Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1516https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4899I finished up through the boys' suicide today, and I must say that creators actually did a much better job of actually mixing story and gameplay than I previously gave them credit for. When running around killing the NPCs, I noticed that most of them weren't just running around randomly as I had previously, they were actually running away from me. And there was the occasional one that would just spin around in circles. In short, the NPCs behaved much as real people would in that situation. Furthering on that point, the NPCs' actions also seemed to match what their 'personality types' were; the jocks and janitors would attack, church boys would pray, and a bunch of the other random students would brace for attack. The reason I felt that connecting the story to the gameplay is so important is because otherwise, it feels like I'm really just playing the game so I can learn the story (and I already know the story). But once the two are mixed, it actually makes me feel as though the choices I made as a player are ethically significant.Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:27:00 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4899&iddiary=9095https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4899Before going into today's session, I talked to a friend about what I was playing. He said that he wasn't going to say anything specific so as not to spoil the game for me, but that I would want to grind as much as possible. So today's session was spent entirely killing civilians in order to level up. I managed to clear out the hallway up to the cafeteria before stopping tonight's run, and mostly it was because the game was getting boring by that point. Unfortunately, the game doesn't seem to have any aspects that tie the story into the gameplay for the killing portion. The generic sprites look nothing like an actual person, and the attack animation does very little to actually suggest a gun going off. A couple halfway decent attempts were made in the form of the death screams and the bodies staying on the screen after the battle ended. But these ultimately failed, since the effects of both wore off after a few battles, the death scream one mostly because they used the same sound effect for every character. I did realize something in typing this up, however. Throughout my experience with the game, I have been constantly comparing it to the actual event that happened. But perhaps that was a bad premise to go in with. Had I known nothing about what the story I was going to experience was, and if it were instead based on a completely fictional school shooting, I think it would've had a completely different effect on me. I would probably be far more sickened at the actions I was taking in the game, and I'd probably even be loathe to be thorough in my slaughter of civilians. More thoughts to come in the next entry.Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:47:35 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4899&iddiary=9078https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4899Going into the game, I was a bit unsure of what to expect. But when the game actually loaded up, and I saw those familiar sprite graphics, I knew immediately what kind of game I was getting into. Or at least, I knew what the gameplay would be like. The story, however, is something I haven't seen anything akin to in a game so far. But in truth, having played as many games as I have, and from what I've learned so far, the question would be in whether or not the gameplay would actually make it and the story feel like a complete whole. Because to be frank, if the game was going to play pretty much like the many different RPGs I've played over the years, I wouldn't have cared much about the story. But from the beginning, the game does, in my opinion, a fairly decent job of bringing the story into the gameplay. The first thing I did upon starting the game was explore the room I woke up in and the rest of the house, and obtained a copy of DOOM and a Marilyn Manson CD. To my intrigue, these were equippable items that boosted the character's stats. Or in more illuminating terms, they helped Eric and Dylan kill their victims. I only made it to the part where I planted the bombs in the cafeteria, because the game made that way too frustrating. The graphics made it very hard to discern where I would or wouldn't get caught. On top of that, I spent at least five minutes in the cafeteria trying to find where to plant the bombs to no avail, which led me to discover that I had to actually pick them up from the trunk before going in. So, being frustrated, I finished that section and stopped. Since I didn't make it very far, I want to discuss one more thing I found in the basement. The recording the two made before going off to school that day. I felt that in terms of informing me about the event, it did a good job, but in terms of actually bringing it into the game, it did not. I mean, I'm supposed to be controlling Eric, right? So why didn't the game make me actually type in the message myself? That would've made me feel very much more like the game was a part of the story. But then, maybe that's the point of the whole game. To show that the kids didn't really associate the reality of the events that happened with the things they were doing that day. Maybe I'll come up with more as I continue.Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:46:10 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4899&iddiary=9069https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4854For today, I felt like seeing exactly how good of a character I could be while playing sandbox mode. I admit that I used a few cheats like infinite health and a jet pack. I then proceeded to fly around the city, beating up gang members within in an inch of their life and then disappearing into the sky. It made me feel very much like Batman, which made me feel like I was actually doing something moral for once. However, during my gang member punching spree, I noticed something extremely odd. I had found a group of gang members congregating across the street from a group of police officers. I landed and took off my jet pack so I could begin punching them, when they took the opportunity to start beating me up instead. I decided to them beat me up a little to see how the cops would react, but they stood there and did nothing. So I took it upon myself to fight back, and the police decided that this was unacceptable and came after me, so I grabbed my jet pack and flew off. This experience has led me to conclude that from the mechanics of the game I experienced today there is no system of ethics in play that meets the two requirements of morality, since there was no objectivity in that exchange with the other gangsters and the police.Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:42:48 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4854&iddiary=9001https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4854When I resumed playing today, I actually managed to do what I had planned to do yesterday, which was progress with the story. I decided that today, I'd try to obey every law in the game that I could. What I learned from that attempt is that at the very least, you have to be willing to violate traffic laws in order to have fun with this game, unless you have the patience of a saint. Traffic lights, staying on the road, and staying on your road make trips take roughly five times as long. This is a complete estimate, of course, because after about a minute of riving this way, I became far too frustrated, and took started driving in a rather reckless manner. It's interesting to note that the people in the game seem to not care about these flagrant traffic violations. Two of my fellow gang members were in the car, and they only ever said anything when I collided with something. I spent about a quarter of one of the drives on the railroad tracks, and they apparently didn't care. Nor did they care when I completely ignored red light after red light, and must've been going over twice the speed limit. What I found even more interesting than that, however, was that the police didn't seem to care either. While blowing a red light, I noticed that one of the cars driving down the street I was crossing was a police cruiser. I stopped afterwards to see if they were following me, but they had gone on their merry way, apparently not giving a crap about me blowing a red light and going way over the speed limit. Now I haven't gotten far enough in the narrative to know if this is true or not, but it seems that traffic violations are a completely moral act from a mechanics perspective. I mean, even other regular drivers only ever care when I'm in their way. I find it to be an interesting example of how morals in this game can be different of those in real life. Hopefully I'm only scratching the surface, but I'll find out next time, I suppose.Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:52:52 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4854&iddiary=8990https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4854I initially planned on playing through the story of the game to experience what ethical issues would be raised by the plot, but that plan went awry rather quickly. While biking through the first mission, I ran down some pedestrians while taking a shortcut, which knocked me off my bike. Rather than be concerned for their health and feeling guilty as I would in real life, I was instead angry at them for impeding my progress and beat them to death. A cop saw this, and I was forced to steal a car to escape. Then I ran down several more pedestrians in my attempt to escape the police, ran red lights, and eventually stole another car simply because it was better. According to Kant, these actions are all morally wrong to commit, because if everyone committed them all the time, over ninety percent of the world's population would be dead within a day. Similarly, from the perspective of utilitarianism, this act is horrendously unethical, if for no other reason than the staggering amount of lives I made considerably worse just for kicks. While I was expecting to commit some unethical acts through the course of the story, I was unprepared to go so far so quickly. It appears as though for good or ill, one of the prime contributors to moral behavior is the consequences of behaving immorally. Remove those, and it doesn't seem to take much to cause someone to go down the slippery slope.Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:58:46 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4854&iddiary=8984