Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1295https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4418I completed the game today. I found the ending to be very odd and pointless. After successfully murdering students and then committing suicide, Eric and Dylan are sent to Hell. This makes sense, considering that what they did is often viewed as Hellworthy. However, the game becomes different when the characters have to battle monsters and demons. Perhaps this is an homage to the fact that Eric and Dylan were supposedly fans of the game, Doom. However, it just seemed like the designer ran out of ideas because the school shootings did not last very long. There are random characters in Hell such as Bart Simpson and Mario. Both, very puzzling. Was this a comment about how old characters have gone downhill? Or am I thinking too hard? There are real people in Hell as well. I was shocked to see John Lennon, Malcom X, and Ronald Reagan in Hell. Are considered good people in one way or another. However, they were in Hell. Was this a mocking of figures that people look up to? I just didn't get it. The final boss is Satan. After defeating him, he congratulates the player. Then the game ends with people at a press conference blaming video games, music, etc. All of this actually happened. I guess I just didn't see where the supposed parody of gaming and media came into play.Tue, 26 Oct 2010 17:55:33 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4418&iddiary=8286https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4418I played for another half hour today. I entered more battles, which were impossible to escape. Once entering a close combat battle, I was forced to kill a student. Students are categorized into different cliches, such as the Jock kid, Preppy girl, etc. They could have easily been given names, but I think this was a mocking of how schools create these different labels of people. The more I read the text, the more I believed that the game took real conversations from the Columbine shooting. I looked it up and found that this was true. It is hard to know what exactly was true, and what is fabricated for the story. A conversation which stood out to me was the famous "Do you believe in God?" conversation. The girl yells "Oh, God! Help me!" Then the player's character, Dylan asks "Do you believe in God?" The girl replies "Yes...no...I don't...know." The player's character asks "Why?" The girl replies "It's...It's what my family believes." The player's character, "Pathetic." You then are able to kill the girl labeled "Church Girl." This is conversation which was later turned into the book, "She said 'Yes.'" I thought this was disturbing, because it forced me to think from the killer's perspective. It pushed my thoughts from my standard, Christian mentality, into the mindset of the killers. I played a character killing a peer because she believed in God...or because she questioned her own faith to live. I think everyone can agree that these killings were wrong, and the killers were horrible. However, I think as a gamer, I am disturbed as I enter the game in the mindset as the killers.Mon, 25 Oct 2010 21:16:16 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4418&iddiary=8265https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4418Super Columbine Massacre RPG! is quite an experience. I found it very difficult to play for the first time. The game crosses moral boundaries in several ways. The first being that it is a reenactment of the infamous Columbine shooting. Not just a reenactment, but an in-depth story where the player controls Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. There are various puzzles, such as sneaking past teachers and cameras. There are also flashbacks with past experiences. Secondly, the game is presented in a friendly, joking way. The title itself (RPG!) makes it look exciting. The characters are colorful and pixilated, similar to that of the Pokemon games. However, as offensive and shocking this game is, I feel like it is a parody of games and media. There is so much violence in video games, including grand theft auto, where real people are killed. There are also games about the Iraq war and World War 2. Both occurred and many people died. They are real instances that players reenact. I think a major difference is that it was more "innocent" and young real-life deaths. It was a random attack which evoked other school shootings. This game certainly pushes the limitations of ethics.Sun, 24 Oct 2010 15:41:28 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4418&iddiary=8236https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4327Today I played Grand Theft Auto San Andreas with cheats. I turned on the "give pedestrians weapons" cheat, the "riot mode" cheat, and I provided myself with tear 3 weapons. Needless to say, this was insanity. The streets were chaos. Driving a car for any amount of time is a challenge in itself. Pedestrians would shoot wildly, and some of them had rocket launchers which blew up my vehicle. This gave me an adrenaline rush. The citizens of San Andreas were killing each other as well as myself. But if I would fight back and obtain wanted stars. The police chased after me as well. However, their efforts were generally useless, because they would be targets to the other characters. It was true anarchy. This brings up some interesting questions to consider. 