Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1302https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4416For my last run through the game, I finally noticed the look of the game is reminiscent of the first few final fantasy games in the 80s and 90s. It involves turn based moves and you are able to select certain weapons to attack with, similar to selecting weapons or magic to use in Final Fantasy. I most spent time trying to kill all the students I could find until I pretty much got bored with the game. I found it funny that the students did not run from the shooters, but rather kept up their usual patterns. One would think that they would go running off and the boys would have to chase them down and shoot them, rather than just walking into them. One of the other things I noticed was the way gender was portrayed in the game. While the male targets would attack during the fighting sequence, the females were not apt to do so. The girls usually defended when they were attacked, or they would find a way to heal themselves, such as praying. I believe I was only attacked by a female once and I just assumed that it was a fluke or that their attack ration is very low. Why is it that the females were less likely to retaliate while the males rarely defended but attacked more often? I believe it has something to do with gender bias in the game. Its as if the creator is saying that women are more likely to cower in fear while men are predisposed to get aggressive in this situation. I feel that if push came to shove, women would react just as actively as their male counterparts.Wed, 27 Oct 2010 07:59:15 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4416&iddiary=8316https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4416The second time through the game, I was supposed to head into the cafeteria in order to set the bombs. This was probably the most frustrating part of the game for me. It took me about fifteen tries to figure out why I kept having to start over back outside. Those weird looking gray images that I thought were dogs for some reason were actually video cameras. So I had to go underneath them in order to avoid detection and then try to avoid the annoying people in the hallway that seemed to flock to you. At this juncture, I would say that the game lacked discern-ability as it took me a good 20 minutes to figure my way around this puzzle. When it was time for me to start shooting the students and staff, I came across the “openly gay boy” and could not help but notice that he dressed extremely flamboyantly and he had a mustache like a 70s porn star. This was not the only stereotype depicted in the game as there were the jock guys, popular girls, nerdy girls, and the church girls. It seemed like all the characters had been placed into certain groups and there was no one around that was just like the two shooters. Another instance of lack of discern-ability that I encountered towards the end of my sessions was: whats am I suppose to do to end the game? I’m aware that the teenagers eventually kill themselves after injuring and killing so many, yet how do I achieve this? Do I have to kill everyone in the school? Seems time consuming to me. Whats my objective?Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:16:54 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4416&iddiary=8262https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4416 Super Columbine Massacre RPG! follows the exploits of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold during the carnage that took place at Columbine High School on April 20th, 1999. The two high school seniors placed several bombs around the school that either failed to detonate or partially detonated. They then entered the school and open fired, injuring twenty four individuals and killing fifteen, including themselves. As I began the game, I started by exploring the environment and found several items that lead to me learning more about the mindsets of the two deluded men. They had Marilyn Manson cds, materials used for explosives, a Doom video game, and they even left a video explaining why they did what they did. After the Columbine event, there was a major push to reform violence in games and movies as well as violent lyrics in songs. Unfortunately for Marilyn Manson and Doom, they became synonymous with violence and what inspired Harris and Klebold to commit such an atrocity. Through the game play, the boys explicitly state that their parents, their friends, their music, and their video games were not to blame for their actions. When I activated a sequence that showed them making a video, it can be interpreted that they had been pushed to far by their peers and years of bullying. Back in 1999, everyone seemed to focus on the amount of violence in the media that Harris and Klebold partook in, yet no one seemed to make a big deal about the bullying they endured or to investigate the bullies. These days, bullying has seemed to become an epidemic among high school teenagers, and as seen on the news, many gay teens are being bullied to the point of ending their lives. Bullying has always existed, but now with camera phones, blogs, texting, and so many various other ways of tormenting someone, it has gone viral. To me, the beginning of this game just points out that these guys were pushed past their breaking point and they decided to fight back. In fact, after Columbine, there were a few other incidents with high school shootings as the oppressed felt that they now had a way to turn the tables of the oppressors. While it was important to suss out the effects of media violence on teenagers, it would have been beneficial to investigate the rising severity of bullying at the time. This might have put into effect laws that protected the bullied and pushed the bullies and possibly saved the lives of teenagers that felt they had no way out. One can never know what could have been. