Gamer

So the movie Gamer reminded me of Existenz because there was this same out of body/mind experience. In the beginning it was a bit confusing to try and understand what reality was and what was in the game. It was also graphic and gory. The main character Kable was one of the guys that were actually in the game. The people in the game were mostly convicts, including Kable. Kable’s only goal and sense for life was who he left on the outside, his daughter and wife. All he wanted to do was to win the game and see his family again. A 17 year old kid, Simon, was the one controlling Kable’s moves in the game and in order for him not to die Simon had to release him and let him fight on his own.

Without giving away most of the movie I’ll stop there, but all in all it was an ok movie. It sure was interesting and a bit confusing at times. There was a lot of blood and extreme violence which I could have lived without.

Super Mario

Finally I picked my game thanks to Victoria, Super Mario 64. In the beginning of the game the princess is talking to Mario telling him to come to the castle because she baked him a cake. Right off the bat it’s sexist that a girl would be baking a cake. Also kind of stereotypical since Mario is Italian stating that he likes to eat. In Whomp’s fortress there is this one part where Mario has to catch a ride on an owl and after he has flown for awhile the owl gets tired and tells Mario to lay off the pasta since he is heavy.

I feel that there is also a parallel to drugs. The princess lives in a mushroom kingdom and a mushroom gives you an extra life. Mario has to go through these hologram paintings that can seem kind of trippy which leads into another world. There is also all these mythical and inanimate objects that come alive and talk to you.

The Connections: Life, Knowledge, and Media

This article was excruciatingly long and I think gave me carpal tunnel after I got through with the notes. Besides that it was a pretty decent reading. One thing it talked about that stood out to me was that Christians see Christmas as the ‘norm’ holiday in December. Chanukah, Kwanzaa, and the Winter Solstice are looked at as the majority and don’t even consider them. Personally, I didn’t even know that Winter Solstice was a holiday; I’ve heard of it before but I just thought it was a fancy name for the winter season. Sometimes even the ‘minority’ groups relate to Christmas; my mom’s good friends are Jewish, they celebrate Chanukah and go to the temple and everything, but during Chanukah and Christmas they put up a Christmas tree with decorations and all.

We discussed social learning theory in class the other day which is a repetitive reward. We use this theory all throughout our lives from baby to full grown. When were babies we probably got a cookie or something for doing something good, school age we received stars for good work, and now its praise. Getting these kinds of rewards makes us recognize what good we did and how it made us feel when we got praised, so we continue the good work because we want that good feeling again.

Prince of Persia

The other week in class we played the video game Prince of Persia. Right off the bat it started to seem stereotypical; there was a prince killing the bad guys who seemed to look like terrorists wearing their religious headdress. The prince has all these amazing capabilities such as wall running and defining gravity. It seems almost too easy for the prince when he comes up against the villains who are destroying Persia. It was a fun and intense game; so intense that everyone was really getting into it and getting mad at each other for ruining the game.

At first the game was confusing and hard to figure out what to do or where to go, but then you figured out there was some kind of set pathway to follow. Also, with the assistance of the walkthrough we were able to understand what to do next and how to do it.