Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1327https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4417For my third and final time playing Columbine Massacre I still was not use to how sickening this game is too me. My computer was being weird for some reason and did not save my progress from the last time I played so I had to start over from the beginning of the game. This, however, proved to be beneficial to me because unlike the first time through I really did not pay attention to the surrounding features of the game my first time around. Looking through Eric’s house I found a copy of “Doom” and a Slayer CD. The creator of this game seemed to make a reference to violent videogames and metal music as being contributors to Eric and Dylan’s anger and rage. The creator of this game almost seemed to make the stereotype that kids who play violent games and listen to metal music are the kids who are likely to go and shoot up their school. Also while you were first starting the game a version of “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This” by Marilyn Mason is playing in the background. This time around I also took the time to read what the players actually said to one another about why they were shooting up their school. It seemed to me that years of neglect from their peers lead to the two boys to their violent plan. For Example, during a flashback Eric talks about how nobody would ever sit by him during lunch, he made it seem as though this made him feel very lonely. Eventually though Eric said that he would intentionally isolate himself and wanted to sit alone, and eventually started to hate the kids in his school. It seemed to me that Dylan and Eric were both ticking times bombs, waiting for the one day they would retaliate, which was caused by years of them being ostracized by their classmates. What really gave this game its emotional effect though are the real life images the creator used of the schools. When a player sees those images I feel as though this is the part of the game that really hits home. Seeing those pictures kind of take the player back in time and puts them in the middle of what happened on that tragic day. This game makes a good example of why bulling should be made an issue of great importance to a school and why they should fight to stop it. Because you never know what a bullied student is going to do, or in what way he is going to snap. Dylan and Eric, who shot up Columbine High School, are a good example of what bulling and a student being isolated from the school community can lead to. What is important to point out about this game though, is that school shootings do not happen as often as the new portrays they do. Of the hundreds of thousands of schools in the United States, very few ever have a shooting occur and most of the time schools are a safe place to be. Columbine Massacre just adds the already mass hysteria that occurs when a school shooting happens. I feel as though this game give a negative image to both American culture and its public school system. It shows those American teenagers are angry, violent, and malicious. When in actuality most teenagers are not inclined to go into their school and randomly start shooting at and blowing up their classmates and teachers. Overall, I still feel as though this game should not have been made. Even though it is meant to highlight an American tragedy and show just how dreadful it was, there are several different ways a person could of gone about doing that. As I said before this game just brings back the sorrow people felt back on that day and which causes people great sorrow and unhappiness, which according to Utilitarianism is a bad thing. Thus making this game was ethically and morally wrong. I really don’t have anything positive to say about this game and to be honest I am very happy that I do not have to play. Some games should just not be made and this is one of them.Tue, 26 Oct 2010 21:35:44 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4417&iddiary=8295https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4417The second time playing this game I really started to get into the actual game play of the game more then just the theme of it. The game play of Columbine Massacre RPG reminded me of the Pokémon games I used to play on my Game boy Color. The game interface of Columbine Massacre looks very similar to that of Pokémon’s. The character of the game moves and looks very similar to that of the character Ash in the Pokémon games. Even during the attack mode it looks like the makers of this game almost copied straight from the old Pokémon games. The fighting style is also very similar as you have a variety of options for attack, and usually it is a back and forth exchange of attacks. The first step of the game involved me having to sneak into the cafeteria to plant bombs by the vending machines. After that, you and Eric proceed to go into the school and shoot and anyone that gets in your way. The characters of the game took great pleasure in what they were doing and found it comical when the planted bombs went off in the cafeteria. What is disturbing to think about is that these kids really did take great pleasure in killing innocent students. The fact that the creators of Columbine Massacre put this feature into their game does not even begin to capture how sickening that was. Also during the fight scenes you had wide variety of methods you could choose from when you were killing someone. You could either shoot, knife, or throw explosives at your victims. With little to no retaliation from students or teachers killing people in the game was very easy. After my second play though of the game I started to think that since this game, was allowed to be made, it could be rationally argued that games about other American tragedies can be made, such as 9/11. In a game about 9/11 for example, a developer should be allowed to allow a character to crash planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon without any negative ramifications from anyone. Developers can argue that since, in Columbine Massacre the gamer is able to shoot students and teachers, they can allow their character to crash planes into buildings. With making this game the creators of Columbine Massacre might of caused collateral damage that we have not seen. This game might actually influence students who are similar to Eric and Dylan to do something like they did. Unlike games like Grand Theft Auto, were the story line is completely fictional, a game like Columbine might have more influence since it was a real event. Bullied students might see how easily it can be done, and thus are influenced to go an shoot up their school. An aspect of the game I found it strange that the game labeled the people you were killing, because the character in the game clearly has a mission to kill anyone that gets in his way, so having label on the victims really did not make any sense to me. I felt as though this feature was highly offensive, especially with “openly gay African American” that blacks got. Overall, I still get a very bad taste in my mouth when I play this game. I still find myself asking why this game was ever allowed to be made. I still cannot come up with a rationally good reason or answer.Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:55:35 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4417&iddiary=8259https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4417This was not only the first time I have ever played this game, but also it was the first time I had ever hear of it too. At first I actually thought it was a joke, and thought that no one would even consider making a game about Columbine due to it being such a sensitive subject. Columbine Massacre is about a real life American tragedy that took place in Columbine High School in the spring of 1999, were two students went into the school and started shooting both students and faculty. To start off playing I started out by just trying to get the gist of the game I played around and did not really invest too much time in trying to actually play and beat the game. However, The game did not even explain what you had to do in order to keep progressing in the game, it just left it up to the gamer to figure it out which added to the frustration of playing this game. It showed the morning of the shooting, what the two shooters did and what their plan was. At one point of their conversation one of them even said that doing this is “fun and necessary” and they made it seem as though their plan to shoot up the school was an act of vengeance. The game made it seem as though they had been planning their attack for quite some time. In the game you actually get to control the people who did the shooting on that day. You are able to plant bombs and shoot and kill who ever you want to. The people you were shooting at had no way to defend themselves; they had no chance to escape or survive. Unlike other violent games I have played in the past I actually felt disgusted playing this Columbine Massacre, due to the fact that it was about a real life event where innocent students and teachers lost their lives. It felt almost unnecessary to even make a game about this. Even if it was meant to make a statement on how bad Columbine was, it seemed like this was absolutely the worst way to do it. The makers of this game should of never been allowed to even make this game, none the less release it, as it crosses so many ethical boundaries. This game is unethical because it touches on highly sensitive issues and causes a lot of people unhappiness because they are remained of tragedy that took place on that day. This game especially causes unhappiness to the families, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, and students who were personally affected by the Columbine shootings. Making a game that touches on the subject of a tragedy is simply unacceptable. I am not sure why we were asked to play this game; even for an ethics class it seemed unnecessary.Sun, 24 Oct 2010 13:51:46 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4417&iddiary=8235https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4367For my third and final blog I decided to play both the missions and retry the free roam feature. As I continued with the game play I became more aware of how much the theme of family is incorporated into this game. Since the murder of C.J.’s mother he uses his fellow gang members whom he refers to as his “brothers” as a support system. C.J.’s gang, just as any family, provides him with guidance and support as he continues a long the journey. In fact, C.J. makes several references to how important family is and how it is crucial for him and his gang members to stick together. I found this feature to be one of the few positive things of the game, as families typically provide a good sense of a moral code. However, with this game that is not the case most of the time. One thing that I found while playing through free roam a second time that I seemed to have over looked the fist time was how much of a negative image this game gives to women. Women in this game, more so minority then white, are portrayed as being prostitutes that you as the character can sleep with and also abuse. By representing minority women in the game as prostitutes it gives impression to the games audience that they are people you can use and abuse since they lack self respect and choose to sell themselves in order to make money. These generalizations about women are similar to the ones this game makes about African-Americans; they are unfair and misrepresent the majority of women. I feel like this feature of the game was not necessary to include, given the fact that this games focus is more on crime. This game already insults its fair share of cultural groups and I felt like this feature just put it over the top. Overall, from my first play of this game to the third this game seemed to just get more and more violent as the game went on. This game is a very poor representation of American culture as it gives the wrong impression to people outside the United States that Americans are blood hungry animals that will wipe anyone that gets in their way. When you really look at American culture most would agree that killing people and committing crime after crime is both immoral and deviant behavior. Americans live but a much higher moral code that the one that is portrayed in this game. However, I have also come to the conclusion after playing this game was something I stated before. As bad as this game is, it does really shed light on a feature of American society they most Americans choose to ignore. The poverty and crime are big issue in most of the neighborhoods portrayed in the game. They were big issues during when the game is set, in the early 1990s, and they are even a bigger issues now in 2010. These issues need to be addressed and cannot be ignore any more because they just keep getting worse and worse. In conclusion, I really did enjoy playing this game. It really brought back memories to my first time playing this game. Only this time I am a little bit wiser and more aware of how truly morally upsetting this game