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Apr 18th, 2010 at 17:14:37 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) |
Continuing on with my experiences and reflections playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, I was able to come across a couple of positive aspects of the game (or at least they served as a more benevolent change of pace in game play overall.) One is that you may engage in exercising at the gym, something that could be of positive reinforcement in one way or another. This does, however, increase CJ’s ability to fight and punch more powerfully, lending itself back to violence. Additionally, one may also bike and swim and shop for clothes. These types of extracurriculars present in the game are to me, a perfectly viable option to exercise if one wishes to avoid inadvertent running over and killing people in the street, or to prevent senseless shooting in public places when bored. I think this is important because when a young teen is given a firearm (in the game) and ammo, typically their first inclination is to start shooting and killing others. When given a car, they might be inclined to run over everyone in sight (or in my case find it difficult to avoid running innocent bystanders over.) However, I think that the ability to bike, swim, run and exercise are all important aspects of the game in that they offer the player a choice – choices that could be maneuvered in a way to promote morality. For instance, swimming or running or biking to a destination although not as fun, would be an alternative means of getting there and it is much more unlikely that you will kill anyone while engaging in any of the three (you could still drown while swimming though!)
Another observation I had while playing a mission to take over some gang territory on the other side of town was that one is given the opportunity to surrender to police when in close proximity to them. This means that the police will typically refrain from shooting you at point blank range if you remain motionless when they are in pursuit of you. I think this also offers a choice to the game player insofar as you are committing a crime thus engaging the police to come after you, however you are in no way obligated to further that crime by shooting down police officers – although you can. With that said, I found myself opting out of killing the officers once they had me cornered mid-mission, and I instead let myself get “busted.” This is interesting because this game is seemingly so morally and ethically open-ended. You may find yourself in a mission and presented with the opportunity to keep killing and try to get away, or go down without a fight and get released from jail a few hours later minus money and weapons. Why then, did I and many other people I played this game with in the past opt to shoot it out with the police? The game wasn’t actually making us do it. I wouldn’t even say the game was encouraging it. The game simply facilitated a hypothetical environment in which I had a choice, it just so happened that my choice (especially when I played this game as a seventeen year old) was almost consistently in favor of more violence and an “evade the law” mentality. I wonder why this is a seemingly common inclination among so many youths?
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Apr 18th, 2010 at 15:26:35 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) |
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Well needless to say, playing this game really brings me back. Even back when I used to play it a lot about five years ago, I could never wrap my head around how a game as suggestive, violent, with such brutal undertones such as this one could be released. Don’t get me wrong I loved playing it, but it was always sort of a guilty pleasure since some of the themes of the game are truly ridiculous and even semi-absurd. One thing that always surprises me about this game is the totally laissez faire approach in both the dialogue and the game play with regards to gang mentality, territory and the pursuit of $$$ at literally any cost. Perhaps herein lies the bulk of the allure surrounding this game, as one may cruise the streets of San Andreas listening to rap music then get a bite to eat, or go to a rival gang’s territory and do some drive by shootings. This is truly insane, almost laughable, that L2 and R2 actually serve as the drive by shooting buttons.
Anyways, refreshing myself on how to play this game I realized that the game player cannot really have ethics or morality insofar as to follow the missions as prescribed almost always entails shooting and killing others, running innocent bystanders over with cars, or blowing things up. As a result of these activities my character is compensated with money and respect. In retrospect, back when I used to play this game in high school I was purely taking it for face value. I never really gave much thought to the artificial reality of senseless killing and brutality that is pretty much endless in this game. Is this good or is this bad? One could argue that the ability to simulate you are driving around causing havoc killing people without looking back could maybe vent stresses or other potentially violent behaviors. However, at the same time one could argue that such simulation might purely exacerbate those behaviors and potentially distort one’s sense of what is right or wrong, ethical or unethical.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Apr 18th, 2010 at 15:26:54.
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