Essay Proposal

I’m going to write on the numbers 4 and 5. I’ll study the gender roles in Gamer and The Surrogates, the women roles in Gamer and victor/victoria from The Surrogates. I will also see the class structure in both the Gamer and The Surrogates, like the fact that in Gamer there didn’t really seem to be a middle class. In Surrogates the upper class seemed to be the ones who could afford the Surrogates.  

THE GAMER

The movie, “Gamer”, was one that says a lot about our addiction to technology and our removal from the “real world”. The movie identified the real life as it not even being real any longer. Everything was based on technology and the idea of living through someone else, someone who is still human and alive. It seemed as if the art was trying to imitate the real life. 

“Slayers” within the movie was a group of inmates who, for entertainment, were sent to kill, any who survived were sent free. The “slayers” were just like any reality television shows that we have now, besides the fact that someone is controlling them. “Slayer” had their fan base and was advertised everywhere for everyone to see. I don’t think it is morally right for death row inmates to die for entertainment. Main reason why is because viewers were getting their satisfaction of a show not realizing that these people were actually dying, they weren’t just players but actual beings. Just like in “Society” people in a world where they buy someone to live their lives. People were missing out on actually leaving their homes and going out into the real world to meet with people. This “society” was based on real people doing what their buyer, or controller, told them to do. 

Most women in this “society” were basically objects. Objects that were dressed and forced to do what they were controlled to do. Not just this, but they were mainly seen as sexual objects, that had no control in what they wore or did because they weren’t allowed to be the controller of themselves. This comes to goal of the HUMANZ. The HUMANZ wanted to stop all of the controlling of other people. All they wanted to achieve was for people to get back to normal, back to how they were. They wanted these people to stop playing through someone else and get up and live their lives. The HUMANZ wanted people to be control of their lives once again, why not communicate with others through themselves instead of being a member of “society” or through “slayers”. 

IDENTITY.

After reading “Videogames, Avatars, and Identity” I couldn’t help but be in disbelief. Well let me start off and give some of the definitions of what an “avatar” truly is. According to Chris Rawford an avatar are “virtual constructs that are controlled by human players and function as a means of interacting with other characters.” In the broadest sense, an avatar is “the users representative in the virtual universe.” Though I may not play RPG I know the feeling of playing a game and getting sucked into the game that all I can think about is when I’m going to play again and what tactics I’m going to change so I can go further into the game. So when this article states how people spend 1,000+ playing a simple game, I became stunned.

            I do believe it to be true that heavy use of RPG can blur ones ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality. I have a friend who somewhat plays RPG, or at least started playing. He spends countless hours playing though he maybe a beginner; it gets to a point where he completely ignores the outside world since he is so consumed by the game. When I asked him about which identity he identifies himself he hesitated. At first he responded real world, but after a couple of seconds he switched his mind and answered virtual. He admitted to me that one day while he was playing his mom kept calling his name so he could help her with something. After many minutes of waiting his mom finally goes into his room calls him again and he responds, “Mom I’m playing, I don’t think he’s so happy with you here interrupting me while I’m trying to get past this level.” My friend did something that was stated in the article, he is basically expressing himself but through an avatar. Whether it maybe the darker or brighter side of someone, it has become a virtual and real world identity.

            I feel that as soon as a game starts becoming like an outlet, they’re maybe something going on. How can someone play countless hours a day? Not to mention how much time does accumulate.  Maybe Marvin Minsky an MIT scientist had a point, “our connection to the real world is very thin and our connection with the artificial world is going to be more intimate and satisfying than anything that’s come before” stated the year 1989.