|
9.
I REALLY DIDN'T WANT TO MENTION The Matrix BUT ...
It seems to be the
go-to title for contemporary discussions about technological immersion
and virtual worlds, as it takes as its narrative starting point
the obliteration of the real world by the things of the digital.
In The Matrix, Humans are enslaved in a state of virtual
reality gaming with no concept of "the desert of the real".
A huge success in 1999, it spawned two sequels and a marketing
onslaught of toys, etc. What is certainly most intriguing about
all of it though, is its adaptation into the video game medium.
The first title released as a spin-off of the series, although
generally panned by video game critics, functioned with a very
unique approach. Enter
The Matrix was foremost a marketing tool for the sequel
films, but a marketing tool like no other. Through filmed cut-scene
moments featuring the films' actual stars, it takes as its plot
a focus on two secondary characters in the series and follows
their journey as a backstory to the sequels as well as a bridge
between them. The films, like the jacked-in humans that inhabit
its world, plug into this digital medium to more fully flesh out
the story they are telling; to liberate it from a one-dimensional
state. For a fan to take in the entire picture, she must take
part in the video game in a reflexive act. As the movies' characters
become disembodied in order to 'play' in the Matrix, gamers pick
up controllers and press power to 'play' in The Matrix.
While inviting players to emulate the actions of the film characters,
they are also invited to take up the philosophical implications
of those actions, and more easily applicable, the psychological
implications of some form of immersion in a digital universe.
Enter The Matrix serves to call attention to the gaming
apparatus and the player's subject position simultaneously, while
most games strive to make both invisible. As this is a game which
presents itself like a film, there is a duality in the reflection
on mediation. Through the console, gamers take part in the discourse
of a film and are actively aware of that.
The
more recent, The
Matrix Online has the same implications, yet more fully
realized. Players log in to a fully online world which much more
closely resembles the Matrix program than the home console can
hope to. With the added element of interaction with human-controlled
avatars, this game rather accurately emulates the environment
that the films posit. A number of games try to create the sensation
of watching a film, while these Matrix titles call attention
to their position in relation to the film medium and the user's
role in negotiating the foregrounded differences. Perhaps more
than any other popular titles, these games highlight the notion
of simulation as opposed to narrative form.
|