1. Does anarchy work? and 2. Are people stronger than their government? Now GTA is only a game, and I don't think it can fully support or deny any argument. However, it certainly made me think. I don't think anarchy would work because I believe something like this would happen. I believe a government is needed to enforce rules. Safety and sanity would be would be at steak. Even playing as CJ I had to fight just to stay alive. The previous times I have played I killed people for the fun of it, but now I fought because I had to. I believe this would surely happen if there were no laws. I wouldn't be able to trust anyone. If there's ever a riot in reality, the swat team usually comes and they use their crowd control methods. If it is still out of control I imagine that the military would get involved. This does not occur in "riot mode" of GTA. However, unified chaos would be difficult to stop. Violence causes more violence. If I was a police officer and government casualties were on a constant rise, I would certainly question my career choice. I died a lot when chaos mode was turned on. I last longer with 4 wanted stars than I did in chaos mode. Could this ever happen in reality? It sometimes does..but always to an extent.Sun, 19 Sep 2010 13:56:39 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4327&iddiary=8069https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4327I played Grand Theft Auto for the second of my four times today. I'd like to further point out how there are no just characters in the game. I have done missions for Ryder, Big smoke, and Sweet. Now the game introduced "OG Loc." The first mission is to steal a sound system from a beach party. You show off your dancing skills and then go back to the DJs van with her. Then you drive off. CJ is considered doing a "nice" deed for OG Loc by stealing the van and sound system. I've noticed the overall thrill and appeal of the game is breaking the law. It's what the entire game is about. Even the title speaks for itself. I suppose one could play it and follow all the laws, speed limits, etc, but then it would be boring. There are very minimum consequences for committing crimes in the game. I murdered a random pedestrian and obtained a wanted star. But shortly after the police stopped looking for me. The worst case scenarios are not that bad. This encouraged me to be more bold. I could murder and steal, knowing the worst thing that would happen to me would be that a police officer would shoot me. If CJ is killed by the police he goes to a hospital. So he's never actually killed. However, they do take his weapons, which can be annoying if I have accumulated a lot of them. If CJ is arrested, the game explains that his weapons will be taken, and the police will be bribed to let him go. This means you pay money and are let off scott free. It certainly makes me wonder. If reality's consequences were not as severe, would people be more bold? Would there be a higher crime rate? It's difficult to tell. Although there are other factors as well. It's only a game, and therefore, I have fewer morals playing it because it is fiction. I can murder someone in the street and as crowds of other people run away I can quickly and unregrettably shoot them as well. It's almost encouraging. The graphics are also very cartoonish. There are bright colors and exaggerated character traits. San Andreas was certainly made in a time where if the creators wanted the game to be more realistic than it could have been. But despite the cartoon violence, the creators certainly make going on killing rampages and fleeing from police fun.Fri, 17 Sep 2010 19:36:52 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4327&iddiary=8059https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4327I just finished playing GTA San Andreas. Now it is midnight. It is a very interesting game. Playing it with a moral perspective can be very difficult. I noticed right away that every character in the game is corrupt. CJ, the anti-hero of the story, returns to his hood and has to prove himself with small tasks such as doing jobs for Sweet and his family, including kill other gang members in a cemetery. CJ, his family, and his friends are violent people. And how do you make an anti-hero more likable? Make everyone around him worse than he is. The police who pull him over at the very beginning are corrupt, evil men who treat CJ like dirt. They disrespect him by taunting him, asking "how's your family Carl?" knowing that Carl's mother and brother are dead. Finally, the drop him off in a neighboring gang's territory and CJ has to get out of their fast. And now it's time to "repair the hood." Missions include killing people and earning respect for it. One mission encourages CJ to spray paint over gang tags. CJ's "hood" is repairing itself. Although, thinking from an outside perspective, it would seem that the area is just becoming increasingly violent and another gang is rising again. However, one redeeming quality about CJ is that he is against the drug situation in his "hood." It is explained that drugs ruined the once thriving family "hood." However, this game shows that killing someone is a better choice than doing drugs. I entered the crack house as CJ and killed the drug addicts. There are also prostitutes in the house which CJ has the choice of killing. I chose to murder everyone in the building, even though it was not necessary. This game fully embraces murder as if it is second nature. Anyone in the game can be killed and it still goes on with little or no consequences. The choice to murder a random pedestrian in the street, as well as the encouragement of murder in the missions, is shocking. However, it is addicting and it has me hooked.Thu, 16 Sep 2010 00:47:28 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4327&iddiary=8055