Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1545https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4985So I just killed myself instead of being taken by the police. I murdered just about everyone I could find and then ended it all. There is a whole slew of cutscenes here, including an actual sound bit from the incident. I didn't really know too much about the incident beforehand, so I went and looked up a bunch of stuff while the cutscenes were playing. A lot of the events that took place in this game were much of the same way that the actual event happened. The question "Do you believe in God?" was actually asked. The girl said yes and she got shot in the head for it. When you read these kind of things and then go on to play a game where you are the bad guy, it is disturbing. So after all the cutscenes and everything else, you are in hell. Which is a whole other moral thing going on because of the relationship between hell and religion. These boys didn't seem like they believed in God and hell is directly related to religion so I was a bit confused there. I only played this part for a little bit, but it definitely resembled DOOM. This took on a whole other aspect of game copying too, because it felt like I was just in a DOOM game. Overall, if I didn't have to play this game for a class, I probably would never touch it. First of all, the gameplay I did not like. Secondly the overall historical events that drove the game shouldn't have been brought up again. I mean the families and friends of these people went through enough and now they are just bringing it up again and again.Tue, 29 May 2012 14:37:49 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4985&iddiary=9256https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4985For my second round of the game played this morning, it's not really something I would get up and start playing. After planting the bombs yesterday and going back out to my car, it was now time to trigger the bombs, but as history goes, the bombs are dysfunctional. So now Dylan and Eric are pissed and I start to go around taking out people in the parking lot. After this, I reload my ammunition and head for the school. Once I was in the school, I mowed down everyone in the hallways. These parts were kind of disturbing but at the same time sort of ridiculous because of the gameplay. Being a game that looked something like pokemon or final fantasy, it really gives that feel of disconnection. If I were playing this game from a first person point of view, I think it would have a lot more of an effect. The one thing that I didn't notice right away was the amount of extra stuff in the game. When I entered the classrooms to take out everyone, you could actually go up to the computers and get information or something of the such. It gave me pages from the Anarchist Cookbook, which was kind of weird. After I killed everyone on each floor and in just about every room (except for the dude in the library), I had a shootout with the police. It gave me a choice of end it now or go back or something like that. I chose to end it now and then stopped playing for the morning. I'd say for this gaming session, violence takes the cake. I mean your character literally goes throughout the building killing anyone and everyone, saying random stuff along the way. The style of gameplay takes away from the emotional build, but then every cutscene or real picture puts you right back in it. From the things these two were saying, you could tell that they were suffering from social problems. When people were killed things like "jock" would pop up. Once again, I have to say this game is definitely one to make you uncomfortable because it mixes actual historical events and makes you play as the bad guy. In my experience, people like to play as the good guy or the hero, and when you are thrown straight in to a game like this, it makes something happen.Tue, 29 May 2012 12:16:27 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4985&iddiary=9253https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4985So I finally got this game downloaded and ready to play. I can honestly say that after the first time playing it, it is not at all what I expected. First I didn't expect a Gameboy/Nintendo RPG feel. I thought this would be more of a first-person type game. It felt like I was playing as Ash on one of the pokemon games. Not only did I not expect the type of gameplay, I didn't expect the emotion that was involved with playing this game. I mean most games are fictional and involve something completely made up, but this is something that actually happen. Real pictures of the Columbine shooters are included to make it more realistic and you are playing as them. When I finally thought about it all, it kind of drops a weight on your stomach. This was a terrible time in 13 families lifetimes and here we are playing an RPG based on the event. The worst part is, we are the killers. There are no heros in this game saving the day, we are the ones shooting up the school and it is kind of disturbing. When the game first starts I woke up in my room and got a CD by Marilyn Manson. First of all, quite an ironic play on words for a name, a mix of Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson. Two completely different people that hold a large spot in our nation's history. So after I get the CD, a screen pops up saying "You found a Marilyn Manson CD! The lyrics are sure to inspire impulsive agression and rage." To me, this was the developers just further playing into the whole thing. They were basically saying lets get amped up before we go kill a bunch of people. Then there is some other stuff and we are ready to embark. This part kind of gets me two because it shows a cutscene of them in the car, in real life. It furthers the emotions that are being played on because you see that these guys were actually real. It is a reminder that this isn't fiction. This actually happened and these two guys