Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=965https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3658The overall gameplay of SCMRPG! is an odd mix of 16-bit graphics and the use of digital photographs for the characters and actual pictures of the school for backdrops during the battle sequences (where you fight Jocks, Janitors, all the stereotypical social castes of students). Most of the people at school don't put up much of a fight because Eric and Dylan are armed with guns, but there are a variety of hand to hand weapons available to use as well. Apparently their armament selection is heavily based on what the shooters actually used in the killing spree, however unlike the actual shooting, the player doesn't have to stop at 13 if they feel like power leveling in the next, far more surreal section of the game. After the double suicide the player is treated a montage of clips featuring their corpses, students comforting each other and then a few childhood photos of the school shooters which leaves the player to ponder "what the hell went so wrong?" if the flashbacks weren't enough to answer the question. Post-death takes place in a fantasy world where Eric and Dylan get to live out an RPG rendition of their favorite game: Doom. One could infer that this fixation on a fantasy world could have lead to such a corruption of their minds that killing is the answer to all life's problems, but I'm not Jack Thompson so I won't automatically peg that as the sole reason. The Isle of Lost Souls is rife with symbolism, fictional characters (like Pikachu) and real life personalities such as Malcolm X and John Lennon. The last collection quest of the game is to deliver a copy of "Ecce Homo" to Friedrich Nietzsche just before fighting Satan. This is especially significant since that book was Nietzsche's egotistical critique of his works and why he wrote what he did, reflecting Eric and Dylan's idea that this shooting was the greatest event of their lives. It should also be noted that "Ecce Homo" was Nietzsche's last work before his descent into madness. After defeating Satan, he congratulates the pair on their evil deeds, giving an oddly happy ending for the two. Although they show scenes from the Columbine Press Conference afterwords I was hoping the developer would take time to show the afterlife plight of the victims, possibly even switching perspectives from Eric and Dylan to the slain students and maybe even a final RPG battle to the tune of FFVI's "Dancing Mad" where you select a party of four students to fight Eric, Dylan and Satan.Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:20:27 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3658&iddiary=6845https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3658The games soundtrack was an interesting point of examination and critique for me. It mostly features popular industrial and post grunge bands on the day such as Nirvana ("Smells Like Teen Spirit" is played on Eric's stereo when examined), Radiohead, KMFDM, Marilyn Manson, Rammstein and Smashing Pumpkins. Some of the songs were from bands the character's actually liked and set the grim tone quite well for the school shooting. Notably, lyrics from KMFDM's "Son of a Gun" are displayed as the two ride to school and it appears that the two championed the song's ethos for anarchy. The claim is that an anarchic state is where everyone is equal by the rule of a gun, and rejects the established order, which through flashbacks shows the pair getting thoroughly screwed by thanks to common high school bullying of the nerdy kids. At the risk of sending up some red flags, I can actually relate to these guys fairly well on the bullying aspect and a fascination with the macabre. The difference, however, is that they just let these obstacles in life get to them too much and spent far too much time seething over it and plotting out retribution. I decided to join my theater troupe where I found a community of fellow outcasts and ended up liking life a great deal. Someone get these guys a Dungeons and Dragons club or something. The remainder of the soundtrack (especially Marilyn Manson) could be an attempt at satire on the part of the developer, since the ensuing press conferences tried to blame the event on shock rock instead of looking at the heart of the issue, which is these kids having too much time to brood after getting picked on in school.Sun, 22 Feb 2009 16:59:07 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3658&iddiary=6843https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3658So since my last post got deleted for some unknown reason I'm gonna have to start from scratch. The beginning portions of Super Columbine Massacre take place in the protagonist's, Eric/Reb (?) house. The first thing I did was hit up Eric's partner in crime, Dylan/Vodka who said that he was coming over after Eric gathered all the materials (read, bombs). After looking through some of Eric's favorite things (Doom, Nirvana, anti-depressants that barred him from the Marines and KMFDM, angsty violence ahoy!) I proceeded to the basement to find a deeper look at the characters' psyches, but not before seeing a nice in-game joke about Marilyn Manson will be blamed for this despite the characters not liking his music. A flashback after examining a pizza box shows the pair experimenting with high explosives probably about a year or two ago. Eric was doing well in his job, being promoted in it and planning to join the Marine's to not let his Air Force vet father down. I couldn't identify which movie was in the TV, but it seemed to sum up the ethos of the two main characters in that the best soldier isn't a complete nihilist, but he uses the love of his family and friends to give him the drive to kill without compassion or remorse...seems only slightly messed up, but we're talking Columbine here. That scene is punctuated by the pair's final video recording, which they're doing for posterity since this is "the greatest event of their lives". It's interesting to note that despite Dylan's insistence that this is payback for all that the duo have been through in the past four years, Eric expresses a sincere wish that none of his family and friends come under fire for what they're about to do. He even says that his parents are the best ever, or something to that effect. To be honest, these guys don't seem that bad, pre-killing, it makes me wonder why they feel its such a necessary duty that they blow up the school.Sun, 22 Feb 2009 16:16:53 