Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1514https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4898My third and final go around with Super Columbine Massacre RPG was about as miserable as my first two and left me feeling relieved that I didn’t have to play the game ever again. Although I did not enjoy my experience with the game as a whole I did pick up on a few themes in the game that I did not pick up on during my previous run through the game. One of those themes was how it seemed the creators were trying to draw sympathy for Dylan and Eric. I picked up on this through the cut scenes that are featured while you roam through the school going from area to area killing everyone. One of the cut scenes shows one of the killers being picked on in the locker room. After the scene is over it shows them talking about how they couldn’t wait for this day and how they enjoyed killing them. I know why they added those cut scenes because they wanted to add backstory, but the way they played out seemed like they were trying to draw sympathy for the boys. Another thing similar to this was how when you would kill people you would get rewarded with food and it would say in the dialogue bubble “you have received a hamburger you brave boys”. The brave boy’s part was very weird for me because these two are the farthest thing from brave that I can think of. By calling them brave is another way I thought the creators was trying to draw sympathy for the shooters. Another thing that I noticed was the role pop-culture played throughout the game. When I went down to the lower level a small cut scene came on that showed ex-president Clintons address to the nation about the events that took place at columbine. I thought this was very good and nicely put into perspective what you were doing in the game because the president’s message was very solemn and you could tell the emotions that he had while talking. Other pieces of media could be found in the cut scenes that featured Marilyn Manson lyrics. I think that it is well known that Marilyn Manson has dark lyrics and by featuring them in the game they give the player a perspective into the psyche of the boys and how dark they were emotionally and how jaded they were by society. I did not end up finishing this game and I don’t think I will. I found it to be boring and made me more frustrated than entertained. Although it was boring it did present many questions while playing it, and had very many themes in which were relevant to the time. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:40:40 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4898&iddiary=9080https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4898For my second session I finally made it to the section of the game where the actual killing takes place. My journey there though did come with its shares of frustration. I must have gotten busted 90 times during the bomb planting part of the game, and at numerous parts I had no idea where to go in order to advance the gameplay. This frustration I believe influenced me heavily on the actions I took when the killing actually took place. Going into this game I had the mindset that I would kill as few people as possible and take the most ethical approach I could without failing the game. I felt that it was my responsibility, and I thought it would be a nice contrast as opposed to what really happened. However this strategy was thrown out the window due to my own frustration. I found myself hunting down as many jocks and preppy girls as I possibly could in order to put into play my own of revenge plot. No other factors influenced my desire to shed blood other than my own frustration. This is one factor where the game failed for me. The ethical question of should I or should I not kill these people was nonexistent because of the frustration. Another factor that caused me not to think about the ethics at all in regards to the killing was the way the combat played out. I found myself finding this aspect of the game to be more comical then eye-opening. The turn-based combat was very cheesy and took a lot away for me in regards to the realness of the situation. Whenever I would kill someone and the dialogue would pop up saying something along the lines of “Score one for the trench coat mafia!” I found myself cringing at the cheesiness, more than feeling bad for the person I just killed. Because of these two factors the realism was just not there for me. I didn’t feel any remorse for the lives I took because I was still frustrated from prior points in the game and the combat played out more like Pokémon then a realistic shooter. Although what I was doing was wrong, I didn’t seem to car as much as I would in other games. Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:04:38 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4898&iddiary=9076https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4898 I was very skeptical going into a game that is based on the tragedy that was the columbine massacre. Prior to receiving this assignment I had never heard of the game Super Columbine Massacre RPG, and I had little knowledge about the events that took place around the columbine shootings other than that it was the worst school shooting in the history of the United States. Within the first few seconds of gameplay I was immediately reminded of Pokémon based on the graphics and the point of view that you are given as the player. This was a minor observation in the grand scheme of things but was something that I noticed right away. But after my Pokémon observation I did definitely notice the darkness of the game. The dialogue between characters is very solemn and was very good insight into the mindset they were in before they went ahead and killed their peers. I don’t know how much of recorded dialogue between Dylan and Kyle was recovered after the shooting, but the dialogue in the game seems very accurate to me. While I was given the task of collecting things from my house before we set off to go to the school I decided to go up to the random objects that could be found in the basement to see if I could find any objects that were separate from the main objective. I did manage to find a Marilyn Manson CD, and a copy of a DOOM game. Not that these two pieces of media automatically make people decide to slaughter innocent civilians, but I do know that it was documented both enjoyed violent video games, and Marilyn Manson’s music. Along with the dialogue this part of the game was also realistic, and played true to the age group that Dylan, and Kyle came from. But this also gave some insight as to what may have influenced them, if only a tiny bit. Along with the extra items that I did manage to find, I did also stumble upon some extras. One of which was a monologue from the movie apocalypse now. I found this interesting that they would include this into the game, but realized that it did make sense. The monologue that is featured speaks of war and the horrors that can be found in it. This is probably a good indicator of how the boys felt about the world, meaning that others didn’t understand what they were going through and they’re only solution to that problem was to try to change the world that they lived in. Unfortunately they’re means of carrying out that task was through violence. I didn’t get that far into the game, but from what I have seen thus far it seems like a very realistic and dark game. I’m sure when I reach the part where the killing task place there will be more ethics in order to discuss. Sun, 19 Feb 2012 18:40:04 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4898&iddiary=9068https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4852For my third and final go around with Grand Theft Auto San Andreas: I decided to return to doing the main story missions. The first mission that I tried to tackle was the mission, Drive-By. In this mission