were real. It really makes you think more and more into the game. So then we finally get to the school and park in the parking lot (which I have to admit looks goofy with the pasted cars). I examine my trunk and grab the bomb, etc. Once we are in the school I figure, "oh! this is where it starts," but I was wrong. I had to go through some stealth mission, making sure that no one follows me and dodging security cameras. This is where I left off. The stealth mission was interesting because if you were them in real life, you would have to be super nervous in real life. People do become interested in you and if you get caught your goal is eventually ruined. This just furthers amps the emotions for what is surely to come.Mon, 28 May 2012 22:13:16 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4985&iddiary=9242https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4951For my third time playing the game, it was a lot different than the first two. For one, it really delves in to the gang violence aspect of the game and my hate for the guys in purple is a lot higher. Last time, I left off stopping the purple gang from killing my homies back in our territory. I started out by going to the red orb for a new mission called "Nines and AKs". I had to laugh at this because what better to add to the mix then some more guns. After listening to "motha fucka" said every other word in the cut scene (exaggeration, but it was a lot), Big Smoke and I went to meet up with our buddy Emmett to get some guns. We met him in the stereotypical back alley way and shot some bottles. After this, I obtained a trusty handgun (which I assume was a "nine"). I then went back to my hood and got a new mission called "drive bys". My homies and I then went outside where I was told to drive while they did the shooting. We then proceeded to go and do drive bys on multiple rival gang members, killing a good ten people. After all the drive bys were done with, I had magically earned myself two stars and had to outrun the cops. I was told to get to the paint-n-spray to get rid of my stars. I drove with all haste and got there while a cop was right outside. I I still went in, and when I came out the cops were leaving and my stars were gone! I started to laugh at how easy this was, so the monitor in the lab told me to try and get six stars and see what happens. I took his advice and started shooting cops/civilians and running into anything and everything. Sure enough the highest I reached was 4 stars before I was stopped by a SWAT barricade at about every street I drove on. I was then wasted and had to restart at the hospital. I tried the same thing right outside of the hospital and reached 3 stars before I was promptly owned by a helicopter. That about somes up the last leg of my adventure in this game. Justice is definitely apparent at points in this game, but then at others it is non-existent. I killed about ten people before I got one star. When the cops came, I killed only three and that immediately shot me up to 4 stars! I think this is more of a bug in the game than the design because when I stole car in front of a cop, I was "awarded" one star. I think this game is trying to implement some forms of justice by having cops chase you down and all, but at the same time it is telling you to waste people and outrun the cops. When you are arrested or wasted, you just wake up at the hospital and all is well. In real life, if I killed about 30 people, I don't think I would just wake up at the hospital. In the end though, it is just game. One thing that is really overlooked in this game is the sense of health, well-being, and family. The game implements an interesting way to make players eat and workout in order to stay in shape and regain health. I like this because it makes the game feel even more real. I mean who can just eat from the pizza parlor everyday and not workout and still look like CJ? The fact the game sort of "makes" you do this stuff is a good aspect added by the developers. The family aspect is another thing that I think is not looked at as much as violence and justice. It isn't your normal "family", but the gang and all of CJ's friends make a sort of foster family. The gang is all one big family and they look out for each other.Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:16:31 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4951&iddiary=9202https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4951I just got done playing my second round of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The main part I want to focus on this time is the violence aspect. So after I got my haircut, I had to go spray paint some buildings to show that this was my gangs territory. When I was spray painting my last thing, some guys came and I had to spray paint them and beat them up. When you spray paint them in the face, they choke for a bit and then they are fine. So the only thing I could think of doing was beating them up until they were down. Little did I know once they were down they weren't knocked down, they were dead (blood coming out everywhere). I found this kind of funny because I didn't think I would be able to kill two guys in about 5 punches each. So after I beat the last guy to death, a cop was walking by and saw me, and then I had two stars to my name (stars get cops to troll you, the more the merrier). After that a couple cops on motorcycles "wasted" me and I was at the hospital once again. I proceeded to leave the hospital and go on to the next mission (even though I killed the two, I still completed the last mission). The next mission was to go and check out a crack dealer. I was then prompted to go beat up the crack dealer, and after I beat him to death, I was awarded with bat. With my trusty bat in hand, I was prompted to go to the crack dealer's house and take out the guys inside. After I killed four rival gang members with my trusty bat, I proceeded to go back outside be attacked by some guys