked this because I have always had an idea for a game, even before watching Pan's Labyrinth in which an injured solider in hospital during World War 2 suffers with PTSD and keeps waking up in a fantasy world where aliens or robots try to wipe out the human resistance (a metaphor for the Germans invading Europe). The main protagonist (the solider) is meant to be the chosen one who will lead the humans to victory. However, when the soldier tells this to his doctor/psychiatrist he tells him to deliberately hinder the resistance every time he enters the fantasy, thus breaking his connection to the illusions as he doesn't believe in them. The solider on the other hand sees them as very real and believes that if he were to hinder them he would feel like a traitor. Therefore, in this game the player would need to decide if the fantasy was real or not as well as the best ways of healing the soldier's mental health.

Harvard Referencing: 

• Viewfromacouch. (2010) Faun from 'Pan's Labyrinth' [Online image]. Available at: http://viewfromacouch.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/13-pans-labyrinth-my-mother-told-me-to-be-wary-of-fauns/ (Accessed: 4/6/2013).

Analysing films - 'eXistenZ' (28/5/2013)

* YEAR TWO WORK *

Having handed in our year one work our lecturer decided to make a start on the sort of things we will be looking at during year two. Therefore we were asked to watch and analyse the movie 'eXistenZ' (1999) by David Cronenberg which is about a video game being play tested which also offered virtual reality. 

My analysis:

Overall I felt it was less about video games and more about coming of age, growing up and sexual encounters. After all, the main male protagonist worries about his body and has never played a game or as the saying goes "plugged in" before. Many sexual references dominate the movie as the characters say their 'ports' which are located just above their lower spines and used to play the game, are tense and need to relax. They do so by lubricating and even fingering the ports which also incidentally look like anuses and can be affected by 'computer' viruses. To obtain these ports the player has to have them pierced into them in a similar way to ear piercing. This appears to be another huge step for someone growing up as it makes a significant change to their body. The sexual tropes of the movie are only intensified when you realised the players play the games on beds or other soft surfaces using devices which look similar to women's genitalia with umbilical cords that go into the users' ports, thus the symbolism for 'birth into new life' through playing a new character in a virtual world is almost immediately apparent.

The movie itself (spoilers ahead) makes the audience think that the characters are who they are and are play testing a video game, when in fact the whole movie is really based within another video game and the lives and personalities the players thought they had were in fact just video game characters. This ending was introduced so as to make us question whether or not the reality we live in is true reality or just another simulation?
However, I felt the movie did a poor job of this as I kept questioning the realism of the world that of course turned out to be a game all along. Yet it didn't define this aspect well enough as, even though the chaarcters were meant to be playing a game all I could think was that it wouldn't work as one anyway. The rules as they stated were never defined to even the players and, although I wasn't expecting a futuristic or fantasy environment for them to play in its chosen slaughter house and Chinese restaurant was just confusing and boring. It also didn't help that I couldn't understand why it had to be such an overly complicated game, and why its overall goal was for the 'greatest game's designer in the world' to survive when you would think the developers would have people PAID to realise that this alongside the other mental things the players go through when playing is a BAD thing.
This was odd since it has been proven that other worlds can be made interesting as was the case in one of my favorite movies 'Inception' which I feel did well since it grounded its reality and mechanics whilst explaining to its audience what was going on. This allowed the audience to interpret the movie in their own way whilst asking the same questions posed in 'eXistenZ'. 
For me 'eXistenZ' was poorly explained and therefore I couldn't help but constantly question why the game consoles were organic, instead of allowing myself to be absorbed into the world which is what I love to do in movies.

The director Gronenberg stated that "I have no city, and there are no computers, no television screens, no running shoes, clocks, watches, jewelery. I'm trying to dislocate the audience so they don't know where they are, and they have to give themselves up to the movie.". However, I felt this isolated me and the other viewers more due to the movie not establishing or truly grounding itself in a reality.

I didn't enjoy the movie because...

The ending didn't help matters either as any realism the movie was trying to depict 'jumped the shark' as they say. Why? Because the two main characters having left the real game decide to kill the game's designer. How? By ripping off a fake coat of fur from their dog, pulling out guns from holsters strapped onto it and shooting him dead. Again killing any realism that the director was trying to create and sustain.
Also I refuse to believe that this may have been done in order to 'symbolise' that the ending was another game they were in. If that were the case then it could have been done far better/more realistically as seen in the pre-mentioned example. This is a shame as I admit that the ending did hold some promise for me which might have made me overlook some of the flaws in the movie, especially since the gamers admitted to their in game characters having bad accents and lack of play time due to dying early in the game.

Group discussion on virtual reality:

After watching the film we discussed why people would want to play virtual reality games even if they included games such as 'Gears of War' and other bloody and gory games which would surely have the player killed in gruesome ways. Despite this, I felt players would continue to play a whole variety of games as lots of players love action and at times love to be scared. Its the adrenaline kick that people get playing these games which brings them back for more.
I also feel that players would continue to play a game such as 'The Sims' even though virtual reality would offer worlds you could never explore in real life rather than just a life simulator which in many ways human beings play 24 hours straight in their actual lives. If the player played as a Sim themselves then they could look how they want to look, live in the house of their dreams and start a family with the person they always wanted, have the perfect neighbours, job and eat whatever food they want without too much fear of becoming obese.
If the game, however offered a player the god like role as seen in 'The Sims' usually, but also let you walk around their world like the empowered Bruce from the movie 'Bruce Almighty' then that would be fun for players as well. Bringing up the families they want and then controlling the world around them as if they were all powerful would prove to be both a new take on the game and an interesting experience.

One interesting thing that came up during our discussion was whether or not players could get post traumatic stress disorder and other mental problems from playing war games in virtual reality as soldiers do in real life. Thus if virtual reality were ever made a reality it would need to be carefully tested in order to avoid this problem.

Harvard Referencing: 

• Buckie, A. (2011) eXistenZ scene [Online image]. Available at:  http://thefilmemporium.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/classic-throwback-existenz-david.html (Accessed: 28/5/2013).