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Sunday 5 October, 2008
Today, for my final GTA: San Andreas gamelog, I decided to depart from the central narrative and try something a little different.
For my 30 minutes, I decided to see what would happen, and how entertaining it would be, if I made CJ an entirely moral agent.
The rules were as follows: I could not do anything that would be considered morally wrong at all. This included stealing (cars, money, guns, etc.), killing (even if fired upon), or preforming any action that would be otherwise considered unlawful. Also, for this self-imposed challenge, I considered all resources previously acquired during game play to be fair game. This included about $20,000, a bicycle, and a car.
I began my day by going for a walk, to really enjoy my new, moral life in San Andreas. I walked for quite sometime, all the way downtown, to the mountains, and beyond. After walking back, I hopped on my bike and rode into town. I went shopping, exercised, got a haircut, a new tattoo. During all of this, I began to get bored of riding a bike, so I trekked home and hopped into my car. I drove towards the downtown area, being careful to observe all rules of the road (sans speed limit, obviously) and maintain the flow of traffic, after stopping for lunch at Chicken Hut, I got a bit overzealous, took a turn too fast, and accidentally knocked a police officer off of his motorcycle. This action earned me a star. I accepted that what I did was wrong and let the police officer arrest me. Unfortunately, this left me stranded at the police station without any means of returning home, as stealing a car would be morally unacceptable. After walking home, I tried to think of something else to fill my time, but as there was no way for me to acquire a legitimate job in an effort to reintegrate myself as a productive society of San Andreas, I decided that I had seen enough.
Overall, playing this game with the goal of being a moral agent is both difficult and boring. While trying to do this, I ultimately came to the conclusion that this game was not meant to be played morally whatsoever. Without the ability to steal a car, I couldn't effectively get around. Without being able to act immorally, I couldn't accept jobs from my fellow gang member, moreover, when I was shot at by rival gang member, I ran away; killing them would be immoral as well. Its interesting what all of this implies. CJ, by joining a gang and deciding to live his life outside of the social norms, is essentially distanced from society itself. He cannot get a normal job as he most certainly has a criminal record, not to mention a reputation as a gangster in most locations inside of San Andreas that prevents him from doing so. I found myself asking, why someone would decide to live like this? CJ's life is in constant jeopardy. Everyday could very well be his last.
The last question to ask, given what has been determined, would be why would a producer/developer make a game where being entirely moral is nearly impossible? I can answer that question with a question of my own, why would a producer/developer make a game where all you could do is be moral? Isn't that game called life? Some people may argue that this game influences violent behavior, that it glorifies it, however, I would actually argue the opposite. Games like this give a semi-accurate portrayal of what life would be like on the other side. We see how hard CJ's life is on a day to day basis, like I said, each day could potentially be his last. At the end of the day, all the blood that has been spilt, the money and cars that have been stolen rests on CJ's conscience. Games like these don't glorify behavior like this, they show the mass public how terrible it would be to live like this.
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