Alex  Galloway’s, The Origin of the First-Person Shooter is an effort to both examine the faculties (both similar
and contrastive) being utilized in modern cinema and those which are being supported through the surprisingly
comparable, highly popular digital format: video games. He states in its
introduction, “…in film, the subjective perspective is marginalized and used
primarily to effect a sense of alienation, detachment, fear, or violence, while
in games the subjective perspective is quite common and used to achieve an intuitive sense of motion and action in gameplay” (40). The 1999 film eXistenZ represents a calculated effort to visually blend these techniques that have largely appeared to be at ends with one another, while simultaneously addressing the very human moment of technological crisis that has been developing in this new age of immersive media. This concept certainly remains as pertinent now as it was in the final fleeting moments of the 20^th century.

The lines that illustrate what is purely “technological,” “virtual,” or “physical” are effectively blurred in the film’s near-future setting; the organic gaming system (or game pod) that allows its players to experience a completely immersive, entirely engaging alternate reality. This “virtual reality” is not represented as being overwhelmingly natural, yet its construction allows the avatars within the game absolute freedom of will. The intrusive manner of “porting in” to this virtual realm is not depicted as immoral nor painful, but simply biological. The more time spent in the world, the less distinct its differences become from the “real world,” resulting in a sort of metaphysical impasse: the structure of the film itself does not present the viewer with any real answers as to the humility of the game, or even whether or not the movie we experienced was truly just a simulation carried out by the virtual choices of its avatars, but it does pose an important question:

...ARE WE STILL IN THE GAME?

What are the effects of immersion on the mind, the body; humanity? Are these consequences, or benefits? How will immersive experiences shape our future?