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Sep 24th, 2009 at 12:35:04 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) |
Playing through my final session of the game, there are many new things that come to mind. Not only am I seeing racial stereotypes, but other things like female prostitution, etc. Along with this, I feel like I am drawn less and less to the main plot of the game and I am more drawn to exploring and messing around. Within the open, sandbox aspect of the game, the game is drastically changed. No longer is the game about being in a gang and killing, now there is so much more. From gearing your character up with cool, new clothes, to even performing police side missions. To play this game it isn't necessary to kill and murder, but there are so many other things one is able to accomplish.
As I think about this, I remember about all the negativism about this game when it was first released. Accusations that GTA leads to violence in people who play it. I can't see how this game can cause people to become more violent. The game is what the player makes it out to be. If the player decides that the game is reality and begins to act in the same manner, then there is something with the player and not the game. While the game is packed with violence and illegal activity, I don't think it deserves all the negativism it receives.
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Sep 24th, 2009 at 01:38:53 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) |
For my second play session for San Andreas, I decided that I would try to get a bit more story done than I accomplished last time. With that in mind, I set out into Liberty City in search of new adventures. This time I played for a bit over and hour or so and got much farther than I did before, although still not that into the story. This time I stopped after having to Drive around with Sweet Johnson in order to do a drive-by against the Ballas gang.
Throughout playing the game, I was confronted with more of the same stuff, stereotypes, racial slurs, and lots and lots of violence. This wasn't a shocker though, I already knew that the game would be like that.
The first thing that caught my attention was a scene where the group decide to go get something to eat. Of course, you are told to drive to Cluckin' Bell, a fast food joint equivalent to that of Popeyes or KFC. Here a scene plays out showing the guys order the food, making a gag of Big Smoke ordering an impossible amount of food. Soon they are interrupted by the Ballas gang and they go on pursuit. Once again the game forces the player to follow one of the more common stereotypes of black people.
As the story progresses, it seems that the player is pt less and less into situations where they were just dragged in, and the player is forced to more actively engage in gang related activity. This is apparent by the missions you are made to do. It is no longer that the Ballas are appearing and you are defending yourself. Now, you have to go out in search for weapons, actually go out and attack the other gang via drive-by, etc. It seems that as the story plays on, the player and the characters a dragged deeper into a hole of depravity. The player slowly loses any type of choosing the moral high ground and are now forced to fight and kill.
Lastly, as my session came to a close, one little thing about the game jumped out at me. This was a detail about the game mechanics. Out of all the GTAs, this one was the only one that allows riding bicycles, and in an impossible fashion as well (one can out peddle police cars.) Along with that, San Andreas allows the player to make their character run faster by repeatedly tapping x, a feature that isn't in the other games. Was this done on purpose, maybe as a subtle hint into the stereotype that Black people run fast? With this final thought I ended my session, musing over the fact that CJ must be able to run over 50 miles per hour because I just caught to a speeding convertible.
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Sep 23rd, 2009 at 14:26:16 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) |
Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas, where can I start? As with the other GTA games, there is so much tightly packed into the game and presented to the player from the very beginning. Stereotypes and racial slurs are thrown in as soon as you start playing. I mean, the first thing the player has to do when the actual gameplay starts is steal a bike. Gee, golly. Who's ever heard of a black guy stealing a bike?
I have never followed the GTA series very closely, but I have played each of the games in the series to some extent. Usually my experience ranges from trying to follow the story’s actual plot, to then giving up and spending my time just running around doing as I please. This time I decided that I would try to keep the roaming around to a minimum and actually try to follow the story.
Having played the game before, I knew a lot about what to expect. The first thing I did was mess around a bit to get used to the control schemes and the driving. After about 10 to 15 minutes of running around then trying to see how long I could keep a wheelie going on the bike, about 30 seconds, I finally decided I should get on with the story. I played for a bit and didn’t get too far. I died several times, some by accident and some on purpose. By the end of my first session, I didn’t end up very far into the story. I had reached to the beginning of the scene called “Tagging up Turf.”
So far there isn’t too much to talk about. Race plays a very important aspect into the game along with all the negative stereotypes that go with it. The way you and your family present yourself is the typical “gangster” black person. The first few missions have the player getting used to the scenario, as CJ, the protagonists, gets familiar with his “hood” that he had left behind. The game has you running away from gangs and even tagging along for a failed attempt at sticking up a pizza joint. The first thing I noticed while playing the game is that the player is put into a culture where all the cops are corrupt. The first characters you meet are three cops who seem to have had previous encounters with CJ and are already out to get him. They drop you off in the middle of enemy territory, at the same time framing you for shooting an officer. Also, to further promote this aspect, after the first time you are arrested, or busted as the game puts it, a window tells the player that police will confiscate your weapons and put you back into the streets, that is after taking some of your money as a bribe. In this environment, there doesn’t seem to be much need for ethics and morals. One can do as the please and get away with it as long as they have money. As for ethical choices the game makes the player do, so far they amount to something like robbing and killing a person, or robbing and killing a person, then killing five onlookers because you still have ammo. The game almost tries to put the player in a situation as if he was dragged in to the conflict, but after stating that he has been clean for 5 years, CJ jumps back into the ganster life all too readily.
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Isaku has been with GameLog for 15 years, 2 months, and 11 days |
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