Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1281https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4311In my last entry I touched upon the idea that the developer of the game made it to make a point. After more playing I’m not sure I’m any further along with sorting out the developers point however. Yet I did come away with something of my own I think that might be related to the developers point. Most video games involve violence. The vast majority of the most successful video games have massive amounts of violence such as call of duty or mass effect 2. Yet here the developer used RPG maker. A program that thousands have used to create their own games that’s game play is the traditional style of RPG. I’ll take a game that is a little more advanced than SCMRPG! but its concept is the same. Final Fantasy VII was and still is a remarkably well known played and loved game by thousands. Its set up is the same as SCMRPG! you get into a battle, the foe is before you and you have the option to attack, shoot(materia), items, and so forth. In both games the character follows your orders in a turned based style dependent on the characters attributes. The conclusion that I got from playing this is that violence in games isn’t fun just for the sake of violence. What makes violence fun in games is the context of the violence. Being a soldier in Iraq in a video game can be fun. Being Commander Sheppard fighting the Reapers across the galaxy is fun. Playing as Cloud hacking away at Ultimate Weapons is fun. But being Eric and Dylan running around Columbine high school shooting unarmed kids is not All of the games involve massive amounts of violence but what makes each individually fun to play is the context that violence is happening in. SCMRPG! is not fun because it’s context is breaking the universal law that it is unethical to glorify a true even in history that was a criminal act towards minors. So like I said in the previous entry I hardly even see SCMRPG! as a game. For games are suppose to be fun and challenging and SCMRPG! is neither. I now wipe my hands of this game and try to store away it’s exsperaince deep in some secluded point in m psyche.Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:46:01 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4311&iddiary=8023https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4311My second time playing Super Columbine Massacre RPG! wasn't any better than my first. I feel guilty even playing this game. I feel like I'm doing something wrong. Which brings me back to the conclusion I came up with last entry. That I think that it is unethical to glorify an actual historical event that was a criminal act towards minors. I'm not arguing that the game shouldn't exists however, just because something is unethical doesn't mean it shouldn't exist. The game play in this game is very simple and completely stacked in Eric's and Dylan's favor. As you are roaming the you can engage random students running around the school. Putting aside my own mortified emotions over murdering these students I found that, most students are one shot kills and even when one gets the opportunity to attack they end up doing very minimal damage to Eric or Dylan. Which I think was done on purpose. The more I play this game the more I'm coming to pick out bits and pieces of what the developers of the game are actually trying to say with this game. In fact I don't think this is not really a "game" at all since the game isn't much of a challenge. Which I think reflexes on actual events since Eric and Dylan really where wolves among sheep armed to the teeth as they were. It is becoming obvious that the whole production is more of a comment on the situation. What that comment is... I'm not sure yet. I still got more of the game to play.Sun, 08 Aug 2010 23:22:57 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4311&iddiary=8019https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4311Right off the bat with reading the title of this game without seeing or playing any of the game the obvious ethical issue is whether the existence of such a game is ethical. A year ago when I was at UCA I took an English comp class in which the whole semester was devoted to researching the Columbine shootings. It was a very long and depressing semester going over and over the events discussing who's to blame yadda yadda. I have to admit that just reading the title stirs emotion within me. I played the game for about an hour, the whole experience has been very eerie for me. Actually controlling Eric going into the basement and recording their last message, their language, even the computerized music of Nirvana was eerie knowing that Kurt Cobain shot his himself in the head with a shotgun in 94. I played as far as placing the bombs in the caf and then coming back outside, the hallway gave me problems especially since I didn't realize there were two separate places where there were two vending machines. I believe that the existence of this game is unethical. I believed that even before I played the game. I just needed to find out why and make come up with an effective ethical argument. After much thought I found myself thinking in Kant terms which is unlike me. But I feel so strongly about this that I believe that Kant is needed to make a concrete distinction that has no wiggle room. I see Super Columbine Massacre RPG! as unethical because I think