Monday 25 October, 2010

I’m going to first start off by saying that the Columbine shootings had a big effect on me because I lived in Colorado at the time of the shootings. Although my middle school was about two hours away, it was still extremely frightening for me to be so close to something so tragic. For the most part, I have gotten over this incident and playing this game wasn’t too hard for me, but it’s hard to ignore what had really taken place.
When I first started playing the game and I was asked to walk around to gather the “goods” one thing stood out to me. I was wandering around the basement, when I came up to a Marilyn Manson album. When I tried to pick it up, a message came up and it made comments suggesting that music like this got them angry, and in a mood to kill. This was interesting to me because I enjoy some of Mansons music, and I never once got angry, or thought about killing someone, or even hurting anyone. Another gameplay aspect that was interesting to me was when you are wondering the halls in the school, and the hall monitors are trying to talk to you. When they catch up to you, they make comments about how you are dressed in a long, black trench coat, and that you look suspicious to them. You immediately fail the mission, and are forced to restart. Basically, the game is saying if you wear long black trench coats, you are a dangerous person.
Up to this point in the game, I have not endangered anyone yet, so my next play through I will be actually causing violence.

"Basically, the game is saying if you wear long black trench coats, you are a dangerous person."

Is the game saying that, or is that also commentary on the media outcry? I remember a lot of news items about how schools were starting to ban trenchcoats!