Gender

God of War II views gender in men being men and women are women. The females in the game are weak if they are human and usually used for one purpose, which is sex. The men on the other hand are warriors they fight till the death. There is actually a scene where Kratos makes a single Spartan soldier go and fight even after everyone is else is dead. Other females in the game who are of higher power such as goddesses have more influence over the men in their lives. There of course is still men having the most power but only goddesses have some kind of right to talk back to men. Gender in God of War II is one that is almost of ancient times, where the women knew there place and the men knew there roles.

Surrogates

I have to say this movie was excellent and it really reminded me of the movie WALL-E. The Idea of bringing back the human race from the technology that took it over seems insane, but not for Bruce Willis. Basically Bruce Willis saves the day by saving humanity from the grips of computers. It seems as though our need to no longer move around or do anything for that matter has been compromised completely and now everyone has robots doing it for them. There is violence, gender, and sexuality in this movie. All of these issues are addressed very well throughout the movie and I not going to give away the ending so go see the movie yourself. It is definitely a good one, but make sure you buy a large popcorn cause it is also long.

Gamers

Wow, where do I begin. This movie dealt with so many different issues, but I would rather just give you a brief summary of what the movie itself was about. First off everyone around the world is basically addicted to playing these two video games that are very realistic. Not as realistic as the movie existenz in the gamer point of view. There are two games that people actually play other people, one is called Slayers, which is where Gerard Butler comes into the storyline, and another game, which I will not reveal at this point in time. The point is that this movie takes place is a future world where humans can control other humans in a mass scale, multi-player, online gaming environment. Its quite sick actually. Some parts of the movie were soo disgusting I wanted to leave, but I am not that kind of person, I stick movies out till the end, even if I do throw up in my mouth. This movie dealt with race, definitely gender, gender issues, homosexuality, and tons of violence. I don't want to say to much about the movie itself because I want everyone in our class to see it and others as well. It was a great movie and the ability one person can have over the entire world is insane, its like watching Hitler give his speeches on those film reels from the 40's, completely twisted. I totally enjoyed this movie, I want everyone to see it and I think everyone needs to see it. It is definitely an eye opener of what might possibly come in the future of gaming...and that is really scary.

Prince of Persia

Personally I enjoyed this video game, the controls were a little sticky but otherwise it was a cool game. I wasn't very into having to move the camera around yourself, that could possibly be from me playing God of War II, where you never have to move the camera around it does it for you. This is actual a nice feature because it lets you know where to go next, even though I use IGN for the walkthrough...I'm such a cheater. Anyway back to the game, Prince of Persia is definitely man friendly. We didn't play far into the game, but you could see in the first scene how women are seen. The one woman we saw was of great importance to the prince, but was just a woman thats it. I did like how we all played together and cheered each other on. As a class I think we helped each other out a lot, especially for the more inexperienced gamers who needed help. Prince of Persia is a great game, the first one I think could use a little more women in the gameplay. Like if you compared it to Zelda there was a woman who knew her fighting moves and wasn't a sexy seductress in fact she made herself look more like a man. I have not played any of the new Prince of Persia video games, but I am sure they are just as good and even better. I was super excited to play video games in class and I cannot wait to do it again.

Mapping the Terrain

When we were discussing the difference between race and ethnicity we came to some conclusions, ethnicity is basically a putative common ancestry, which doesn't always involve a power struggle. Race on the other had is a constant power struggle and we categorize people into a social construct by the color of their skin or the way their eyes look...etc..etc. In God of War II there is a power struggle amongst different types of people. Kratos in particular is fighting for power against the Gods. This is the major plot of the game. I guess you could "categorize" mortals and Gods as a race. Yet you also have those creatures that in our present day don;t even exist, such as, harpies, gorgons, and Medusa. These are all a species but not technically the race that is described in the article Mapping the Terrain. Kratos is white, but he is also a ghost, but all of the characters in the game that are human are white, so we obviously have the white power reigning in this game. Still, when this game is taking place the characters fit the description of what they are supposed to be. I don't write this to be harsh, but when more than one diety ruled the world all the people in power were white. In my gaming experience, of playing God of War II, I have yet to see a human of a race that was not white, but like I said before, It seems very correct for the time in which the game is set.

Ethnicity is definitely in the game, its hard to describe, but for example, Kratos goes agaisnt the ways of his culture which is to be sacred to the Gods and respect them. Kratos is very disrespectful and does not give a rats ass about what the Gods tell him to do. Hence his demise by Zeus in the beginning of the game. Yet many of the mortals who are in this game do respect the Gods and worship them as they should be worshipped, also feared. There is a great amount of ethnicity in this game, with the different uses of the statues and the famous Golden Fleece. Everything is there that is so culturally bound to this game, its hard to say what is missing. You could say there should be people of different race according to the "social construct," but that wouldn't make the game correct for the setting its in, mythological times...ya..no. Maybe if you threw a few Persians in the mix but Kratos the great white male (he's actually dead, thats why he's so white) would kill them, I mean he is the God of War.

