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Sep 25th, 2011 at 23:53:57 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2) |
So this is day two of playing GTA San Andreas for PS2. Rather than wandering around aimlessly making my main character commit unethical acts (murder, violence, theft, etc.) I decided to try a mission. So I sent my character CJ to a friends house named Big Smoke. In a cut scene after you meet up with fellow gang members. One of your friends makes rude and insulting comments to a woman adding sexism to the long list of morally wrong themes that this game presents. CJ and his friends are shot at from a group of rival gang members in a drive by shooting. In order to successfully complete the mission so that you can move on to others you as a player are forced to participate in violent gang activity. You are rewarded with respect from fellow gang members when your character murders or messes with members of other gangs. This is yet another blatantly unethical stereotype that the game presents and forces upon you: many people from poor neighborhoods are involved in gangs. Something that struck me as disturbing was a side comment one of CJ's friends says upon seeing a new restaurant being built in the neighborhood. He says "why they gotta mess up the hood, making it look all clean and shit." I found this to be offensive because the game presents this opinion that poverty-stricken people enjoy living in rundown neighborhoods. To me this comment means to say that poor people want to be poor and not "all clean and shit", an idea I find to be extremely stereotypical and insulting.
Anyways, since the game is played in CJ's perspective as a gang member it forces you to be involved in gang activity which is portrayed by the game as being extremely violent. Not only are you rewarded by this behavior but it seems to be the entire point of the game. Is it morally permissible to allow a game that rewards violence, murder and theft to be sold and distributed to both children and adults? Many may argue that this is ethical because the players themselves are not committing these acts. Even so, how could a game that perpetuates absurd and blatant stereotypes ever be good? For me I cannot really find a point to this game and I don't enjoy playing it. However when a few friends of mine were playing they were enjoying it, laughing and having a great time. When I asked a friend of mine why he liked it he replied with "because it's not real". Though it's not real it still seems to condone and reward violent, criminal acts, something that I don't think should be morally permissible. To each his own I guess.
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Sep 24th, 2011 at 17:19:12 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2) |
I have never played Grand Theft Auto before this assignment. The first concern I had with the game was the blatant stereotype of the character you have to play with. You do not get to chose from a selection of characters but are instead forced to play with an African American male. This would not be an issue if the game's contents weren't so violent and morally wrong. It made me feel like this game is perpetuating a stereotype that African Americans live in poverty stricken neighbors and turn to violence and theft as a daily lifestyle. By eliminating the option to choose the ethnicity and gender of the main character, the game forces upon the player their idea of what it's like to be this ethnicity within the realm of the game.
So I began riding my bike around trying to figure out what I should do. Being that that game is called GTA I decided to steal some cars. When you steal a car, your character yanks the person out of their car saying things like "Lady, it's nothing personal" or "Get out of the car before you get jacked". He then steals their car and drives away. This is morally wrong both in reality and within the game itself since cops chase after you the whole time. You can run people over with your car, kill innocent people on the street, steal their money and possessions all the while your character taunts them.
I realized that you need money to buy things like houses or food and an easy way to get money is by stealing it from people I beat up on the streets. Not only is hurting innocent people morally wrong but the game goes so far as to reward you with stolen money when you beat people up. Basically the only way that I found that I could complete missions was to commit crimes which is all this game really seems to be about; the game seems to value crime.
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LTravers has been with GameLog for 12 years, 6 months, and 25 days |
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