Essay Proposal

For my essay I’m planning on doing question #4 which explores gender roles in both “Gamer” and “The Surrogates”. While writing this essay not only do I want to explore the gender roles these two bring in there story line. But I also want to explore why people choose to play an avatar in the opposite sex, I’ll start off with ‘Gamer’ and ‘the surrogates’. Although I want to go further and do research on what other people feel about the subject and maybe find explanation to why people play with an avatar that’s there opposite sex.

Response to "Gamer"....

 Watching the movie ‘Gamer’ is eye opening; the story line is interesting and pretty scary if it actually happened in real life. I think that “Gamer” functions as a social commentary because in the movie we see people who are actors (also known as avatars) in the ‘Society’ game act out and pretty much do anything their player has them do. For the player it’s a good thing because they can do things they wouldn’t be able to in real life. For instance the players who play ‘Society’ have their avatar do stuff like drugs have them drink and do pretty awful things. The player can also live the life of their opposite sex. For instance a guy can have a girl avatar and a girl can have a boy avatar. Advertising was a huge part of the movie; since the movie started till it ended we saw that advertising was huge. In the movie we saw big screens advertising ‘Slayers’ we saw big posters practically covering a whole building also with ‘Slayers’ on it. The ad’s in the movie were similar to the ones we have today big posters and billboards that advertise a new movie or a new video game.

                The game ‘Slayers’ in “Gamer” is a game about death row inmates converted into an avatar were someone on the outside world can control them and play the game with them. The game consist of death row inmates shooting each other and trying to survive  in a battle once the battle is over they return to a check point and do it all over again the next day. If the inmate survives 30 battles it is promised that he will be released and set free. Some differences ‘Slayers’ have with real life is that people don’t actually control real human beings while playing a video game that consist of players shooting each other. Another one is that if an avatar dies while playing the game he is actually dead and doesn’t come back to life like in a video game in the real world. One similarity is that there is a person on the other player controlling the avatar like in ‘Slayers’ and in an actual video game.  I don’t think there is even ethics in both ‘Slayers’ and ‘Society’ just because the creator of these both games was only thinking of himself and all the money he was going to be making. In both games there is no rules and you can make your avatar basically do water you command it to do. If a game like ‘Slayers’ was ever introduced as an idea in real life I don’t think it would ever be OK for a death row inmate to die for entertainment it’s just immoral. As for ‘Society’ it also isn’t a good idea it’s basically prostitution because its selling your body to someone to control and make you do things they want you to do.

                I honestly wouldn’t know why men control women in ‘Society’ my guess I that it’s a fantasy they get to live. Maybe they get some type of pleasure out of playing a woman in a game. Either way I just think its plane wrong.

                In the essay Waggoner writes he talks about how people get so into video games and spend so much time in a virtual world and creating avatars for that specific game they are playing. It’s similar to Gamer because in gamer we have players who make and choose their avatar something so completely different from what they actually look like. In Gamer we also have a lot of players who spend a large amount of time playing the game ‘Slayer’ or ‘Society’.

"Videogames, Avatars, and Identity" Response

After reading “Videogames, avatars, and identity” I started to get flash backs to when I played video games when I was a child. I never really got obsessed with them as the author explained he did, not getting any sleep and just have his mind race as he thought about he can play the game better or what he can improve on. In his essay he mentioned Pac-man and Nintendo and other systems created as technology improved when the years passed by. When I thought about it I do remember playing the first Nintendo that ever came out I remember my brother was obsessed with that game system and he would sometimes let me and my sister play once in a while.

                There was a time in my life though were I got into video games a little more than usual and for my twelve birthday I asked my parents for the Gameboy SP in which they did get for me. When I look back the only reason I got the game was because my friend had one and she had a Sim’s game in which I really liked playing. My friend would let me play all the time with her avatar that she created. When I think about that avatar it actually was not similar to her at all she designed an avatar that was a complete opposite to her. Although she did spend a lot of time playing that game, I also started to notice that she got more and more Sim games she even got one for her computer. Time did go by and she eventually grew out of that face but I did notice that she invested so much time into that specific game. Once I got the Gameboy I got a couple of games with it but for a reason I didn’t get the Sim’s game I don’t remember why but I guess I also grew out of that face.

                There was one time were I did created an avatar and it was for the Nintendo Wii, I was with my friend (the same one with the Sim obsession) at her house and her mom had gotten a Wii for her younger sister. They asked me and my sister if we wanted to play we said yes so they set it up so my sister and I can make our own avatar to play with. One thing I do remember was the process being so long. It took me especially a long time to create my avatar because I wanted to create something that resembled my features. I looked carefully and the type of face I had and the type of nose I had what types of curly hair there was the mouth types they had and lastly what types of eyes that resembled me. I got so into it that when I did finish my avatar it actually looked like me and I was so proud of it.

After reading “Implications” my reaction to the “ghettoization” of MySpace was that I somehow can agree to some of the students the author interviewed stating that Facebook is classified as more for sophisticated and higher class people. I know it’s hard to hear but that’s how most of our society sees MySpace user as more of the ‘ghetto’ type. When I switched to Facebook I was in my junior year and when I first got a MySpace I was in 7^th grade, I was a little skeptical about it at first because I heard that Facebook was like a MySpace for grownups to communicate with their business colleagues. One of my closest friends mentioned Facebook to me to join Facebook so we can talk on there because she no longer was on MySpace. When I finally switched I noticed that the switch was major and I was completely lost but as time went by I got the hang of it. I also noticed that every one of my classmates had already done the switch probably a year before I did. Once I was hooked on Facebook I quickly let go of MySpace I still have a profile but I haven’t logged in since I made the switch. In my opinion I see Facebook as a social network were high school students and college students can communicate with each other. I also see how many companies and other business take advantage of Facebook to advertise. MySpace on the other hand I see as a social network for students in lower grades like middle school and even grade school. The way my Facebook is designed is it has information that I only want people to see only my friends are able to see my page. I’m careful about what I post and what not to post, when I think about I rarely post on my Facebook just because I’m a private person and I don’t want people being nosy. Although, I do like Facebook because it’s a place where I can keep in touch with my friends and family that I don’t see often. Now that I look back I’m glad I made the switch Facebook is more convenient to use. Not only that but all of my friends are on Facebook everyone I know left MySpace so there was no reason to stay there.