Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1930https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=664830 minutes ---------- So I played another 30 minutes today and still the gameplay is really just the minigame and brawling. The story has gotten really interesting between the two different-ish storylines. I really like the cabaret minigames still and honestly have spent most of my time playing it so I will probably spend most of my time talking about that. When having conversations with the entertainers I noticed that the protagonist doesn't really seem like he's talking down to them like you would expect from the situation. The conversations are on even footing and are actually pretty interesting instead of just being like "where's my money" etc. and other stereotypes surrounding sex work. Prostitution, specifically forced prostitution is a real issue around the world and the developers did well to avoid forcing hte player to become a pimp of that variety.Wed, 28 Mar 2018 20:25:29 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6648&iddiary=11780https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6648Yakuza 0 - 45 Minutes Alright, so today I played some more. And it's really just more of the same cabaret club running (i am addicted to this mini game) and street violence. I think the biggest thing I can see with this game is the treatment of women and the fact that I am role playing a (very) violent criminal. Is it ok for the developers to normalize this sort of criminal behavior? How does it compare to the more comical depiction of crime found in other games like GTA? How does the game reward the player for various criminal acts. I see more questions arise in my mind, in terms of the ethics of this game, as I play more.Tue, 27 Mar 2018 14:16:23 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6648&iddiary=11747https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6648Yakuza 0 - 3 hours 45 Minutes So this is obviously a game about Crime in Japan. I was prepared for that, and it lived up to it's name as the game literally follows a disgraced yakuza member as he does bad things and runs cabaret club. This game obviously has some ethical topics to talk about, so I will skip over gameplay and get right to the point. What the heck? I'm literally playing a game where I am supposed to be as good of a criminal as I can be, and not in the lucky go happy style of GTA games where it's all a bit comical. Yakuza 0 is realistic, to the point where the minigame where I run the cabaret gives me flashbacks from when I was a waiter at a high end restaurant when I was 21. This mini-game consumed me to be honest. I loved it. I played way longer than I was expecting. Anyways, between between criminal violence being the main objective and the potentially very misogynistic aspect of running a cabaret club this game has a lot of ethical flags that go up, but before I pass any judgements I will probably need to play (the actual game) more.Mon, 26 Mar 2018 15:14:37 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6648&iddiary=11733https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=65811979 Revolution > 1 hr So some more decision making and photography for me today. Things are really heating up, not that they haven't been pretty intense from the get go. What I am noticing about these decisions is that they tend to not challenge my logic, in fact they don't even seem to give me logical decisions (the only logical decision for this game is to turn tail run, head to the airport and get the hell out of the country) but instead give me nice gut wrenching options that appeal to my heart strings. A lot of these decisions really make me feel like there is no correct option, and that no matter what I do someone is gonna not like what I do or someone will get hurt. I really get the sense that the developers were aiming for this sort of personal dilemma where I am not supposed to be able to tell right from wrong because they remove the right and wrong and just leave me with the reality of the consequences of any decision I make. I did a little research at the end of my play through today just to see if my hunch was right, and yes, the developers did indeed make it so that your decisions do not ultimately change the outcome of the story, but more so how other characters act towards you (particularly your brother the police officer). I really really like that they do that, it shows how things are never black and white, and how the grey area can be a lot more confusing and create inner turmoil far beyond the color greys ability to represent.Wed, 14 Feb 2018 15:31:06 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6581&iddiary=11644https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=65811.5 hours > 1979 Revolution: Black Friday So, after playing a lot more of this game today, some things pop out at me immediately, especially after having done an OPA already. This game is doing a really good job of keeping the character out of the main thread of events in the revolution, by which I mean not that he isn't there but that he isn't really a "player" in the grand scheme of things. Yes, the devs give you choices that effect things, but you aren't ultimately deciding the fate of the revolution. The devs made the choice to leave the actual history untouched and your actions don't seem to change things (for example, today I saved after making a choice to try and save one dude from gunfire over another, and then went back and tried the other option to see what would happen and the same end result happened.) The developers have gone and done a great thing in giving the player the appearance of deep choices but in actuality these choices don't effect the story too heavily but rather seem more like an open challenge to the players principles and morals. Is it more important to save your brother who is a police officer or to save a revolutionary leader? They make you feel like you are picking a side but really you aren't changing anything big. In doing so they remain their neutrality as a developer but allow the player to explore the consequences of their emotionally driven choices! This is great ethically. The developers don't impose their own opinion of who was right and who was wrong onto history but rather create an "environment" for players to explore the muddled affair that is any violent revolution. Love this game.Tue, 13 Feb 2018 16:09:56 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6581&iddiary=11616https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=65811979 Revolution Black Friday -> 30 minutes So I have never played a game like this before. I've known about games like the tell tale series, but haven't actually played any of them, so this sort of pick your own story kind of deal is new to me, and honestly seems really simple, but I really enjoyed it today. I have a fascination with the region and it's history (I have spent over half my life living in the Middle East due to my fathers work as a diplomat) so when looking through the list I saw this and was like hmmm maybe I should give it a go. Anyway. Wow. I can tell right off the bat that this is going to be a game that gives me choices that have subtle outcomes, but I get the feeling my choices won't really effect the events of the story too much since it is based on history. Beyond the choices it seems that I am to play the photographer and take pictures of famous (and probably real) events and incidents. I am gonna love this. The first thing that comes to mind with this game is whether or not the developers remain neutral in the sense that, is this game biased towards the side of the revolutionaries or the Shah? I know a lot of the history regarding this revolution and after my first 30 minutes it does seem slightly anti-shah but also anti-revolution. That's just my first take away after being interrogated by a post revolution goon who works for the revolutionaries. Excited to see what the devs decided to do as far as handling the political aspects of this game and whether or not they can tell this story in an interesting manner whilst remaining neutral.Mon, 12 Feb 2018 16:22:07 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6581&iddiary=11595https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6517Prison Architect. 