Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=954https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3649For my final experience playing Super Columbine, I was extremely happy that after this I would never have to play this game again. Sadly this part of the game was the part I’ve been dreading: the killing. It was basically you see someone, you shoot them, regardless of who they were: jocks, nerds, cheerleaders, or religious students. After playing this game, I went on the website and decided to learn more about why it was created. It my previous blog I mentioned, I thought the existence of this game must be a very painful reminder to the Columbine victims. On the website, they had a trailer of the game, which I decided to watch. The trailer starts off with the media voicing their opinion calling this game horrible, should never be made. The media places blame on violent video games are the basis and cause of teen shootings and violence. I don’t think that’s true. Just because someone plays video games that has a lot of shootings doesn’t mean they are going to grow up to become a violent person. The media singles out video games as the key source of violence in children, because they are most unfamiliar with it. More people watch movies, tv shows, listen to music than play video games. However, there are more violence in movies, tv shows than there are in video games, and the violence in movies, especially in horror films, are much more realistic that those in video games. You have real people who are “committing” those violent acts. In DeVane and Squire reading, they mention that games are based on the interaction of players’ practices, identity, discourse and the game, not solely based on the game itself. The trailer also showed clips of the game where the players are in hell. I haven’t gotten that far into the game where I was at the point where I had to go to hell to shoot demons. As I was watching this, I thought isn’t this game based on reality, why are they turning something serious and real into a mockery? The shooters in the game were real people, who killed other people, they were murderers. Now you have them in this game, where they not only shoot people, but demons. This is extremely disrespectful to the victims of Columbine, to have what happened to them turn into a mockery, a game. Yes, the game did bring an interesting perspective about Columbine, but adding the parts of hell and demons, the creator is basically saying shooting kids aren’t enough; we need to make it more interesting; let’s have the shooters go to hell and shoot demons. In a way, this makes me think that the creators want the shooters to become heroes. The role of the good guys/ heroes were always to kill the demons, slay the dragons, and get the girl. In this case, there probably isn’t a girl that needed rescuing, but there were demons that needed to be killed. This game is no longer about the Columbine shootings, but rather a GAME that stars the shooters of Columbine. Frankly, I’m disappointed that someone would turn something so tragic into a game, and not even approach the subject matter seriously.Sun, 22 Feb 2009 20:57:04 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3649&iddiary=6855https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3649My second experience playing this game is not that much of an impovement compared to my first time. I was finally able to make it to the cafeteria and back to the car! Sadly, that also took about forty, forty five minutes. I did say I am not a gamer, and probably never will be. I won't go into detail about what I did playing this game for a second time, because since I didn't really encounter anything new in the game compared to what was written in my previous post. As I was playing the game, I can't help but to think that this is based on reality. The shootings did happen, the students did die, and everytime I got caught, I couldn't help feeling relieved. I mentioned that in my previous blog, but neglected to continue, because I was still frustrated about the fact that I couldn't even go from one end of the hall way to another. Now I can honestly think about the existance of the game, and how offending it must to towards the victims and the families of the victims of Columbine. These students died a tragedic death, that probably could have been prevented had people stop bullying others. Now there's a virtual version of what has happened to them out there in the world, and there are teens playing this game as the shooters, the murderers. I am a reluctant to play this game, because I'm playing the role of real life murderers. How they reached to that point in life is sad, but sinking to the point of being a murderer and killing people you know without any signs of regret or sorrow is pretty scary. Playing this game, I can't help but think in the back of my mind, that this really happened, these guys really did shoot and kill people. A part of me was wondering as I played this game, how could they do this? In class, we talked about having relationships with characters that we developed, and once that character turns on us in the game, we would still be hesistant to kill them. This is real life though, these kids killed and shot students who they've seen everday, walked by. Though we may not have developed relationships with the people we sit go to school with, but just imagine Columbine happening here. The students who you've become used to sitting next to you or in front of you is no longer there. Just playing this game allowed me to really think about what happened in Columbine. Before when people would talk about the Columbine shootings, I would feel very sympathetic towards them, but I still couldn't picture myself in their shoes, whether its the shooters or the victims. This game allowed me to experience what the shooters were feeling and thinking. I don't feel very comfortable with it, maybe its because I know who these people were and what they did. By playing them, I am, in a way, siding with them and their actions, even if its wrong. You should never take a life, much less twelve others, because everyone has a right to live.Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:22:28 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3649&iddiary=6829https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3649For my first experience playing Super Columbine, I have to say the keys are easy to use, just use the arrows to walk and press enter. But I have to say I suck, since I kept getting caught, couldn't even finish the mission, dropping the bombs into the cafeteria. You can tell, I am clearly not a gamer, and that is a fact. It was extremely frustrating, because as I'm walking down the hallway, suddenly I stop, make a full circle, and say "Busted", I was confused, because I didn't see any hallway monitors. I understood the times when a hallway monitor spoke to me, and I turn around, then I get caught, but how do I get caught without anyone seeing or talking to me? After this experience, I hope my next one I can at least make it past the hallway and onto the cafeteria, wherever that may be. The game starts off with a black screen, and a dialogue telling my character Eric to wake up or I'm going to be late for bowling class. Then I begin to control my character having him walk to the door, but then a green dialogue box pops up telling me to call his friend. I have to walk to the phone and press enter. This is where the game really begins, because this is where I find out what we're planning to do. Basically, this game is about two characters who want to shot and blow up the school. Since I haven't begun to missions on where I actually shot and blow people up, I haven't experienced the violence on the game. But I can tell from the conversations the characters are having its not going to be good. They mention what they think its probably going to happen after this incident, such as the government making more gun control laws, or people blaming their parents. I am relieved that I spent like about forty minutes getting caught, because to be honest, I don't think I'll be able to shoot anyone on purpose just for the sake of shooting. In class, we talked about how we become emotionally attached to our characters, and even though I haven't played the game or developed an emotional bond with any of the characters, I'm already dreading the fact that I have to shoot people. Though I am very frustrated because I've probably spent like forty minutes getting caught, and that isn't fun at all. I've been reading the other blogs, just to get an idea of how other people have been getting past the hallway, and someone mentioned I had to be hidden from the cameras, and aviod the people. Keeping this tip in my mind, hopefully the next time I play I'll make it to the cafeteria.Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:31:29 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3649&iddiary=6822https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3544For my last time playing this game, I’ve decided to forgo all missions, and randomly hit people, and steal their cars. This allowed me to pay more attention to the reactions of the people surrounding me. When I was playing the missions, I didn’t really pay attention to how people where behaving and what they were saying. I’ve noticed as I was randomly hitting people, or jacking their cars and doing other illegal things is actually good for my character. My respect increases, my health increases, and my wealth increases. In the GTA world, everything we stand against in reality is condoned in this world, because its fight for survival. If you don’t do anything to harm others, they end up harming you. But if you fight and steal, your skills improve which helps you survive. You do “bad” things, and you survive. I’m sure there are situations where your personal ethics and morals don’t come into play, because it comes down to your basic, natural instinct of survival. In GTA, the “hood” is the place where it comes down to your natural instinct of either kill or be killed. I remember when I was being shot at, I would hijack cars and run people down. All that matters is my survival. Not doing the missions takes a lot of the pressure away, because I don’t have to follow the radar map or pay close attention to the movies and what the characters were saying to me. I’ve mentioned in my previous blog how confusing the other characters were, but now that I wasn’t consumed with the missions, the behaviors of the people weren’t that confusing. When cops were driving by, usually there was a car chase, which explained why the hookers would scream. Cars traveling at fast speeds, being chased by cops, usually meant there was no safe driving and people would end up dying. The characters were extremely aggressive, because the environment calls for it. You have hookers walking around every corner and street, drug dealings going down, and cops everywhere. If you could mind your own business and avoid people, it’s hard to do. Eventually you’ll have to run into them, or they’ll catch up to you and beat you or shoot you. It’s an extremely aggressive environment, and minding your own business doesn’t really apply. Without having to follow the missions, I ended up being the aggressor. I would rob people, and jack the cars. I have come to the conclusion that GTA: San Andreas, or any version of GTA is not my cup of tea. The video game is extremely violent, and the missions seem ridiculous. I don’t really play video games. As I mentioned in my first blog, playing GTA for the first time is like me being thrown in the deep end of the pool, and told to swim without knowing how to swim. The first and second time I was playing the game, I was still learning how to control my character and completing the mission. By the second time, I quit. I don’t really understand the concept of GTA, I read the back of the cover, and it seemed like it had an interesting plot, but playing the game, I don’t see how that applies to the missions, or rather I don’t see how the missions apply to the plot. From reading the back, I figure Carl is trying to “right” the city, but the missions are asking Carl to do the exact opposite. They want him to be as immoral, and as corrupt as everyone else in the city. The missions seemed pointless compared to the plot, but if I had played the game first, then read the cover, I would have said the plot doesn’t really go with the missions. In the defense of San Andreas, I didn’t get too far into the missions and game, so I may not have seen everything San Andreas had to offer. Just based on first impression, I thought the video game was pretty pointless. I’ve come to the conclusion that I am not a gamer, and that GTA: San Andreas is a video game that allows its players to be as violent, cruel, and immoral as much as they want while completing pointless missions.Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:47:52 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3544&iddiary=6648https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3544On my second time playing San Andreas, I continued my mission to follow Sweet. I ended up going back my house (Carl's house) and I was suppose to change and clean my appearance up. But my character didn't have any clothes, so I was confused, but then I realized I can steal some clothes. After Carl left the house, a movie was shown, where he had a phone call from a friend. I couldn't really understand what he was saying exactly, but I understood that I had to watch my back, since the “top dog” is no longer my friend. Throughout the course of the game, I had to drive, which also took me awhile to get use to. My control over my character only improved slightly meaning I know longer was moving in zig zag directions or traveling in circles, but I still continued hitting light poles, running into walls, and running people over. There is this mission where I'm suppose to tag the walls to also gain respect. I’ve realized that it would be impossible for me to finish this mission, since I’ve died three times. Once a cop attacked me from behind, and as self defense I sprayed the cop. The cop ended up calling back up, and I was shot to death. The second time I died, I had driven the car over a bridge, and it flipped and blew up. The third time I ended up dying was because I was shot at in the enemy’s territory. In the end, I never gained respect. Now thinking back on it, I didn’t really think about my actions and what the consequences would be after I have completed those actions. Tagging walls allows for increase in respect, but in reality, you’re really damaging people’s property, and you can’t gain respect like that. From what I have seen, the characters are violent. If they're not shooting at me, then they're threatening me. The people I've met are black, and extremely ghetto. I noticed that as I'm passing people, I hear either threats of violence if I don't leave them alone, or people telling me to leave them alone, and other vulgar stuff. I see a lot of prostitutes walking down the street, and once a while, I’ll see drug dealings going on. Cars would randomly honk as I’m passing them or there would be random drive by’s. As cop cars drive by, there would be screams coming from hookers. I found the characters really confusing, because one minute they seem angry, another scared. I never know what to expect from the characters. Their actions and reactions to what could be my presence or presence of others. I’ve had people threaten to hit me, and actually punch me a couple of times because I was walking past them. I still don’t pay much attention to them, since I have a mission to accomplish. After dying three times, I’ve decided to call for a break. I’ll probably forgo the missions next time, and pay close attention to the by-standers.Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:27:59 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3544&iddiary=6631https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3544Today is my first time playing GTA: San Andreas, in fact its my first time playing a video game on a PS2. I have to say, I was confused and startled. As the game loading, I was playing controls and joystick, to get the feel for the controller. Before I knew it, I, or rather Carl, was walking into a wall, and there was a blue arrow pointing at a bike. I was suppose to get on the bike, and go to CJ, but in reality, I had difficulties maintaining the bike and riding the bike. I ended up running over a police officer, then hitting a light pole. Needless to say, I failed. It took twenty minutes for me to arrive at the destination. After I arrived at CJ, a movie was played, and I was confused. Profanity was used, I was threatened, and I could barely understand what was going on. Before I knew it, I had to follow Sweet on a bike. Let's just say biking is hard. It was when Carl hit a wall, and ended up biking in circles did I realize I've played long enough. I was shot at multiple times, chased by cars, and yelled at. While I was being shot at, I ended up stuck on a grassy field, where it took me a really long time to get out of. It took about twenty, thirty minutes to get to Sweet's location. The first time I played this game, it took me about 50 minutes to finish the "missions." I had a hard time controlling the joystick, so throughout the entire game, Carl was running and biking in zig zags. He also ended up running alot of people over, hitting alot of walls and light poles. I didn't notice the behaviors or characteristics of the people around me, because I was distracted on how to control Carl properly. Maybe the next time I play this game, I'll have a better control over Carl. My first experience playing GTA: San Andreas has been interesting. I don't really play video games alot, so I felt like I was pushed into the deep end of the swimming pool and told to swim.Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:52:25 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3544&iddiary=6625