Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1557https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4999In my third and final play-through and response, I will focus more on the “violent” aspects of the game as I feel that by my third play-through I’ve engaged enough of it to properly write my opinion about it. When I originally was able to encounter other students and kill them in game, I was expecting it to be taken more realistically, but I was a bit surprised it was much into the J-RPG vein. Not only so, I thought the number of students I was able to kill, in a way took away meaning from the actual tradegy as it didn’t really “personalize” the students you killed, they were only given simple labels such as “Jock” and “Popular Girl”. Personally, I believe if the creator of the game was attempting to get people to really think about the game he would have portrayed the events a bit more realistically and controversially by making the slayings more realistic, as opposed to slaying countless numbers of “faceless” students. Throughout the game, I was looking for something that add more meaning in context of the shooting, but I felt disappointingly as If I found none. My disappointment was taken further when I was playing the shooter in “hell” after he committed suicide. I noticed the enemies and weapons were modeled after “DooM”, possibly being another satirical reference to the desensitization to violence videogames are purported to have, but in all I didn’t really take away much of it, it was only a speculation to me. I didn’t finish the game, but I really thought the hell scenario was the game’s biggest low point, as I felt the game was originally onto something when it was providing a narrative from the shooter’s perspective in the beginning. But disappointingly, in my opinion, any seriousness the creator may have tried to portray in this game was completely thrown out the window towards the end of the game when you’re hunting down the likes of Bart Simpson and Darth Vader, essentially trivializing the deaths of all the students you shot earlier before. If there was a meaning to “Super Columbine Massacre RPG”, I’m afraid I’ve failed to find it. If the game’s only purpose was to drum up controversy, I think it was successful, but on all other accounts, in my opinion, the game lacked artist merit. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Tue, 29 May 2012 22:44:52.)Tue, 29 May 2012 22:44:06 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4999&iddiary=9261https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4999In my first response, I haven’t had the chance to write about scenes at the school as I was more focused on the narrative given in the beginning of the game, but in my second play-through I was able to take part in the more controversial aspects of the game. But before, I write about just that, I thought it was also worth mentioning that the game’s soundtrack seems to be accompanied by MIDI representations of 90s grunge rock, KFDM, and Marilyn Manson, sorts of music, which I recall were blamed in part for the shooting. I’m unsure of the creator’s motive for putting these into the game, but I believe it might have to do with the media stereotyping that took place afterwards the shooting, which accused this sort of music for playing a responsibility for the shootings, in the same way DOOM and other violent videogames have done. When I found myself at the school’s parking lot, I was expecting this game to be quite simple and straightforward actually, but I was taken back at the unexpected complexities in the game. For instance, I couldn’t even make it towards the cafeteria to plant the bombs, as I was unaware of the cameras monitoring the hallways. So, it took me quite a bit more trial and error to progress through. But from this I came to realization that maybe the creator chose to make the events leading up to shooting a bit dragged out to get the player to focus on the narrative instead of the game’s shock value, that and by having these scenes lengthened more than I expected I was more drawn into what the shooters were about to commit. For instance, when the shooters are unpacking the duffle-bags filled to weapons and the player sees real-life pictures of the guns used to kill students in the shooting, it put a sense of severity and drama into the situation when juxtaposed to the cartoony graphics of the game, for me this scene just felt “powerful” and made my gut wrench a bit knowing that I was about to partake in the shooting. I found my emotion to this strange actually, considering I’d consider myself normally desensitized to videogame violence but I think the creator’s decision to “climax” the shooting, has made it very effective in getting a response from me.Tue, 29 May 2012 22:43:17 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4999&iddiary=9260https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4999I wasn’t quite sure what to think as I was booting up “Super Columbine Massacre RPG” for the first time. I’ve have heard of discussion about this game outside of class before, but I never really thought about playing it, so I was a little curious just to see how the game portrayed the Columbine shootings. The first that struck me about this game was that it was made in “Game-maker” and from my first glances it didn’t even look to be like an impressive “game-maker” game at that, but then as soon I began interacting with objects in one of the shooter’s room, I realized that the creator of this game was more-so interested in portraying the game in a sort of narrative leading up to the events of the Columbine massacre. While I was still in Eric’s bedroom I noticed that it seemed like the creator of the game was interjecting his own commentary in the game, for instance if the player interacts with the copy of “DOOM” in the bedroom there is a text remark about how “DOOM” supposedly desensitized them to violence. I originally thought of this game as a sort of “elaborate-troll” given the setting of the game, but seeing that text-field about “DOOM” made me realize that this was going to be more a social commentary, possibly geared towards the effects of violent videogames and making satire out of them as “murder simulators”. Another interesting thing I found out early about the game was that the creator decided to humanize Eric and Dylan, rather than immediately portray them as monsters as the media has done. I noticed that when the player enters Eric’s basement the creator of the game inserted narrative that humanized the two to an extent. For instance, one of the shooters remarked about how he wanted to become a Computer Science major in college, in another instance the two bitterly looked back at the bullying they faced throughout their lives, and in final instance they make a video apologizing to their parents for the actions they were about to take. All of this so far and I haven’t even as the player fired a shot, so it certainly seems like this game has some sort of message, though one that I believe haven’t clearly found, I can only speculate.Tue, 29 May 2012 22:42:54 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4999&iddiary=9259https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4968The first thing I noticed about "Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas" was that the character was black. I've been usually accustomed to playing as a white character who had heroic qualities, because this is how most games present the protagonist/main character. The character in "San Andreas" on the other hand felt a bit more "interesting" in some regards simply because he was just an ordinary black male, he didn't seem to have any heroic or extraordinary qualities. The only other thing in his character that stood out to me was that he had bit of an urban distinction to him. The character wore a wifebeater and low-sagging jeans which exposed his boxers, attire I suppose that was meant to mimic LA streetwear in the 90s. The character's voice would also seem to match this theme as "CJ" speaks noticeably in a black vernacular tone, when I put the two together It just seems like Rockstar's way of illustrating that "CJ" is from the "hood". Besides the character being an urban black male, I was also surprised as to how quickly race was brought up in the game. I believe less than five minutes into the game you hear the words "greaseball bastard" and "stupid Mexican". In the game's first cutscene, we see that CJ arrives from "Liberty City" upon news that his mother died. During the cab ride home, a squad car pulls the cab over and the officers yank CJ from the back-seat and put him in the back of their squad car. The officers at this point have been depicted as blatantly corrupt, no surprise though for someone whose played previous "Grand Theft Auto" games. If I remember, one of the officers was white, another latino, and the ringleader, black. I felt like noting this because I remember in "Grand Theft Auto 3" the corrupt policemen were often stereotyped as of being from Irish descent. The officers who took CJ into their car, also stole his money, threatened him that if he were to complain they could always claim it as "drug money" and that they'd have no problem planting a murder weapon on him if he stepped out of line. I think from this scene Rockstar was trying to illustrate that CJ comes from a disadvantaged position, and that being a urban black male attracts unscrumpulus police attention. I feel like this could have possibly been a race "issue" that Rockstar was trying to bring up when they created this scene. After this encounter CJ gets dropped off in what was called as "baller" territory. I found out that neighborhood belonged to a rival gang that CJ once belonged in. As I walked around the neighborhood the game immersed my feeling of being in the wrong place as I had "ballers" come up to me and demand what street I was representing. I'm not sure if there was an option to respond to them and they didn't do anything to me afterwards, but I thought gameplay-wise this was a nice little feature to immerse the player.Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:07:00 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4968&iddiary=9191https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4968In my first log I explored the beginning cut scenes and the image of the character. In this log I'll explore the world of "San Andreas". I was playing the game on the PC and there seems to be some control issues, or bugs rather with player movement preventing me from doing things like aiming and shooting. So I decided rather than jump in the game and it's missions which will inevitably require me to perform these actions, I thought I'd rather take a car and explore "San Andreas". The first thing I noticed about the area around me was that it belonged to a rival gang. I briefly wrote about this in my last log, that I felt unwelcome in the area because the gang members who walked the street would demand my affiliation and make threats towards me. I noticed while driving in the area, that the best way I thought to describe it was simply as a "ghetto". The areas just looked like they were in despair and there was very visible gang activity in the area. I noticed while driving that there were three gangs. The Ballers, who wore purple, Grove street, who wore green and were more friendly towards me than the Ballers and lastly an unknown gang made up of Hispanics. They were very visible to me, as they fit the media portrayal of a Hispanic gang-banger spot on in my opinion. All of the Hispanics in the game I've seen so far had full arm tattoos and wore wifebeaters, when they were in a car it was usually a low-rider convertible or low-rider pickup truck with spoke rims. When I stole one of their lowrider convertibles, I found out to my amusement just when I thought every stereotype was played out I found out that car was also equipped with hydraulics. Playing the game at a greater length , I remembered why the media and a few select but very vocal individuals demonize the game to such an extent. The killing that can be done in the game, can be done without reason and the types of people that can the player can kill is almost limitless, women and senior citizens aren't safe. Although other games can be just as violent or even more-so, they're usually in a warzone so to speak. The people being killed are armed enemy combatants who'd gladly kill you before you can kill them. In the "Grand Theft Auto" games the people you can kill are usually just civilians, who will often shriek in horror as you fire upon them. I think this difference between "GTA" and most other games that put a player in a warzone so to speak, is what has some critics dubbing the game as a "murder simulator".Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:06:13 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4968&iddiary=9190https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4968For my final entry for "San Andreas" I decided to explore the morality of the game. I think writing this, might sound silly to a lot of people as the game is often criticized for being devoid of all morals. I wouldn't necessarily disagree with this statement, on my third play-through I tried to look at the game through a more ethical standpoint but that search hasn't led me to any solid ground. I haven't come across any real moral dilemmas in the game, as the game's missions often leave you little choice but to gun down everyone who gets in your way. Other things the game might reward you for doing would also include stealing and spraying graffiti on walls, again something that people might criticize from a moral standpoint. Though I found this to be certainly not the case, for instance when the player is in a firetruck, ambulance, or squad car, CJ can help the inhabitants of San Andreas by performing good deeds like putting out fires or driving people to the hospital and in fact they even get rewarded for it! (Nevermind that you have to steal the ambulance, firetruck, or squad car in the first place). A lot of critics of the game have argued that Rockstar encourages poor moral behavior in the "GTA" games, but those same people maybe neglecting to mention that the developers created the game to "reward" positive actions as well. Although there's a lot of violent behavior in the game that would have moralists shaking their heads, if you consider the game from a relativist perspective then CJs actions might not seem as unethical as they would appear. The killing, stealing, and general unlawful behavior CJ undertakes is done for his gang. If you consider things from a relativist perspective, CJ's gang is his family and his actions were justifiable because they were made out of concern for the well-being of his fellow gang-members. In the seedier neighborhoods of San Andreas it would seem like people getting gunned down is just an everyday event, so from a relativist viewpoint it might be debatable that a few people getting killed is just a consequence for the things CJ needs to do for gang to survive. In my previous entry, I wrote how I found the neighborhood CJ lives in to be in despair, when I explored the game further I thought "wow" the neighborhood near the "Vinewood" sign, which I took to be inspired by Beverly Hills as feeling like a totally different world, even though the drive between CJs neighborhood and Vinewood was only about five minutes. When I stepped out my car to explore the area, there were of course no gang-members shooting me on sight, neither did any of the people passing by make any threats against me. Taking this into account, it would make it seem like from a relativist point of view CJs actions are justifiable because in a sense he lives in a different world. In his world, violence is just an everyday occurrence and the things he does to "protect" his family might need to be judged in a different manner when viewing things from a relativist perspective.Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:05:49 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4968&iddiary=9189