[PC Gamer} David Cronenberg says eXistenZ wasn't about predicting modern gaming, but if the 1999 sci-fi thriller did do

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telling GamesRadar in a recent interview that he's not much of a gamer himself."I think people interpret things they see in those movies in anticipation," said Cronenberg. "I mean, I've never been a great games player … but I was interested in [videogames]. It can be another art form—creating another world that is immersive, and so on."It intrigued me because, of course, in a way, movies have always been that as well. So people who think that eXistenZ anticipated some things about game playing—well, that's lovely. But, really, I don't think of art as prophecy."To me, Videodrome and eXistenZ are foremost stories about mass media and the ideas of theorists like Marshall McLuhan (famous for his "the medium is the message" maxim) and Jean Baudrillard (the hyperreality guy), and I take Cronenberg's comment to mean that the VR game in eXistenZ was designed to serve the ideas expressed by the story rather than to predict a specific future. (As is generally the case in sci-fi, however much it's accused of having gotten specific tech developments 'wrong.')Still, there are parallels between eXistenZ's VR game and the games of today. Most superficially, there's the fact that VR headsets are now common. We don't have anything as advanced as what's depicted in the movie, but I can't not mention that Valve founder Gabe Newell owns a brain chip company.The NPCs in eXistenZ also have some of the same uncanniness you get with today's large language model AI chat bots, and the way the VR game is influenced by the thoughts of the participants somewhat anticipates today's emphasis on user generated content in games like Roblox and Fortnite.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/CXgOUa91GHg


Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/movies-tv/i-don ... ts-lovely/