50 minutes This game is harder than I thought. Turns out that even though it doesn't necessarily get more complex or add new mechanics like some other sim games do, things do start to pile up. Combine that with the problems some of my more... unruly inmates are causing, and you have the recipe for the soon to be disaster of a prison that I have made! Imminent failure of my prison aside, I learned that I don't really have it in me to create a prison with a death row on it, so I never bothered to research that, and instead decided that I would try and rehabilitate my inmates instead. Apparently rehabilitating high security inmates isn't always super effective. Seems like some of these virtual criminals love being criminals. The game is really good at pointing out all the grey area that can exist within an issue that you were sure was really black and white. In my case, I came into this game thinking that the game was either going to be one that trivialized an issue like the prison industrial complex or it would be one that highlighted the issue by pointing out the inefficiencies and corruptness of how the PIC works. I was wrong. The game instead has shown me that it's apparently a LOT more complicated to run a prison. I still firmly believe that the prison system within the united states needs reform, but I know recognize both my former arrogance and current ignorance on exactly how to do that.Wed, 17 Jan 2018 16:36:07 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6517&iddiary=11498https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6517Prison Architect. Day 2. 45 Minutes Today in class we first talked about bad arguments and then went on a rampage of coming up with ideas to make arguments about and then examples of arguments themselves. So coming into the game today I had my mind in the right mode to pick up where I left off in my thoughts yesterday. My one disagreement with simulation games like Prison Architect is that, at least for me, mastery comes quickly. Yes, there is tons of replay-ability but it doesn't take me long to examine the mechanics of a game like this and figure things out. My prison is doing quite well, and I have reached this point where I can further optimize my prison by focusing it's efforts. I could focus on High security prisoners who are more unruly and maybe even execute them a lot to swiftly deal with them and pump money into my prison by replacing them. Alternatively, which might not make me quite as much money, I could focus on rehabilitating these prisoners instead of just killing them. I really like that the game allows me to make this choice, and I can't really tell as of yet which choice is more "optimal". I get the feeling after this play through that the developers really wanted this game to question your own morality, and I find myself struggling because I know what the "right" thing to do is (not make my prison a capital punishment supermarket) but it isn't necessarily the easiest and it certainly isn't guaranteed to make my prison successful. So I find myself asking if I value efficiency and success over my own morals, even if it is just a game. The game has done a really great job so far of creating a sense of difficulty around the decisions you make when dealing with prisoners and with just the actual physical design of your prison, and has really been tugging at that sense of efficiency versus morals. In essence this play through is really starting to bug me and leave me in a state of indecision. Some sort of prison limbo I guess.Tue, 16 Jan 2018 14:33:45 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6517&iddiary=11451https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6517Prison Architect. (1.5 hours) Well the first thing I really ought to put down here is that I have never played this game before until today. I had heard really good things about it from friends so after seeing the list I went for it right away. This is a really great game as far as games go. I had a really fun time playing it, and I loved pretty much everything about it. However, going into this game thinking about what we had gone over in class regarding the nature of morality (Lecture 1: What is Morality?). The question of whether this game is moral or amoral immediately jumps to my mind due to the setting of the game. The United States has the highest prison population in the world right now, and (I just checked wikipedia to verify this although I think I heard it on NPR a while ago) the second highest per-capita incarceration rate in the world. There is a fairly well known concept called "Prison-Industrial Complex"(Abbreviated to PIC hereafter) and this game sort of jumped out as a literal PIC simulator. You are literally acting as a the creator and operator of a privately owned prison that profits off having more prisoners! Granted a lot of the game does revolve around the actual architecture and plumbing and electric work etc. but that doesn't change the fact of the matter. I had to ask myself if this game highlights this issue in a way that raises awareness against PIC within the United States, or if it merely trivializes and normalizes this issue. I had this realization in like the first 10 minutes of playing, and luckily I played more of the game and realized that ultimately my fears may not be entirely justified. So as I played more I found out that there are multiple ways to run a "profitable" prison. I had initially thought that it would just be get more prisoners and keep them in line and you make more money, and I wasn't wrong, but you can also make money and profit from reforming prisoners, which I really liked that the developers included. I kept playing and my prison kept growing. By the time I finished playing for the day (Having spent twice as long as intended) I came to realize that the game itself has been made to neither be inherently moral or amoral, but provides the opportunity for the player to find a balance between the two for themselves. Yikes. So now I have to figure out if I want to go for brutal efficiency that I am not sure will work or a more ideal and humane prison that I am also sure will not work. Suffice to say I am excited to see what path I end up taking (This entry has been edited2 times. It was last edited on Mon, 15 Jan 2018 13:03:08.)Mon, 15 Jan 2018 12:57:30 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6517&iddiary=11437