is. The player has to understand that this game is in on way like real life and that there are certain moral codes that the majority of our society lives buy, that this game chooses to ignore. This game can be fun but cannot be taken very seriously. As I said before, viewer discretion is advised.Sat, 02 Oct 2010 21:10:30 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4367&iddiary=8154https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4367With my second play through for this game I deiced to try out a few missions. Before I even finished the second mission it became clear to me that this game puts a huge emphasis on a culture in the US that most of us have never been exposed to. It shines a light on a dark area in American society that most of Americans seem to ignore. Most Americans are afraid of the neighborhoods that are represented in this game but in reality they are a true part of Americans melting pot. Just as you would leave out your least favorite vegetable in a dish, Americans choose to ignore the sub-culture that is in this game. The overall feel I got from the missions was that in order to progress you have to break the law in some form starting with vandalism and ending with murder. In fact one the first missions in the game includes you vandalizing property in order to establish your gang’s turf. While this game does include a lot of gang violence it does bring to light how many innocent lives are lost to gang related violence. In every mission is seems like an innocent citizens life is accidentally lost due to them getting caught in the cross fire of gang violence. This really brings up the question of why nothing has been done to help stop gang violence which, has lead to the senseless deaths of countless innocent lives. I feel as though if this game does promote anything good, while it might not be their intention, it is this issue. Looking through this from a Kantianism point of view this game can be seen as not following any form of a moral code. The player is allowed to has to live by his or her own set of moral rules and puts their own livelihood over that of others. For example, the whole was to progress in the game is that you have to take advantage of people in order pass a mission or meet a goal. This violates one of the main concepts that Kant has laid out in his moral code, which is to “never take advantage of another to meet the ends of your needs.” Overall, this game is a poor promoter of a good moral code as it allows the player to pretty much live by his or her own moral code, and ignore the one that is followed by the greater society. Even if a player wanted to live by a good moral code they cannot do so if they wish to progress in the game. The game pretty much forces the player to commit violent acts and rewards the player by being violent by allowing them to progress in the game and gain more respect and prestige as they do so.Fri, 01 Oct 2010 21:23:35 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4367&iddiary=8146https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4367For my first 30-minute play through of grand theft auto I chose freely play through out the city, just to relearn the games game-play. My first impression of the game was much like it was for the previous versions. It is a game where the player has the ability to do pretty much whatever he or she wants, which include actions that violate a number of moral codes and left this player wondering why this game was ever allowed to be made. The game makes a number of stereotypes on certain ethnic groups, which are in no way true. It promotes that the player has to commit violent acts such as killing and stealing in order to really progress in the game. Not only does this game encourage violent behavior but it also gives you many options on how you want to kill someone. A player can either choose to kill them with a gun, run them down with your car, or take a chainsaw or knife to them. However, the game does gives the player the ethical choice of whether they want to be a law-abiding citizen or a notorious criminal, thus it is up to the player to choose who they want to be. I, however, elected for the latter as I felt like the games atmosphere prompted the player to be one. I felt as though this game really does an injustice to the African-American community as it makes generalizations on them as having an assumed set of characteristics that include: a tendency towards violent behavior, gang warfare, and drug use. Also during free play the player can recruit gang members and start a “gang war” with other gangs over respect and territory. In the game, it seems as though the more territory your gang has the more respect and prestige you have. In particular this game features gangs to be made up or mostly “Blacks” and “Hispanics.” Another upsetting fact of this game is that if a player commits enough heinous crimes, they can be feature on the news. This indicts from my point of view that violence is not only encourage, but rewarded in this game. For Example, the player is ranked on how good they are at being a criminal (this can be seen in the “status” menu when the game is paused.) On the other side the game also allows the player to be a law-abiding citizen and even gives the player the option of doing vigilante missions where when upon the player entering a cop car they are able choose to do “vigilante missions” where they can hunt down and kill run away criminals. It seemed to me though that either path you take still leads to some level of violence. However, the game can get pretty boring if you choose to play this way as the number of options of what you can do is cut down. Thus for this game if a player really wants to get the full experience he or she have to elect to be a notorious criminal, killing everyone that gets in their way. In the end, I did enjoy playing this game as it did take me back to my first experience playing this game when I was just fourteen years old. Looking back at it though I really did not fully understand how bad of a message this game was sending. This game can be fun, but the user must understand, that this is a game, not real life. A player has to understand that real life does not work in the way the game does and that there is moral codes that society lives by, which include a number of ones that this game violates. I found this game to be fun and enjoyable as it really does give you a lot of freedom, which at times can be enjoyable, however, viewer discretion is advised.Thu, 30 Sep 2010 23:20:56 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4367&iddiary=8141