that there is a universal law that it is morally wrong to glorify a true event in history that was a criminal act towards minors. This is why I believe it to be unethical and the reason that me and I'm sure many others feel awkward playing this game.Sat, 07 Aug 2010 23:35:03 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4311&iddiary=8011https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4287I played Grand Theft Auto for the second time for a good hour and half. As soon as the gym became available I took C.J there and to work out after it was suggested by one of his fellow Groove St homies . Who suggested that getting buff was his duty to Groove St. Which at the moment I thought was like Kant. In that it wasn't if he works out he does his duty, it was that he ought to work out to do his duty. When C.J was tired from working out I simply went back to his home, walk into the save point, not save, then go back to the gym and repeat. After mundane button matching I maxed out C.J strength his duty to Groove St fulfilled. From the beginning Grand Theft Auto has caused controversy due to its violence capabilities. Players can steal cars, run over pedestrians, shoot cops, pick up hookers, and get into gang wars. All of these features are centralized around plots that are of the workings of "organized crime" from the Mafia to the Groove St gang. In playing this game and thinking about the others it was hard to think about an action that is possible in Grand Theft Auto that isn't violent. The only one I could think of off the top of my head were to get into the cars that you left at your safe houses. Yet even that doesn't work well since you had to steal the car in the first place. I then thought of all of the" messenger quests" or racing quests in where there is no killing involved you just had to drive to point A to B. Yet there is still fault in that since the game requires you to speed recklessly around the city blowing through red lights and stop signs alike in order to win a race or get to the destination on time. So it isn't a surprise to me that some groups have issues with this game, but I don't have to agree with them. Most video games involve some sort of violence as entertainment and there has never been any evidence that the playing of violent video games increases one's tendency toward violence.Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:38:56 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4287&iddiary=7979https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4287Grand Theft Auto San Andreas is an oldie but a goodie. I originally bought the game when it came out. In 2004 it was considered a sleek looking impressive game. I've beaten it several times since then. What makes San Andreas special in my eyes other than the other Grand Theft Autos is the customization of possibilities of C.J . It was almost RPG like in how you could increase C.J's hit points and physical damage by playing little min games in the weight rooms to make him stronger. And as C.J got strong his actual appearance changed from a skinny guy to becoming completely ripped. Then in the opposite direction by not working out and eating too much C.J becomes over weight and his hit points and appearance reflect that. Then beyond that there are a lot of different cloths and accessories for C.J to purchase and wear. I played the game for about an hour tonight. I started the missions out the gate with C.J following his fellow Groove St. hoodlums on bike and the driving them to this destination and that and so on. Yet it was the very beginning of the game that caught my eye this time. The game starts out with C.J in the airport grabbing his bags and through narration it is clear that he has come home to LA to be at his moms funeral. C.J then proceeds into a taxi that is quickly pulled over by the police. The police lead by Officer Tenpenny get C.J out of the taxi and on to the ground. The confiscate what money they find on him cuff him then put him in the back of the squad car. Once in the car Officer Tenpenny proceeds to blackmail C.J by threatening to plant this gun that was recently used to kill a cop on him. Forcing C.J to do what Officer Tenpenny says or face his life in prison. Initially this scene reminded me of the popular FX show from a couple years ago, the Shield. A police detective that plants evidence, makes deals with drug dealers, and commits murder all in the name of the greater good. It was then that it hit me that they were both examples of Utilitarianism. When confiscating C.J's money Tenpenny mentions that it is drug money. In confiscating that money Tenpenny is taking the amount of money out of the drug trade circulation, which increase the greater area's happiness. Then when Tenpenny is blackmailing C.J it could be seen as his attempt to keep a known felon and murder from committing more crimes, which increases the greater area's happiness. Yet in doing so Tenpenny is breaking the law, decrease of Tenpenny's happiness. The increase happiness have the decrease 2 to 1. Then even further the two increase of happiness effect the greater area as a whole while if Tenpenny gets caught breaking the law it only effects that one individual. So in terms of Utilitarianism what Tenpenny does to C.J in the very beginning of the game could be seen as moral.Sat, 24 Jul 2010 23:21:22 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4287&iddiary=7973