with uzis. Since I killed a random gangbanger before and picked up a gun from him, I took out all three of the guys with uzis. I was rewarded with an uzi and a bunch of cash and ammo. I then proceeded onto the next mission which was to go through the drive thru at some restaurant. Some rivals were on their way to smoke my homies, so I had to chase them down in my car and do some drive bys. When we stopped them finally, the rivals got out of their car and started shooting. I was then prompted to take out all rival members. So I got out of my car and killed all the other rivals. After this, I stopped playing for the day. Violence is prevails in this thirty minute section. In the matter of thirty minutes I was able to take out a slew of gang members. It almost seems like the violence is reinforced and presented to be a good thing. For one, you are protecting your fellow homies and cleaning up the street. Whenever you kill an innocent bystander or police officer, the police come after you. So only violence towards rival gang members is reinforced. Every time I killed a gang member, I was rewarded with their weapons and a load of cash. Got some more ammo to kill some more bad guys and when that happens I get more cash. So why wouldn't I want to kill some more rival gang members? It's like the developers want you to see this and killing anyone who isn't in green might come easy. Who doesn't love guns and ammo?Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:31:29 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4951&iddiary=9170https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4951This game is a legend is far as I am concerned. I used to play this back in the day when it first came out, and to play it again took me back. With that said, I notice a lot more ethical aspects of this game than I did when I was 13 or 14. Right in the beginning of the game, player was arrested for, I belive, drugs. The game starts out with you, presumably, getting out of jail and going back to your home. Now when I was 13, I probably had no clue what was going on and just thought to myself this is the start of shootin' some guns and stealing cars. When I played earlier, I realized that I am actually playing some drug dealer who is in a gang in San Andreas. The implications kind of hit me hard because I am now going against every ethical code I have learned in real life and playing some badass gang member in a video game. Now, I really have no problem if it is just a video game, but I asked myself should our morals affect what we do in a virtual reality as well as in reality? Do some people live in their gamespace and believe it is more than just the game? After I went back to my house, I met up with my fellow thugs and we started talking (one of the many narratives). The next thing I know, I am getting shot at by, what I'm assuming are, rival gang members. The prompts then told me to go and jump on a bike and escape. Now, why would I jump on a bike to escape some dudes in a car with a couple of uzis trying to kill me? For some reason that was the question I kept asking myself, especially after I hijacked a car to get away and it wouldn't let complete the mission if I wasn't on a bike (tears). The narratives and the characters in this game are really something else when looking at it from a more mature standpoint. One of the narratives had the "n" word every other word and the amount of swears was apparent. The characters on the other hand were classic, stereotypical gang-bangers. All the women that were displayed in my first session were either half naked prostitutes asking me for a good time when I bumped into them, or the ladies in the narratives were also skimply dressed. This begs the question, does sex sell, once again. After I went back and got my bike and completed the mission, I was able to continue on to the next mission which was getting a haircut. For some reason the leader of my gang didn't like the way my hair looked and I had to blow fifty dollars to get a new haircut. After that "mission" was complete, the next prompt told me I had to go eat some food or else my energy would go down. I thought one thing: seriously? It's a give in that I would probably not have eaten if not prompted (maybe get dehydrated or something), but if the developers are trying to teach us something here, it's something I have known for a while. Then when I finally bought my pizza, my bro walks in with a gun and tries to rob the place. Well this didn't go over too well when the cashier pulled a shotgun. The cashier proceeded to chase us out of the store and when I got in the car, I ran him over. Well, I felt my life was threatened and I had to do it right? Actually, no. I got two stars for that and the cops were on me as quick as a mouse. After fighting back, a cop hit me with his car and "wasted" me. My question here would be, why did the cop immediately start shooting at me? I was unarmed!?!? They didn't even ask questions, they just got out of their car and started shooting. It is things like these that I think can change peoples perceptions of justice, police, etc. This was as far as I reached in the first day of 30 minute gameplay. Race had a definitive presence in this game because just about everyone is the stereotypical black gang-banger. I feel like the developers are definitely feeding off the "norm" stereotypes. Everything that a black thug would say, they say. It is one of those things that developers feed off to connect and further feed those stereotypes. Throughout the different versions of GTA, correct me if I am wrong, there hasn't been a white guy as the main guy. In the latest, GTA IV, it is a Russian or Albanian male. There also is a gender issue here too. The main character is never a female, and all females that you interact with are either prostitutes or strippers.Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:19:04 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4951&iddiary=9168