Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=885https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3458Now my third experience with this game I knew that there was not much left in the game as I had killed almost every person in the game, and that I had been earlier prompted with a message that their were cops outside and that I could either end my life then or continue on, I chose to continue because I wanted to see what else I could do in the game. I strolled around some more killed some more of my fellow students got bored because nothing new was happening, I had reached level 21 with Eric and 20 with Dylan and didn’t see much more left in the game, so I went back to the library and could not for the life of me figure out what I was suppose to do to end this game again, I spent nearly 20 minutes walking around trying to find that prompt again. Finally I found out where I had to stand and I thought I was going to get a chance to go outside and kill the cops, but I was wrong and Eric and Kyle both kill themselves. I realize that this was part of the true story and the game is designed around this, the game is designed around the true story and experience that these two kids went through and caused; so this was logical to happen next. After my character and friend killed themselves, the game took a different turn and started to show actual pictures of the victims and Kyle and Dylan, it was the really tragic part of the game, the educational factor where we were shown the ACTUAL consequences when a issue like this occurs. I think that this part of the game was very critical to how the game was made. Because of this, it was able to show what happens when someone would shoot up a school. I really think that this part of the game was vital because it shows why one shouldn’t do this, and why it is wrong. It took the fun part of the game, killing innocent people, and turned it in the bad outcome that you get when it happens. There are reasons that people act the ways that they do, and I may not know the exact reason that Kyle and Dylan did, but I do know that during the game they said that they were excluded, they wanted to fit in, they wanted to be part of a group accepted and they were not. It shows how kids and even teens are mean, how they treat others poorly, and the consequences one may face when a kid, or in this case, two kids snap. At a younger age it’s harder to understand this, that fitting in means a lot to people, and that until you are more mature and at an older age you are truly able to recognize this and treat people equally no matter how different they are. This game may have been disturbing to play because of how it is based of a realistic factor, but I believe that because of the fact that it tells the story so well, especially in a game format, it allows someone of a younger age to understand the situation better. I know at a younger age, I would much rather play a game to learn something, and then have to read about it. With this game, not only was I involved in it, I learned about the situation and what happened from it. After the game seemed to be over, I appeared in what to me was hell and I had been stripped of everything but a pistol and these beasts were attacking me, I killed a couple, was unsure what to do and starting killing more. I was soon attacked by a group and killed instantly ending my experience with the game. Overall the game was very informational and helped me really take a grasp of the situation whether the actions and motives of the game were ethical or not.Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:53:45 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3458&iddiary=6463https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3458The second time I started to play this game had to deal with me starting the game from the beginning so I ran through it quickly and got through all the parts I had until I had to talk in the parking lot, I read everything I was suppose to do and realized that I was suppose to get the bombs from the trunk so I did that this time, got them ran to the cafeteria without getting stopped once planted the bombs and got out and continued to follow the storyline towards finally being able to participate some more in the game. I go and watch from a hill to see the bombs go off but they both fail and nothing happens. I am then supposed to go inside the school again and start the actual game play of the game, killing everyone with the many weapons that I have. To me, I can’t believe all the weapons that I was equipped with, I began to wonder if Eric and Dylan actually had these weapons in the game. How were they able to get all the resources they had, that really shocked me. The game also told me that I was able to save earlier, so I decided since I did not know what to expect that it would be a good idea, so I saved and also saw a couple other options in the save menu. I noticed I could equip my characters with some items that gave them improved statistics. Now since this is based of an actual event I believe that it is really hard to say what my decisions in the game are ethical or not, my only option really to continue in the game is to kill the people in the school. If I do not kill these people I can not continue on in the game, so whether my choice is ethical or not, I am only faced with this option to kill. So what I started to do, and the same in every game, I always attempt to follow the plot first. I went through the very first hallway having people walk up to me or myself walking up to them and then killing them in the countless ways that I could with the many weapons that I had. After some time of killing these people I realized that each person had a weakness and certain enemies went down easier then others and some would attack back and others would not. Once I realized this it made the game go a lot faster because I knew which weapons to use and when to use them. No matter who I walked up to, I killed them, from Janitors, to Preppy Girls, Jocks, Religious Girls, etc. No matter who, I killed them, until I came in to a bathroom with a bunch of guys surrounding this one kid. I ended up starting a fight with the four guys, killed them all with my napalm bomb and a TEC-9 hit to the others remaining and I got a reward for killing them, and the I told the little kid to run home and that his life was saved because I too hated these people in the school that bullied. For this was the reason I was committing the crime to kill all these people. I faced three other similar events to this, once in the gym with a girl and I told her to run home that I saved her life, another was with my friend Tim in the library and the third was another religious girl in the library who was confused if she believed in religion and because she was unsure I ended up killing her and not sparing her life. No matter where I looked in this game, I was killing people, leveling up which the only really noticeable affect that I saw that this had was I had a higher health count. The violence in this game left every single person I had killed in the same spot dead on the ground with blood surrounding them. The game was not graphic to where when I killed them I saw this; it was graphic in the sense that the ways I killed them and how I just killed everyone. I started to get bored of killing people and I still had a couple more rooms I had not explored left but I wanted to take a break because I had been trying to kill everyone I could to see if I got anything special for all of this, but so far I was just gaining experience, levels, and more items.Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:53:25 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3458&iddiary=6462https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3458Before I started playing this game I really had no idea what happened in the shooting. I know people had died and I knew someone came in to the school with a gun, but other than that, that’s all the knowledge I had been carrying about the situation. From playing this game right off the bat I began to learn more about the situation then I had thought would even have been known. I started the game off, and right away I began to explore my surroundings. I went up to absolutely everything I could in what was my characters room when I started and tried to read or pick up anything I could. I was able to pick up a DOOM CD, which I had no idea what was going to be used for but I found out it went in to my inventory later. After going up to a couple more things I was starting to get really annoyed with the text that would come up. It was taking me far longer to make out words because of the horrible graphics that the game has. I could not make out or read more than half of the words because so many letters were indistinguishable. While going up to all the items in my room, I found out a little more background information about my player, about his room, things that he was interested in, and a little more about his motives and actions that he was going to take that day, or what actions I was going to participate in. Once I had gone up to everything that I could and SLOWLY tried to read everything that I could I left the room and followed the game play towards the basement which I was suppose to be doing. I did not want to miss anything in the game so I made sure that no matter what room I was in, I did everything I possibly could. This took much longer than I would have liked it to, but because of this I was able to gain a lot more information about the game, and the incident itself. So far all of the game play that I was faced with was all ethical, nothing seemed to be wrong and I was just leading my character around his house and finding out more information about the background of the game and well, the actual story. Finally I went to the basement and searched around in the basement in every nook and cranny seeing what else I could find out. This is where the game starts to turn towards the negative side, but I have no other options, the only thing I can do with my character is pick up a Marilyn Manson CD, find out some more background information, and then pick up two duffle bags and load them up with the bombs I would be placing in the school. Still the only option that I was faced with was to follow the plot of the story and continue on with leaving my house and heading for the school. Once I had been prompted with the countless amounts of background information I had found which again was near impossible to read and was making me quite frustrated, I left the house and headed to school with my friend who we had planned this all together. At the school, I was told what I was suppose to do, but because I had been reading so many prompt screens about the storyline I skipped the end of what my friend had to say and just went in straight to the school to find the cafeteria. After trying a few times to get to the cafeteria, being stopped the first time by the camera because I had no idea what it looked like, then being stopped by a few people, I finally for to the cafeteria and was so confused what I had to do. I scoped it out for a while tried to do things and gave up, I knew I was stuck, and something in that message I had skipped was important and I was going to have to start over.Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:53:09 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3458&iddiary=6461https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3392My third and final time playing San Andres was when I started to get in to the game a little bit more. The more I started the play the more interested I was, and the more I wanted to make myself more of a gangster and gain the respect of my fellows. So I continued the missions and failed them some more but got past every one that I started. I think was really makes this game interesting to me is the story and plot line. It may not be the greatest or most realistic plot, but it does actually have a plot and story behind the game. As I was completing more missions the plot started to thicken and I had more and more options of what I had to do. One thing that I found really interesting is that not only are there missions that you have to do, but you have to build up the statistics of your player. Such as going to the gym and working out, gaining respect, making sure you’re not overweight by eating, and so forth. It was much more then previous versions of Grand Theft Auto that I have played. Looking back at the characters I can see how they all play a big part of the plot. What really made me pay attention to the game was how the players I was around acted. I’m not talking about in game play; I am talking about in the cut scenes. These players all had a different accent then my friends and I would use or even just how they dressed. Another thing that I noticed is how one of the characters was smoking a cigar in every scene he is in. Every little detail in this game is based off a stereotype to me as I have said in my other two entries. To me, a big part of this game is the narration, that without the cut scenes the game would be relatively boring. The cut scenes really tie the game in together and you are able to learn about the characters more and the details of the plot. In most cases since I skip cut scenes in games I really am just playing for the entertainment and final objective. If I sit and watch the scenes it drags me in to the game more and more and I actually get much more interested. In every Grand Theft Auto I have played, violence in the goal, it is what makes the game go round. I have not yet played a mission where someone didn’t end up dying in the end of it. One after another I am killing someone else and with one of the last missions I completed I had to pick up chicken, (stereotypical for a African American to eat) and then drive my friends in a car chase shooting. I of course end up driving and allowing my gang to kill the car full of enemy gang members. I think that I can conclude from all the information I have gathered on this game that nothing in it is ethical at all and it does not follow any set of morals. In a gang you do as you want and to stay on top you got to be constantly killing others. Even looking at Kant, he says that do as you would want others to do to you. So this would say that since I am killing and stealing from others that I would want them to do the same to me? No not at all, but to stay on top that’s what you have to do. So in Kant’s eyes, he would say that this is not ethical because it would or will lead to my death. This game is fun to play here and there but to me it