Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1325https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4458Concerning realism in SCMRPG, the game approaches historical event with accuracy, but eventually strays off the path reaching absurd and humorous levels of play. The game tends towards increasingly ridiculous scenarios as play continues. At first, the designer implements significant narrative and story building elements into the gameplay like dialog between characters. Tasks are also specifically assigned (i.e. call Dylan before going downstairs; grab duffel bags before leaving the house; plant bombs in specific locations.)The game even went as far as to prevent saving the game in any location other than the parking lot. Once I entered the school, there was no going back! Rather than giving me free reign to do as I pleased, the game sculpted the background of the game through these key events, providing a realistic approach to the overall recreation of the Columbine shooting. As the game lessons the frequency of these guided events, the play evolves into something of a joke. I massacred dozens of kids in countless rooms before ultimately comes to terms with my own demise and ending my own life. From this point on the game loses all sense of realism. I now played in a Hell level, parodying Doom in all of its aesthetics including monster sprites and music. Here I encountered various celebrities like John Lennon and Ronald Reagan. The game officially abandoned any sense of realism and instead focused on creating a humorous aftermath for the deviants Eric and Dylan. Upon finally slaying Satan, I was rewarded for my deeds. I practically laughed as the amount of absurdity far exceeded my expectations of this game. I feel as though the humorous attempt at creating an epilogue was used to further trivialize the violent and relatively realistic precursor to the Hell level. By forcing the player to laugh at the game’s narrative, the designer successfully lightens the gravity of the otherwise dark and controversial situation. Through this method, the game achieves a lesser level of realism but a greater level of acceptance amongst an otherwise easily offended audience.Thu, 28 Oct 2010 09:49:29 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4458&iddiary=8352https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4458On the subject of violence in Super Columbine Massacre RPG, the game portrays the act in the most realistic way possible given the constraints on graphical output from the engine. While SCMRPG does display blood and the result of each murder by permanently displaying corpses on the floor of the school, the actual act of murdering the student lacks detailed representation. Few blocky pixels denote bullet fire and unexciting explosions visualize area of effect bomb weaponry. Despite these limitations of graphical representation, the act of violence feels very real, especially during the prologue of the game when I had to place bombs in key locations of the school's cafeteria while avoiding security cameras and confrontations with other students. The concept of planting bombs inspires greater emotional attachment than mindless murder of countless, generic enemies. In this scenario, I didn't know who I was going to kill, but the thoughts going through my mind were that I wanted to harm as many people as possible, regardless of their identities. Through integrating this part of Dylan and Eric's plot into the game, the designer placed me into a situation in which, despite the poor graphics of the engine, I felt very involved and effected by the acts of violence I performed. One objectionable feature of the violence is some of the students' attacks or "abilities." Each student type touts a unique move based on their personality type; some of these abilities could be viewed as controversial. Most apparent are the abilities "pray" and "cry." Church girls never attack you and instead simply choose to pray. By praying they are healed health points, simply prolonging the time it takes to kill them. This aspect of suddenly associated religion into this massacre proves controversial to religious members and not necessary crucial to the design of the game.Wed, 27 Oct 2010 23:22:30 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4458&iddiary=8344https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4458 Super Columbine Massacre RPG (SCMRPG) attempts to accurately portray teenage stereotypes through its gameplay. For instance, sprites are stylized to represent each 'clique' of the high school population. In addition, every student I ran across was named after their respective clique. No students had specific names and instead I associated each person with only the stereotype they belonged to. This decision by the developer might have been made to demonstrate the concept of stereotypes amongst teenage population. Many high school students do not often judge peers properly but instead make general assumptions based upon physical appearance and first encounters. This can easily be related to the perspectives and Eric and Dylan. Both boys were not close with many of their high school peers and instead based their knowledge of them based on generally negative stereotypes. Their distaste towards their school population formed from these uninformed judgments. After encountering countless generalized "jocks" or "nerdy girls" they all became mundane and the same. Slaying one church girl or cheerleader after another didn't invoke sympathy towards my victims of the massacre I was part of because I had no personal connection to any of my targets. I only viewed them as nameless stereotypes categorized by their stylish pixel arrangements that perpetuated the stereotypes throughout the world of Dylan and Eric, and in turn (as the player of the game and controller of the shooters), my own eyes. By generalizing the student population into various cliques, the developer was able to reduce the level of emotional attachment a player would normally adhere to. Doing so both accurately recreates the apathetic perspectives of the shooters while trivializing the obscene content of the game that many players would otherwise object to under more realistic and detailed descriptions of characters. (This entry has been edited3 times. It was last edited on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 23:53:02.)Tue, 26 Oct 2010 23:46:31 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4458&iddiary=8304https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4374Race and ethnicity are accurately portrayed within Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Developers present the player with a moral framework structured around impartiality, making sure to never once inspire racism unto the player. Within the game world, neighborhoods are categorized and divided based upon ethnicity. Each neighborhood can be generalized by the racial make-up of the citizens wandering the streets and each culture is represented equally and consecutively throughout the course of the entire plot. Initially I dealt with primarily Black and Latino cultures in Los Santos. This city is heavily overrun with ghettos and poverty-struck households as made apparent by key design features of house components like cardboard doors, broken mattresses, and worn down interiors. Later on in the game, I arrived in San Fierro, a city run by a Chinese Triad. I allied with the Asian alliance and ultimately turned on the Latino gang members associated with the Loco Syndicate. And further