Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1047https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3818For my final session I tried to figure out the reality of the game. I saw that many people commented on the fact that it was a horrible game and that it was difficult to play because they didn’t like the fact that you would kill innocent people. I still think that this movie was meant to be looked at in a documentary sort of perspective, which is how I looked at it. It captured the atmosphere of the feelings that people during that time could not understand and will continue to not understand as the game pretty much concludes. When you are asked if you want to continue killing or to end it all most people would decide to end it all as in response to their negative feelings towards killing innocent people. The game does not offer you awards after the game ends if you choose to continue so it doesn’t really fantasize the idea of murdering innocent people in anyway. The game merely walks you through the scenarios which played out during the day and in days leading up to the day in which the actual massacre occurred. I honestly don’t think it is even trying to show the bad effects of bullying, if I did believe it was this I would consider it to be used as a teaching mechanism in school but I don’t. A documentary in true form is supposed to be a recording of an event as if it were true life, a documentary is supposed to capture the emotions of the time, the issue which arose, and the events leading up to the documented, not to promote anything but information. If you are going to create a game based on columbine massacre without trying to make fun of or criticize school security or physicians who give prescriptions for antidepressants than I think SCMRPG did a great job of documenting the massacre and creating a game type environment. I don’t get sick by playing the game at all, which kind of makes me afraid to say after reading everyone’s comments. I really am not affected in that way. I kind of used it as a learning experience for myself; the game was a lens into what might have been going through their heads. I found it frustrating to have to walk through the halls a billion times trying to get past girls and hall monitors who seem to dart for me. Yet I was only frustrated because I wanted to learn more about what happened on that day.Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:19:27 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3818&iddiary=7159https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3818In my second session of the game since I pretty much already realized the mission of the game in terms of how to get from one stage to the next I looked at it in the perspective of documentary. I kind of feel that because the graphics are so simple the fact that it was a bloody and violent massacre was not to centralized idea that the developers tried to send out. I think developers wanted to show the massacre and the issues which became public after the massacre happened. After planting the bombs in the cafeteria I am lead back to the parking lot where I must grab my guns. The mayhem of the game started soon after. I was able to pick up items that would be necessary to restore my health such as food, and a medicine kit and even antidepressants. I was also able to pick up such things clips for extra ammo. Also what was interesting during the game is that there were flashbacks. I got see when the kids were bullied and how the bullying was interpreted by the two kids. At several times in the game I was confronted by I guess I can call it an opponent in where I had no choice but to kill them. I would end up dead when I didn’t kill them. Developers of the game really tried to make this not about really the violence although it was part of your mission in the game but it was more about documenting what exactly people believed to be the cause of the massacre. Despite its negative criticisms I think it was a great culmination of issues surrounding what happened that day and the days leading up to it. I looked at this game solely as a documentary because as far as it being a game with necessary hand eye coordination it is not. You enter combat with someone, you choose a weapon, and you kill. The dialogue and the items in the game are what really evoke a sort of documentary feel. The game fails to actually make you feel like a killer because although it gives you actual dialogue from transcripts that the two had written the graphics are way to retro to even give you a virtual realness.Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:06:08 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3818&iddiary=7145https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3818The atmosphere at the time of when the actual Columbine shootings occurred, in 1999, was of shock and horror. People quickly questioned and debated issues of gun control laws, guns and our children, school security, cliques, the gothic culture, depression, all the way down to why exactly these kids did what they did. I believe columbine RPG really tries to recreate a scenario in such a way where you can try to comprehend (although only minimally because you can never really understand what goes on in this type of situation unless you actually are the shooter) what may have been going through the heads of the kids who participated in the massacre. Everyone’s question after the shooting happened was- why? This game was made in reaction to this question. The game starts out with a quote by Andre Breton, one of the most popular surrealist artist in the beginning to mid 1900s at the time of World War I and II and the in between years. He was known to be an anarchistic artist as much surrealist artists were. What I know about Breton was that he wanted his art to shoot down the ideas which he believed to have fueled war and what went on in the psyche of man. His work was highly involved with the studies of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. By starting out with this quote, it sort of sets up this game as being a sort of psychoanalysis of the boys who did the shootings. When I woke up in the game I knew from the overview of the game that I was the shooter so as the game instructs you quite well I call my buddy and we quickly get ready with bombs and firearms for the “big day”. Then the game tells me more about how the boys felt before going into the shootings. The boys talked of revenge, recognition, and urgency to complete what they believed had to be done. Because this game makes you travel in a world that is obviously not real I feel the focus is on the dialogue and the goal of your mission. As I pack the bombs and find my way into the school I find myself continuously getting caught before even realizing where security cameras are and finally get into the cafeteria where I once again get caught. Finally after recognizing janitors and such plant the bombs and save the game. I guess in this session what I learned of the massacre was that it was about revenge and that these boys were on a definite mission and getting caught was an issue. This game makes it seems like it was extremely hard to have this sort of shooter situation to happen. I wonder if it really was like that.Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:13:04 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3818&iddiary=7140https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3781GAMEPLAY For my third session of GTA San Andreas I played for another hour. I was asked to do missions which included tagging over opposing gangs’ tags and killing crack dealers. By completing these missions I gained respect from my fellow gang members and accumulated some more money. I also learned that I had to keep my health and looks up by eating food and getting new clothes and my hair done. I also made sure it had to be healthy food or else it would lower my overall health status. JUSTICE Justice in GTA San Andreas is equated to respect by gaining more control over your territory. In order to maintain control over your territory you are told to kill other gangs’ members and publicly mark your territory with tags over opposing gang tags. Respect is important in the gang life and killing, tagging and stealing is how you do so. This game portrays gang life, and in gang life to gain justice over the death or loss of one of your fellow gang members or of your territory is by doing unethical acts. You are faced with ethical questions of whether or not it is okay for you to kill in revenge of another ones death or the loss of a gang member to drugs. GTA San Andreas answers this question with yes. You are rewarded when you accomplish acts which portray justice in the gang world. It is arguable that this game promotes this act by rewarding unethical acts but, by being a character who is a protagonist it does not promote that they are in any way actions you should do in real life. CJ does not want to be a gang member anymore and in that sense you are a protagonist because although you are forced to do these unlawful act you are shown the brutalities of gang life. The other end of this argument can be supported though. Some critics could say that if you take words of value such as justice and respect and equate them with acts of killing and stealing you are promoting them together and separating them can be difficult. I do not agree with stance because once again I think the difference between reality and the virtual gang life is easily recognizable.Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:01:28 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3781&iddiary=7094https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3781GAMEPLAY For my second session I played for another hour and this time I actually tried to complete the missions and didn’t go past the story of the game. CJ is an ex-gang member coming back to his hometown to bury his mother who recently passed away. He is quickly sucked back into the gang life of his previous gang the Groove Street Families and there is a quick view of the corruption of cops voiced by Samuel L. Jackson. My first missions were surrounded around reclaiming the hometown gang grounds from the rival gang the Ballas. Throughout the game I am repeatedly shot and wasted and sent to the hospital where I must start over again. The game becomes much more frustrating to me when I actually have to run away from gun shots. I will probably try the game with cheats eventually to make the game a little less frustrating and go quicker. The story of the game is much more interesting because the player you play is an ex-gang member who wants no part in the gang life anymore. In that sense you are given some sense that the gang life is wrong. RACE AND STEREOTYPES The dialogue of this game is a reflection of stereotypes of black gangs. This game includes explicit dialogue full of swearing and ethnic slurs. In all sectors of media there is a specific stereotype that is portrayed about the black gangs and this game exemplifies exactly what is. What is important in the gang life as represented by GTA is money, respect, territory and the way to defend them is through violence and having allies. This game although promoting stereotypes that may have some truth in them is obviously skewed, people are flattened by you driving over them people are constantly being shot at. The dialogue sprinkled with “niggas” seems accurate whether people agree it to be too derogatory or not. I find it hard for me to believe that anyone would argue against this. The discretion towards stealing and killing is eliminated and only adds to the idea that is not reality. Nonetheless, I feel that the game has an accurate representation of what black gang life is. In response to the backlash of bad reviews against the games racial stereotyping all I can say is that stereotypes come from real life experiences and real life interpretations as viewed by other groups of people. There are some truths to stereotypes presented in this game but they are exaggerated. It is a virtual representation not a real life experience.Sun, 26 Jul 2009 16:13:03 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3781&iddiary=7092https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3781GAMEPLAY Initially, because this was my first time playing any Grand Theft Auto game I wanted to get a feel for how the game worked so I didn’t really pay attention to the plot/missions. The game states that you need to take CJ to the gym and keep him energized by food. Running around caused CJ to loose energy, I had to find food. I found out that the simplest way I could make money before starting the plot/missions was actually beating up people and eventually their money would fall on the ground. As the game progressed I realized that an even quicker way of accumulating money was by stealing cars and actually killing several people at once. By doing so more money would fall on the ground for me to steal. Then while stealing a car with one star, I got arrested and lost everything leaving me to start all over again. MONEY MANAGEMENT Among the many ethical choices that are represented in this game what is most interesting to me after playing for an hour is the idea of how you must manage your money correctly in order to advance in the game. If you were to play this game without cheat codes, which I did, money becomes a predominant issue. The loss of money by failing a mission moves you back in the game quite a bit. Progression in the game among other things is accounted on how well you are able to manage your money. The way in which you accumulate this money and eventually complete missions is through violent and unlawful acts of killing, stealing, and gambling. GAINING MONEY THROUGH UNLAWFUL ACTS This game does not offer you the choice of doing the lawful or the unlawful it only gives you the choice of what unlawful act do you wish to do in order to complete the unlawful mission. That is not to say that the game blatantly encourages these acts because CJ the character you play is just a guy trying to get through the hardships of the game. Nonetheless I can see how progression is only accomplished by partaking in the gang life. I enjoyed playing Grand Theft Auto as it’s a game based around criminal life and allows you to interact and create your own criminal activities.Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:33:06 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3781&iddiary=7082