you are given the task of driving your fellow gang members through a certain section of the city killing members of a rival gang. It took me a couple tries to complete this mission as I was having difficulty evading the police at the end of the mission. Having finally figured out that it is easiest to just run over the enemies to kill them, rather than waiting for my friends to shoot them, the mission was a breeze. But while I was running over all these gang members I was thinking to myself is this the best way to go about this? I wasn’t thinking in the sense of is this the easiest way possible, but is this the cleanest, most guilt free way in which to complete the mission. My answer to that was no. Rather than having a very small role in the killings of The Ballas, I chose to have a very active role. By having this active role I killed the majority of the men, rather than killing none. After coming to this conclusion I started to think of the role of violence in the game. I think that it’s safe to say that the more violent of an approach you take to completing the main missions, the more of a chance you have of completing them, in a short and easy way. In the example of the Drive-By mission the first couple of tries I did the mission without killing anyone, and I failed the mission every time. But when I did the mission with the approach of running every enemy over in sight, the mission was fairly easy. I would challenge anyone to complete this game without killing a single person. I think it’s reasonable to say that that task would be impossible. The creators made the game with the intention that it was going to be violent and the game reflects that. Some of the first missions require violence, thus exposing the player right away to what the game is all about. Even while driving vehicles I found it difficult to not at least kill one civilian, albeit it was not intentional. This is a result of the cars being hard to handle, and civilians always seemingly walking in front of your car. Overall I really enjoyed this game and found it very entertaining. Although the game is filled with racism, violence, and blatant stereotyping, I still enjoyed it and knew what to expect from this type of game. I have realized that the game is full of choices, much of them hindering on what you think is ethical or not. I will definitely be re-visiting this game in the future and look forward to what the crazy world of Grand Theft Auto will throw my way. Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:55:21 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4852&iddiary=9004https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4852For my second 30 minute session on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas I decided to do a little free roaming along with playing some of the main storyline. From past experience with these games I have noticed that more times than not, better times are had just running around doing whatever, rather than actually sticking to the missions. While roaming around I noticed that you are given so many things in which you can do and many of which are a question of if this is right or wrong. Unfortunately most of the fun that is to be had with this game involves doing the wrong thing. I first experience with this came when a police officer crashed into me, launching me off my dirt bike a good distance. Upon getting back up and rubbing the dirt off I was faced with two choices, either continue on with my joyride and forget about that incident, or kill the cop. For the sake of having fun I chose to kill the cop. Having acquired an Uzi type gun in a mission I had just completed, I had the necessary firepower to take down this man that had just cut my joyride short. I casually strolled up to him and fired upon him until he was terminated. In real life I would have never even given this option a thought. Kill a cop? No way, but in GTA you can do anything and the basic ethical thought process is thrown out the window. After killing him I was faced with another choice, I could either submit myself to the authorities or I could try to escape them. I chose to try and escape. Like the killing of the police officer this is also a choice that would have never crossed my mind in real life. But with ethics thrown out the window I tore off into the Los Santos back country. This experience made me realize how many choices you are faced with in the game, in terms of ethics. More times than not I have realized in the story mode that you are forced into making unethical decisions because that is the only way in which you can complete the missions. For example the mission titled Og Loc, in which you pick up a friend from jail and right away you are given the task of killing a man. Ethically this is not right at all, but in order to complete the mission you have to do it. But in free roam you are presented with many choices, some of which don’t require you to do the unethical thing. You can follow the basic traffic laws of our world, or you can blow every red light in the city. You can just drive around listening to music, or you can conduct drive by after drive by if you so desire. This game is whatever you make it out to be, and can be as violent as you want it to be. This is because the player is presented with many choices, it us up to him/her to make what they think is the right choice. Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:51:10 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4852&iddiary=8981https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4852This was the first time that I got to experience the gangster filled 1990’s world that is Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Prior to playing this however, I did play Grand Theft Auto IV a few times so I knew what to expect from a GTA game. The first thing I noticed when I played this game was the lack of white non-playable characters that were found walking around Los Santos. This might be because of the part of town in which you are allowed to roam in the beginning isn’t inhabited by whites, but I just found this interesting. As a result of this and some other observations I noticed some very clear racist elements that are at play with this game. In addition to there not being many white characters roaming around I noticed that all your fellow gangsters were black and that nearly all of them could be found smoking what looked like marijuana, and they all talked in Ebonics. Rockstar may have used those little details in order to make the game more realistic but it seemed very stereotypical to me. Another thing that I noticed was that in one of the early missions you are sent to the Cluckin Bell to get food. I found this interesting and somewhat comical because there are many racist jokes about African Americans enjoying fried chicken and the comments Ryder and Smokey were making about the food made me laugh although it was very stereotypical at the same time. Like the most recent GTA, this game always you to listen to the radio in the car and some of the commercials that are featured in the game are questionable at best. One ad is for a bank loan and the female voice says that she won’t have sex with her husband anymore if she doesn’t get a new fence. Another is for the glory hole theme park in the city which is an obvious sexual reference. Although many of these caused me to laugh out loud as I was exploring the world, I also found myself shaking my head as to how vulgar these were and how none of these would ever be allowed on real radio. Those were just some examples of the vulgarity that can be found in the game. So far I have enjoyed the game and am positive that more issues will come up as I further progress into the game. The Grand Theft Auto series seems to be full of them.Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:22:30 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=4852&iddiary=8977