will get old after a while. The game was fun while I played it and I know Ill come back to it again, but for now I am done with it. It can easily be proven that the game play is not ethical or moral at all, but very entertaining. As well I want to say that this game really does take any stereotype that is present and almost abuses and embeds it in our heads that this is how a person of whatever race is being portrayed acts. That this fantasy world I am playing in can reflect certain parts of society. But a game is a game and should not be looked as a way of life, that what happens in the game is not moral or ethical in the world we live in.Mon, 06 Oct 2008 05:14:12 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3392&iddiary=6380https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3392The second time that I turned on the game I had a little bit more time to play which was nice, but at the same time I was quite annoyed that I must have messed something up and not saved! I had to start all the missions over that I completed which was really annoying because it was a waist of time for me to play them all over and not really have much more material to talk about. So after some time of playing the missions over and getting to a new point in the game I have more to add about the game. In most games that I play I really never watch the cut scenes, they kind of bore me and I just want to get on with the game. Since I am trying to really get in to the game and analyze it I have not done this yet and I have been watching the cut scenes. It actually makes the game much more interesting and its neat to see how the plot works on. But enough about that the game itself has even more noticeable things to talk about the more time I spend playing it. The second time I was playing I was really looking at the choices and actions that my character has to make and does. What I really noticed while playing is that I don’t have a choice in what I am allowed to do. I do understand that the point of this game is to follow the missions and do as they say so that you complete them. To add an alternate possibility would create a whole other game. So since that is not done, I looked at the choices I do have to make. I can either go around and roam the game doing whatever I want, or I can follow the plot and story. I wanted to actually succeed in the game so I followed what I was supposed to do. After beating the missions I already played, I was presented with a couple more, which I did fail and have to repeat more then once. One mission I had to spray paint six of my gangs tags over other gangs tags and another I had to drive around Ryder and kill a bunch of people. Now both of these things are illegal and the more actions and missions that I have taken on I can see that its going to continue that way, I don’t have a choice on the ethical decisions I am going to make. Even though I know myself that these decisions are not ethical, if I were to apply the subject relativism theory to them I could easily get away with any of these because I am deciding the right or wrong for myself and in this game I am choosing the right path to do the actions I am taking, and in this case, being a gang banger. I think that another theory that can be applied to this situation really well is cultural relativism. The reason I say this is that this game takes a big part of stereotypes and really shows them. This game really shows a lot of stereotypes about different cultures, more specifically African Americans. That they are all in gangs and that white people do not take a part in it. Being very broad about this, I can say that the moral codes for different groups of people are different and that the game portrays the culture of an African American as being in a gang and the things you have to do to be in one. Being in a gang has to deal with family and how you treat your fellow gang members they are someone you would do anything for and risk your life for them.Mon, 06 Oct 2008 03:35:33 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3392&iddiary=6377https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3392I have played other grand theft auto games before, but this has been the first time I had played San Andres or even any grand theft auto in a couple of years. I do enjoy playing video games, but as time has gone on, I have had less and less time to actually play these games. As any other grand theft auto though, I noticed that it was following the exact same format and ideas. I think the most noticeable thing at first is how everything in the game plays as stereotypes. That all of these stereotypes play together and work off one another. So as I started the game, I really had no idea what I was in for or what the plot of this game was about. I instantly knew what to do though, and from playing previous grand theft autos it was not hard to figure out. Normally I don’t struggle that much playing any game, but the first couple missions were not that easy, well I kept blowing them and the game was getting really frustrating not even being able to beat the first mission. But after getting used to playing any video game again and learning what I had to do for the mission made it go faster. I finally got the hang of it, made it to the location I had to be, and drove to get myself a haircut. At first I tried not getting a hair cut because I wanted to get more money and get one of the more fancy haircuts, I tried entering and leaving but it didn’t work, so I chose a haircut and left and had the game told me I had to go eat, but not to eat too much because I could get fat. I thought that was really funny to hear from a game, but I continued in the pizza joint and got myself a whole pizza. Instantly after I paid the game cuts to a cut scene and I’m helping my friend in the game hold up the place. We are chased out with a shotgun and I am now driving the getaway car. I feel like within no time this game started me off as a thug, and this game was teaching me what I needed to do to be one. With this game basing itself off stereotypes it’s quite easy to pick it apart when you are looking for the problems with it. Especially with social contract theory, because of how government takes such a small impact on this game life. I know it’s just a game, but in this game the police rarely bother you and it seemed you can complete any crime and get away with any type of action that you commit. Even when you do get busted by the cops you only pay a small fee and lose items. This is really not a big deal at all and going around being able to kill someone, steal a car, pick up a prostitute is all playing taking this in to thought. Social contract theory says that government is needed to keep things in order. In this case, it’s the gangs, it’s the color of your skin in the game that makes you wanted or not, and you can do nearly anything you want. The police barely get on your case for what in real life can get you years in jail. Yes I know, this is a game, but what does this show people that play this game. Is it teaching some that being Hispanic or African American makes you a danger to society, that you can get away with actions and not face any consequences?Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:34:39 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3392&iddiary=6321