eXistenZ

My Thoughts on eXistenZ

 

Strange and weird are two words that come to mind if I am going to describe my reaction to the movie eXistenZ. This movie was definitely not about your typical video game. In fact, as Allegra said at the beginning of the movie, it was about an entirely new game system. One of the things that made this strange and weird was that the power source for this virtual reality game system was the human body (nervous system); the gamepod which looks like a wiggly piece of flesh is inserted into a hole in the player's back.

 
I enjoy playing video games and using different systems. Playing video games provides a temporary escape for me to relieve stress and forget about all the things on my to do list for awhile, but at least I know that I am in control of what I play and when I want to quit playing. Control was something that Pikul didn't always seem to have like when he was rude to people and especially when he was eating the "special" and said "I find this disgusting, but I can't help myself." Playing this type of virtual reality game would cause me stress because I wouldn't like the feeling of losing touch with reality, and  this movie definitely raises the question of what is real and what isn't. When I start playing a video game, I prefer to know as much about what I would be facing in the game ahead of time. In this movie Pikul has to enter the game being unaware of the goal; Allegra tells him that he has to play the game to find out why he is playing the game which to me is a scary proposition. At the end of the movie, you see that it was a game within a game, but you are still left to wonder "Are we still in the game?" when the real video game designer and his assistant are shot dead by Pikul and Allegra.

It is clear that the future of video game systems and video games will become even more technologically advanced. We are seeing that with the graphics in the new consoles and the emergence of Oculus Rift. As Allegra said, "the possibilities are so great." No matter where video game systems and games go down the road, I think I will stick to my traditional game systems. That way, I will always be able to know if I am still in the game.