Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1048https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3813After awhile of playing, the game got really boring and monotonous. I was tired of wandering around killing pixelated children, the meaning of which had mostly worn off as I had to start healing the guys with hotdogs and antidepressants. I couldn't figure out what to do, so I had to check out the game creator's forums just to find out I had to check some window in the library. The two guys get into a gun fight with the cops and then commit suicide after complaining that all they wanted to do was get off the "sick fucking world." Then actual pictures of the event are shown, including the bloody bodies of Eric and Dylan. Despite it being rather boring, I think this game walked the line - sucessfully - between being close to its source material and being an artistic expression of what the two gunmen's mindset was on the day of the attack. I wasn't really horrified at all by the gameplay as it was rather gamey and definitely exaggerated and partially based on conjecture. In the end, I think the game pulled off showing the depths of the two guys' depravity and deragement. Of course, everything I just said doesn't really apply to what occurs after the shootout. After the slideshow of photos, a line from Dante's Inferno shows up and then a hellish landscape appears with Vodka looking around for his fellow killer, his class changed from "Trench Coat Mafia" to "Demon God." The enemies here look like they came from Doom, a game that the boys talked about quite a lot previously. This part of the game is a lot harder than the previous, real-world portion, and seems tacked on just because the author felt like it. There's a part where you find a bunch of characters (including some video game characters) complaining about how God didn't like them or they did some evil things or didn't worship Jesus etc so now they're in hell. Eventually they watch the events after their death unfold while hanging out with Satan... It was somewhat interesting to see the priest say that the killers were possessed by Satan, but in the end I think the game's author went too far into fantasy with the final part. Honestly, due to all the power the boys get and the philosophizing they do with Friedrich Nietzsche in this final stage, I started to question whether the author saw some truth to the futility of life that the two killers spoke of earlier in the game.Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:49:11 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3813&iddiary=7165https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3813After an annoying sequence where the two must avoid detection while planting bombs in the cafeteria (bumping into any students or walking in front of surveillance cameras forces you to start over), and then seeing the bombs fail to detonate, the killing begins. The combat is a pretty standard RPG Maker affair (RPG Maker being the software used to make this game), but the difference - of course - is that this game is based on actual events and combat involves spraying bullets at unarmed children. Needless to say, it carries with it the uncomfortable feeling that I as the player am somehow participating in the terrible events of that day. After this, I find what the two guys said in a recording back in the house at the beginning incredibly hard to believe. Apparently they have remorse, like their parents, nobody but themselves are to blame - and yet they contradict themselves and claim the kids at school have driven them to this bloody end and hope they can kill everybody. Obviously this game is working along these lines: It allows the player to kill any person they see. I can only imagine how much more disconcerting this game would be if it were a first-person shooter... Looking at everyone else's comments, I can see how some people might think whoever made this game might be some kind of sociopath or just a sicko. I don't think that is the case, however. The game is an informative look at the minds of the perpetrators of the killing, who were without a doubt sociopaths. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:39:10.)Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:34:48 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3813&iddiary=7161https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3813I had never heard of this game before now, but as I began to play it, the strange and terrible events of the Columbine Shooting were put into a harsh, unflinching light. The game started for me on a poignant note, with Eric phoning Dylan upon waking up. They speak of the grave importance of the day – the “big day.” Then Vodka begins wondering what people will say after they go through with their plot. Eric laughs, guessing more gun laws will appear and those close to them will be blamed. Eric claims “they all deserve to die for all the shit they put us through.” Dylan seems to believe that he isn’t fully human, commenting that in his “human form, knowing that [he] is going to die, everything has a touch of triviality to it.” Dylan’s remark is oddly striking, suggesting that human life – as opposed to whatever he believes is his true existence - is pointless. Perhaps that is why they throw morality to the wayside during the events to come. Labeling human life as pointless and trivial is an easy way to ignore the significance of hurting other people. Another interesting facet of the early parts of the game are the various big-name media that Eric comes across in his house, all being flouted as promoting a desensitized view of violence almost in a mocking way. The author of the game most likely thinks those connections to the massacre were ignorantly made.Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:44:18 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3813&iddiary=7133https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3785After playing through much of the early missions - stealing weapons and other stuff for Ryder, murdering Ballas to please Sweet's desire for vengeance, and making sure CJ's sister is safe hanging out with mexican gangsters called the Vagos, the game begins to introduce what turns out to be the catalyst for CJ and the rest of the Grove Street gangsters' misfortunes: greed. The corrupt cop Tenpenny and his goons, who make up a supposedly anti-drug/anti-gang arm of the police called C.R.A.S.H. (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums), begin pushing their way into the business of the Los Santos Families, suspiciously hanging around Big Smoke's and Ryder's houses. Later, Tenpenny forces CJ into particpating in some major crimes. First, they have CJ kill "another gangbanging, drug-pushing, cop-killing bitch, just like" himself by setting a building on fire with molotov cocktails, and then they making him stop a gun sale between some Ballas and some Russians. The dirty work for C.R.A.S.H. is then followed by a few missions for Sweet, first taking over some territory and then killing some Ballas at a fallen Balla's funeral. During this scene, CJ at first protests the obviously unethical idea of murdering people mourning a friend, despite their status as enemy. However, he soon relents and they go off and kill a bunch of rival gangsters. An interesting fact about this mission - one that ties into my previous observations of Tenpenny and his goons - is that the info about the funeral came from Tenpenny. It is obvious that he is trying to foment chaos among the families and profit from it. Later, after a big firefight with some SWAT soldiers during what what meant to be a reuiniting of the Families, CJ learns of the betrayal of Big Smoke and Ryder: and that the car that participated in the drive-by that killed CJ's mother belongs to Big Smoke. Tenpenny and the Ballas are allied with Big Smoke, all in name of greed. Drugs are big money, and they checked their morals at the door in order to pursue money and power. Soon after discovering the truth, CJ is captured by C.R.A.S.H. and dumped out in the middle of nowhere with another mission. During this scene, the idea of loyalty - which I still believe is the core ideal of this game - is discussed by Tenpenny: "Homies for life? Street loyalty? That's all bullshit, Carl. Didn't you learn that when they ran you out of town, just 'cause you let Brian die?" He trashes CJ's ideal of loyalty... to Tenpenny, there's no loyalty without power.Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:30:58 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3785&iddiary=7115https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3785After playing more of the game, CJ's view of the world has become more tangible to me. He sees the current state of Los Santos - where families once united now are fractured and in a state of constant violent tension. The prevalence of crack cocaine in the 'hood has led to old gangbangers' ambivalence towards their old ideals of brotherhood. Even CJ's mother was a victim to the disentigration of the old guard: she died in what was meant to be a hit on CJ's brother, Sweet. The perpetrator is still unknown to the all-but-disappeared Grove Street gangsters. CJ's reaction to all of this further cements his (and by extension, the game's) closeminded approach to situations. He and his allies begin striking back at their local enemies, the Ballas. First, they cover nearby Balla tags with their own graffiti. Then, CJ and Ryder, upon seeing the depths of helplessness crack can send a person (an old homie, Big Bear, has gone from a tough gangster to a veritable slave of the manipulative pusher, B-Dup), they take out their aggression on some Balla crack dealers. It was about this point I decided to cheat in order to make my playing of this game a little less frustrating. Usually I don't cheat, since I feel somewhat honor-bound to play a game at its intended difficulty level, but since I've already beaten this game once before, I don't feel too bad about it. To me, cheating kind of ruins the experience of a game. The violence is racked up even higher during a food run CJ and his friends go on. A bullet-filled chase ensues after they are targeted by a Balla drive-by, which then prompts CJ to seek some firearms from old-timer Emmet. I found Emmet to be particularly interesting in a ethical sense. He claims he has been helping the neighborhood for over 30 years, but his definition of "help" seems to involve selling guns to gangbangers. Obviously, he's somewhat deluded, but the 'hood seems to be an overly-close-minded place.Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:43:54 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3785&iddiary=7090https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3785GTA:San Andreas is notorious (like its bretheren) for giving the player the ability to act with flagrant disregard to modern society's rules of law and morality. However, upon booting up the game for the first time in many years, I was suprised to see that the protagonist, Carl, actually does possess some moral fiber. Indeed, he is motivated to leave the relative safety of Liberty City, where he was far away from the gritty, no-holds-barred streets of his youth, by a sense of loyalty to his family. This idea of loyalty plays a large part later in the game, as Carl struggles to keep those loyal to him close. In terms of ethics, having some sense of loyalty is a positive thing, since it means people can expect you to help them out when they are in need - a thing that Carl and his fellow GTA protagonists find themselves doing for much of the time. Carl's loyalty is very soon questioned. We find out that his asylum in Liberty City has come at the cost of connection to his family. His brother, Sweet, is angry at Carl for missing the final years of their mother's life. Their altercation is cut short when some rival gang bangers attempt a drive-by, forcing CJ and his friends to flee home atop bicycles while being fire upon. This is the first in-game display of one of the GTA series' main tropes: the "us versus them" mechanic of rival gangs. It shows a very tribal (as one of my old religion professors would describe it) way of viewing the world, where the other side is nothing more than the enemy and you only care about those close to you. There is no discussion or attempt to understand the rival gangs. Rather, the player is rewarded for killing them. In the end, I do not believe Carl is a sociopath. He does not completely lack morals, but he isn't the most socially-evolved person.Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:17:46 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3785&iddiary=7087