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3658&iddiary=6840https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3557For my final entry I decided to start by gauging the game's AI and what type of message it sent out. To do this I used the tried and true tactic of "lets see what happens when I shoot innocent bystanders in the head, in broad daylight, on a crowded street". In affluent commercial areas the most common effect my killing spree had was that everybody panicked and ran for their lives, which was a poor move since I was in a Jeep at the time. More to the point, I needed to vacate the premises quickly since waiting around would make CJ have to deal with scads of police officers. Although the wealthier citizens of San Andreas ran for their lives, this wasn't true of all citizens. Under bridges, one can sometimes find gang members hanging out and doing what they do best: loitering. If there's one law that must be followed in San Andreas, its no loitering, and the penalty is death. Taking out my shotgun, I blasted one of the members in the chest assuming the others would run. Instead, the gang members opened fire with weapons of their own and while it didn't save them it did knock off a good chunk of my health. It's comforting to know that the game's AI counts for both the flight and fight survival mechanism. That last paragraph touched upon stereotypes ever so slightly in the sense that gang members shoot back but most ordinary citizens don't. After a bit more rampaging in the game I found a few other notable stereotypes. First, the women that you talk to most often are dumb as rocks, granted its mostly just CJs girlfriend and the hookers he's pimping out, but c'mon Rockstar, can't we at least have one ho thats saving up for med school? Second, the police response time is significantly longer in the more dilapidated areas of the city, which sounds like a great place to wreck some havoc, however the Hispanic and African-American dominated 'hoods have a much higher likelihood that bystanders will be carrying weapons and will shoot back if you get up in their grill. I can't believed I managed to get through three entries without stating the obvious moral deficiency that the best way to get ahead in the game is to kill people, take their money and steal cars.Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:46:46 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3557&iddiary=6708https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3557Thankfully I got my urge to play morally out of the way the first time around because from here on out its maximum carnage. Despite GTA's reputation for lawlessness, there are certain statutes that CJ simply cannot break, those being the natural laws of physics and thank God for that. After stealing an awesome red sports car, I decided to put these laws to the test by hitting up some jumps. Unless CJ has the proper speed and car orientation, these jumps can be disastrous for his health, flying through the air into a tree will throw CJ from the vehicle and send him tumbling onto the street, taking off a bit of health for each impact on the concrete, or grass if the jump took him to a park. Based on this information, I assumed that jumping off of tall buildings would be fatal and I was right, as long as its five stories or higher. With full health he actually walked away from a four story plummet into an alleyway, but there were some discarded trash bags to break his fall...so at least some natural laws held up in this game. I realize I said last time that I was done with moral activity in San Andreas, but there were some missions in the game where CJ isn't all bad. You actually have a mission in an Ambulance where you drive injured citizens to the hospital. This gets pretty hectic at higher levels, which is a good thing since it rewards the player for staying focused on helping out sick people instead of taking detours to run over loiterers on the side walk or shooting at police cars. However my personal favorite "moral" mission was the vigilante one, since it allowed me to use the fun aspects of the game, such as shooting at people, for the good of the citizens of San Andreas by shutting criminals down, never mind the hypocrisy that after the mission was over I blew up a gas station.Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:32:33 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3557&iddiary=6704https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3557GTA is a game that has been oft lambasted by the mainstream media as being too violent and sending a bad message to children, plus there was that whole "Hot Coffee fiasco" as well. Actually, on the topic of that, I decided to have my first run in the game to be performing activities that would be viewed as acceptable to the general public...for future reference, this was the shortest run of the game. Buying things of street vendors and actually being a good citizen is one of the least rewarding and most boring things one can do in this game. The only thing mildly interesting was going on a date with CJ's girlfriend then taking her back to her house to bang, unfortunately that lost any appeal after Rockstar was forced to re-release the game without the hot coffee mod. Not that I get my rocks off on pixelated porn, but it sure beats not hitting people with cars, stopping at red traffic lights and resisting the urge to steal really nice rides. I don't think Kant would like this game, because there's definitely no reason to follow his "oughts" regarding...well anything that involves murder, larceny and sexual harassment. The other thing "legal" and "moral" that a person can do in GTA is to accessorize CJ, introducing a few RPG elements to the game. However, instead of armor and magic bonuses, giving CJ the appropriate "bling" and tattoos will increase his street cred and illicit various reactions from his girlfriend (better make sure that stuff is complementary or no sex for you). Another one of the few, yet important legal activities in the game is eating. CJ has to eat healthy in this game otherwise he won't be able to run as fast or be as effective a swimmer or hand-to-hand fighter. This is the moment where I feel Rockstar is really reaching out to send a positive message to the kids. "Hey Junior, be sure to eat a balanced diet with fruits and veggies, not just cheeseburgers. Then you too can wantonly slaughter innocents and police officers with great effect!"Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:13:12 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3557&iddiary=6700