still, I was then forced to rid the city of a Vietnamese gang, the Da Nang Boys. This portion of the game forces the player into slaying many people regardless of race, upholding impartiality with regards to the array of ethnicities found throughout the game. Game designers employ an unbiased perspective of race by crafting characters of the same race that represent both the good and bad in the world. For example, CJ and Officer Tenpenny are both African-Americans but present the two opposite ends of the spectrum. Officer Tenpenny is despised all game because of his corruption and inability to withhold moral rules, while CJ becomes revered amongst many gangs because his devotion and passion. The developers made it clear that race is not a deciding factor in the morality of each person. The segregation of neighborhoods based on race may at first appear racist, but closer examination reveals the truth behind this design choice. The game developers sought for reality and not discrimination against races, giving the player unbiased experiences with a myriad of cultures throughout the experience of the game.Tue, 05 Oct 2010 10:09:49 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4374&iddiary=8190https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4374Race and ethnicity are accurately portrayed within Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Developers present the player with a moral framework structured around impartiality, making sure to never once inspire racism unto the player. Within the game world, neighborhoods are categorized and divided based upon ethnicity. Each neighborhood can be generalized by the racial make-up of the citizens wandering the streets and each culture is represented equally and consecutively throughout the course of the entire plot. Initially I dealt with primarily Black and Latino cultures in Los Santos. This city is heavily overrun with ghettos and poverty-struck households as made apparent by key design features of house components like cardboard doors, broken mattresses, and worn down interiors. Later on in the game, I arrived in San Fierro, a city run by a Chinese Triad. I allied with the Asian alliance and ultimately turned on the Latino gang members associated with the Loco Syndicate. And further still, I was then forced to rid the city of a Vietnamese gang, the Da Nang Boys. This portion of the game forces the player into slaying many people regardless of race, upholding impartiality with regards to the array of ethnicities found throughout the game. Game designers employ an unbiased perspective of race by crafting characters of the same race that represent both the good and bad in the world. For example, CJ and Officer Tenpenny are both African-Americans but present the two opposite ends of the spectrum. Officer Tenpenny is despised all game because of his corruption and inability to withhold moral rules, while CJ becomes revered amongst many gangs because his devotion and passion. The developers made it clear that race is not a deciding factor in the morality of each person. The segregation of neighborhoods based on race may at first appear racist, but closer examination reveals the truth behind this design choice. The game developers sought for reality and not discrimination against races, giving the player unbiased experiences with a myriad of cultures throughout the experience of the game.Mon, 04 Oct 2010 12:11:13 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4374&iddiary=8160https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4374Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas disregards truth and honesty as seen through the development of the game's characters and dialog. The game is rich with powerful characters who have only made their rise to fame through lying and cheating. Officer Tenpenny is a prominent antagonist whose lies and deceit sculpt how the game unfolds. Without his immoral actions the plot would advance in an entirely different manner involving significantly less conflict and struggle for the main playable character CJ. San Andreas often encourages deception as proper discourse and as a means to survival. This view clearly contradicts Kantian views of truth and trustworthiness. Amongst the game world, lying has become a universal law accepted by most characters, who throughout the game pursue their own unique selfish interests. This immoral law leads to a parallel world very different from our own. San Andreas is powered by dishonesty. Because of this, the world is generally a cruel and wicked place and the only hope of survival is through the same means of deceit. Characters will often advance the story plot by asking you to undertake tasks that involve treachery towards other forces and clans. The player has no choice but to accept the responsibilities (not doing so is obviously is unacceptable, as this would end the gameplay). Thankfully, I never had to give much thought into the choice of committing deceitful deeds for powerful gang or mob leaders because it became so engrained in my subconscious that it was the only way to gain power in the world. And sure enough, the plot lead me to believe so. The greater number of unethical actions I partook in, the more respected I became by other figures of power. The game trained me to accept the law of lying and encouraged it on countless occasions. The game's counterproductive ethical framework based on a universal law of dishonesty is a realistic portrayal of what a world full of deceit might look like full of rulers founded on corruption and dishonesty.Mon, 04 Oct 2010 12:03:44 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4374&iddiary=8159https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4374Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’s health and fitness system is at first glance an ironic and nearly humorous system set in place to effectively replicate a real-life simulation. But further analysis reveals its true purpose: to preserve constructive ethics throughout a game world based on immorality and corruption. The core of the game tends to downplay the concept of being safe and healthy to such an extent that the implementation of a weight-influenced fitness system almost comes off as ironic. During a majority of the game, I faced struggles of life and death, constantly in feud with enemy gang members and corrupt cops. Yet amongst all of these near-death situations forced upon my character, I still had the responsibility to maintain my character’s physique through workout and diet routines. I thought to myself, this must be a joke! I have to dodge rival gang fire, risk my life infiltrating buildings, run from a corrupt police force bent on making me miserable, all while making sure I have three square meals a day and enough time to stop by the gym? Why did the developers integrate such a light-hearted system into a game filled with far more significant issues? Fitness exists in San Andreas to encourage the subsistence of positive morals amongst its players. While the game completely allows for and often encourages the massacring of humans, it too intends for the player to provide a healthy lifestyle choice for the main character. After all, a gangster cannot run away from foes if he is overweight and out of shape. Through the game’s elegantly integrated fitness system, developers intend for players to maintain a minimal sense of morality while immersed into a world ran by gangsters and drugs.Sat, 02 Oct 2010 11:08:06 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4374&iddiary=8148