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Sun, 24 Oct 2010 11:22:06.)Sun, 24 Oct 2010 10:36:02 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4416&iddiary=8234https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4335On my final run through with the game, I focused more on gender in the roles. The main characters seem to be mostly male, while the females seem to have been reduced to secondary roles or just simply play things. If one were to look at the design of most of the females in the game, they would notice that they are mostly clad in clothes designed to make the look like hookers. While there are those few female characters walking around the city with some class and style, most of the females are dressed in short skirts and midriff revealing tops. I did come across many females that were offering themselves for sexual favors in return for money, demonstrating the role that prostitution plays in the game. It appears that the women are mostly used for sex objects to be called derogatory names at the males’ discretion. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas seems to be based off the “gangsta rap” genre of music described by such artists as NWA, Snoop Dog, and Ice Cube in the early 90s. At that time, the basis for the genre were young black men, so it is understandable that the main characters would be male; however, it is unfathomable as to why women are portrayed as such mindless entities working the streets and looking to their men for protection.Wed, 22 Sep 2010 07:51:41 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4335&iddiary=8117https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4335When I played the game on my second run through, I tried sticking to the story a little more. When CJ interacted with his family after going to see Big Smoke, Kendl, and Sweet, one learned a little more about the dynamics between them. There is excessive use of the “N word” between the two brothers as well as various gang members. Throughout the entire game, the black characters use Ebonics and other slang when conversing with each other throughout the game play. For a game that seems to center on a city filled with thugs and gangs with mostly African American characters, it makes it seem as if violence is a way of life for all black people. Since games tend to be distributed worldwide, there might be someone out there who looks at the game and believes that black people are all as they are depicted in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. I also noticed that there seems to be another racial slant when it comes to Latinos. Sweet refers to Caesar, supposedly Kendl’s boyfriend, with another racial slur aimed at Latinos. From what I’ve observed, the few latin women and men that I have come across have been portrayed was “cholos” and “cholas”. They have a certain speech pattern that is usually not seen in “civilized” people and they seem just as ghetto as the African American’s in the game. The Caucasian men and women in the game seem to upstanding and law abiding citizens as opposed to their ethnic counterparts. I have yet to see a gangster that was white, just police officers and high class citizens. This makes it seem as if the game is saying that Caucasian’s are the good guys, and all ethnic individuals are the bad guys that need to be shot at and arrested.Mon, 20 Sep 2010 20:01:52 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4335&iddiary=8087https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4335Well, I had never played any of the Grand Theft Auto games since I heard how violent and offensive they can be. After a few minutes of playing Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, I realized that the rumors were in fact true. Playing as Carl “CJ” Johnson, I started the game running through the streets of the city depicted and noticed that I was able to easily attack anyone on the street and gain some monetary points. The money isn’t available until you defeat the person I attacked and beat them to a bloody pulp or murder them. It matters not if the person is a civilian, minding their own business, or another gangster, carrying a variety of weapons. At one point I got into a fight with a police officer and had to weather getting shot at or beaten with a baton. I experienced my first virtual carjacking when I pulled a man out of his car and stabbed him to death. After obtaining the car, I was offered the chance to complete a mini game but I chose to instead drive around the city and run people down with impunity. The ethical question here is: is this game so violent that it is desensitizing those that play it to violence in the real world? At one point I was laughing at all the inventive ways I was coming up with killing bystanders, but does this mean I would laugh if it were to happen in person? Would I go around killing random strangers just because I did it in the virtual world and it gave me a thrill? I would say not since, as an adult, I already have some sense of what’s acceptable in a moral sense and what’s not. This game is rated mature for a reason and is not meant for younger, more impressionable audiences.Sun, 19 Sep 2010 12:17:30 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4335&iddiary=8067