Prince of Persia

It was an interesting experience playing Prince of Persia, the 2003 video game, in class, and the only complaint I had was the time constraint really did not allow us to thoroughly explore the game. Of the game that the class did play, there were some obvious points toward the dominant culture. From the first scene, it is the powerful men, or warriors, on a quest through India, ready to protect. This is a culture dominated by men, and throughout the first couple of levels we played there was no mention of women, except one highly sexualized image. This is another instance of the power of culture in video games: the woman is a sexual image, only characterized by her body, not intelligence, skill, etc. A case can also be made for the manner in which the men themselves are portrayed, as they are all able-bodied warriors, and no examples are made for those that are handicapped, mentally or physically. It would have been great to have had more time to go deeper into the game, and be able to discover what other cultures occur in Prince of Persia.

Throughout my research online, I discovered that a movie version in set to release May 2010. It will be interesting to note how the movie and video game will compare. With an all-star cast of Jake Gyllenhaal and Ben Kingsley, this may be a hit in the making. Or just another flop! Only the sands of time will tell . . .