Culture of Power: God of War II

When playing God of War II, I tend to forget about time, and when I do decide to look away from my television to look at the clock it ends up being 4 in the A.M. Many aspects of God of War II are closely related to the culture of power ideas. First off you have Kratos, and he himself is a culture of power. Every Spartan looks to him for guidance and everyone knows he is the man in charge when it comes to fighting wars. In the beginning of the game you are helping the Spartans defeat Colossus, who has decided to wreak havoc. There is another culture of power right there, the Spartans are known for their great fighting abilities and they have been called to fight with Kratos. People see the Spartans as warriors, actually the best warriors, and during this time in "history," this is a culture of power. Everyone aside from the Spartans is not considered a great warrior like the Spartans are. Instead of being more brushed aside because of race or ethnicity, the people in this time were marginalized because of their lack of raw strength.

The biggest culture of power in this game goes up to the Gods. The Gods obviously have all the strength and power that no mortal has, which makes them segregated from everyone else, and in this game it's ok. Being a God you are immortal, and ultimate, so the culture of power is obviously going to be here. As a God everyone else around you is marginalized. In the beginning Kratos is a God, but he gets stripped of his power and killed by the God of Olympus, Zeus. Fortunately for Kratos he gets a second chance because another God, who is a woman by the way, has a heart for him even though almost every God hates him because he wants to destroy everything, with or without the approval of the Gods.

The Last culture of power in this game is The Fates. They hold a mortals fate in their hands. They can change the fate of time, and the whole game is about Kratos going to see the sisters of Fate to try and go back in time and defeat Zeus. The Fates marginalize all the mortals because they hold the mortals fate within their hands, so to speak. This game isn’t really connected to the culture of power we see in everyday life, but instead a different kind that is more of a strength driven culture. In our world today we do have a strength driven culture, but in the video game God of War II strength is not used metaphorically. God of War II is about actual physical strength and how they have power over others. This could be considered to be closely tied to our culture of power, but in a metaphorical way.

Existenz

When first watching the movie Existenz, I wasn't sure what to expect. Supposedly it was a horror film, yet I would not have categorized it as a horror. The movie itself was just plain creepy. The use of these game consoles that are made out of a living being, and then the plugging into the game consoles was even more creepy. In the movie these game consoles were called game pods. The game pods had umbilical cord type deals that you actually stuck into a hole into your body. It's like being attached again to your mothers womb, I mean where is the placenta. The idea of plugging your entire body into a game is scary. This is can be considered a major fear involved in the gaming industry. It wasn't like normal virtual reality that we can experience in our present time. Instead it was a full blown use of your body in a way that back in "reality" your body was lifeless.
Another scary idea in this movie was the genuine addictiveness of the game. The two main characters were at conflicts with each other about playing this new game Existenz. The female character was like a junkie addicted to this game so fully she couldnt go without the "game pod" anywhere. The male character was like a little kid trying not to be pressured into trying the drugs, because he knows what happens to people who begin to play these video games. The video game itself could be described as heroine to its users.
What also was scary was the idea that the characters became unaware whether they were in a game or in the real world. When people take life as a game they begin to stop thinking about their actions and instead do whatever they feel is necessary to get ahead. I guess you could say that people already do that in everyday life, the only difference is that no one is getting killed in a way that is like a videogame, except for the people who do, do that, but they are f-ed in the head, you can't blame the crazy, society made them that way. Distinguishing reality from a make believe world can be difficult for anyone, even people who don't play video games. Reality is such a difficult concept to grasp, not just for people who love virtual reality, but for everyone.
Now when we look at the present day we already see these addictions taking place. If you look at the game W.O.W. you can only imagine how many lives it has messed up, in even the smallest way. I know so many of my friends who play this game that won't stop playing it for any reason, forget homework, school, friends, family. The people who play these video games use virtual reality to have friends, go to school, and do homework. There are so many video games, I'm not going to list them, that involve you doing homework. I think detaching yourself completely from everything in your reality is in itself the creepiest thing about this movie. In the real world, whatever that may be, their bodies are just portals to a whole other world, where they can be whoever they want.
I was watching another movie called Waking Life. It aso has a lot to do with reality, like our waking life and our dreams. Can we really distinguish the two of them, and when you think about it dreams are just so much more enjoyable than our waking life. The same concept goes for these video gamers who never want to stop playing because they love the idea of an alternate reality, we all do, it's part of human nature. I don't think you need a video game to escape your actual reality. I think being in a dream state is is cheaper, less time consuming, and restful way to spend your time. I mean some people like to stay up all night playing video games, I prefer to dream.