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Sep 24th, 2009 at 18:55:11 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) |
I decided I should make this 4th blog because I want to make an important point.
I've been playing San Andreas quite a bit the past few days. Today I got off the train and was waiting for the train to pass and I was just looking around and there were a bunch of people in cars next to me with the windows open waiting for the train to pass by. All the sudden I started getting these thoughts of how it would be fun to just walk up to the person and open their door, jack em in the face, and drive off with their car. I was thinking how I would go about doing it and what the persons reactions would be. Would they say stuff like they do in GTA? Would they just let me take it or fight to stay in? If they stayed in, it would be hard for them to drive away because the train was still there, how would they react? I then all the sudden realized that I was thinking about this stuff obviously because I have been playing San Andreas alot lately and thought it was pretty interesting. It reminded me about how in the past after playing Assassins Creed alot, when I went outside into the real world... I was instinctively looking at objects and buildings around me and thinking about how I would go about climbing on-top of them since in Assassins Creed, thats what you have to do. It's kind of weird that those thoughts and skills of thinking about how to accomplish goals such as jacking cars or climbing objects I get from playing games and start trying to apply them to the real world. Kind of scary at the same time, I have to like convince myself "No, thats not the right thing to do, I shouldn't be thinking about this".
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Sep 24th, 2009 at 15:01:02 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) |
I played the PS2 version again, since I didn't have a save, I decided to just run around and do stuff instead of play the storyline. I used weapons cheat so I had weapons.
1. At first, I jacked a police motorcycle cuz I like motorcycles and then I decided "hey I will be a good person" and tried to do some vigilanty missions. It was hard because the police kept trying to kill me since I stole the bike and might have killed a few people. I ended up slowing down and there was a cop there at the right moment and he busted me by knocking me off the bike. I thought it was interesting when reading the dialog (which I couldn't skip) after being arrested, the dialog said that the police release me but take some bribe money in-order to do that. Obviously they take my weapons too. Its interesting because in a way, the game is saying that all police are corrupt and take bribe money. Its true that in real life, there are some currupt cops that take bribes, but not ALL police take bribes. In GTA, you always get released, hence ALL police in GTA apparently take bribes. Either that, or you keep getting lucky and get the same police officer that always lets you go. But there is nothing that indicates this in the game. Even if it is the same police officer that takes the bribe, there would be something inherently wrong with the justice system in GTA that everytime you get arrested, you get the same police officer that takes the bribe and lets you go. So in essence, SA's system of justice is utterly currupt because cops keep taking bribes from you. I think if you dont have any money, they still take your bribe of $0 and let you free which doesn't make any sense if you think about it, who would take a $0 bribe? In the end, this is just a game, so its not meant to be realistic. Hopefully people dont start playing GTA and start thinking "If I get caught, I'll just bribe the police officer to let me out" because this notion of bribing does not work (or shouldn't) in real life.
2. Later, I got a bunch of police on me after blowing people up so the cops were after me. I jumped in a car and drove into the skate park that had deep holes in it for skateboarding. I ended up trapping the police that were after me in that hole and they couldn't get out. So I started killing them, and I realized "Hey this is an awesome place to kill cops cuz they just get stuck and I can pick em off" I started then thinking "If I ever get cops on me, I'll drive them into the skate park in real life and get them stuck, it works in GTA so it might work in real life" So now... If I ever get chased by the police in real life (hopefully not) and I decide to flee, I will look for the closest skate park and try to get them stuck in there. So in essence, with this thinking, I am thinking that what applies in GTA will apply in real life. Now I know that the police AI in GTA isn't the greatest and that real police probably wont be as stupid as police in GTA, but maybe, if I trick the police and make a trap somehow, it might work.... everything I am saying here is scary! If you dont realize it, I am right now using GTA as a tool for figuring out ways to evade cops. It reminds me how people said that Columbine students made a level for Doom of the layout of their school in order to get a first person understanding and kind of envision how to do the school shooting. I am doing the same thing, but I am envisioning how to avoid the cops. This is scary!
3. Later I got arrested again and let out on a bribe again. I no longer had a wanted level and was at the level of a normal citizen, neither good nor bad, just neutral. First thing I saw was a black guy running and behind him was a police officer. I watched the police chase him down for a while just kind of running along. The police then started to slow down, looked like he was getting tired, maybe a few too many donuts. So I decided that the police needed help and I wanted to start being a good upholding San Andreas citizen and do the right thing. I decided to help the cop enforce justice onto the black guy running from the cop. So I caught up to the guy and started punching him, right away, the cop switched targets and instead of helping me fight the guy, the cop started beating on me, as well as the black guy who stopped running and started beating on me too. Then I was like "WTF!? I am trying to be a good citizen and help the cops chase down a bad person, and I am being beaten to death for this? This isn't fair! This is unjust!" So pretty much, I tried to do a good thing in GTA and I was being punished for it. So in a way, SA is discouraging me and punishing me for trying to be a good person. This isn't right! If I had beat on an innocent person, I would understand the police attacking me, but I was beating on a criminal trying to run from the law. Further-more, the police stopped chasing that guy all together and solely focused on beating me down, I would say its because I am black, but the other guy was black to so that argument doesn't play. If that guy was white though, I would definately make that claim!
4. I honked at a guy cuz he was in my way and I didn't want to run him over, a good thing to do right? He then turned to me and flipped me off. Maybe this promotes bad behaviour in real life? Maybe next time someone honks at me I will just flip him off. Hopefully he wont run me over like I did the guy in the game, maybe that wasn't the right thing to do, but it taught him a lesson at least... that is if NPC AI can be taught a lesson, which it cannont. But in a sense, I felt good. You know why? because it was justice, I tried to do something good, guy does something bad, I punish him by running him over. Its extreme, but in a sense, justice was served. Alot of time in real life, I want to teach someone a lesson when they do something bad, but if I did, I would probably get in trouble. At least I can do it in a video game since I cant do it in real life. Like I always see people do something illegal when driving, like they run a red light and end up getting stuck in the intersection and then no cars can pass cuz traffic is backed up. The guy doesn't usually get punished for that, maybe just a few people honk at the person, I wish sometimes I had a paintball gun and could shoot them or throw eggs at their car as a way of punishing them... that way they know they are stupid and have to wash their car as a punishment. But if I did that, I would probably get arrested or something, even though all I am doing is bringing people who have done something wrong to justice. Hmm, in a way, now that I think about it, in my case '3' listed above, in real life, if I tried to help a cop chasing someone down, I would probably get arrested as well for helping the cop... seems backwards, but I am sure thats what would happen. Why do police get to bring people to justice but normal pedestrians cannot? Do police have some special ability to enforce justice? Can regular people not enforce justice? If we see someone stealing, should we not do something about it? No, I think regular people should be able to enforce justice.
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Sep 24th, 2009 at 00:22:58 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) |
There are a few parts when CJ's brother and sister are fighting because Sweet doesn't want Kendl dating Cesar who is Mexican and part of a different gang. Sweet tries to justify why she shouldn't date him, but seems to not have a valid point he can grasp. One point makes him racist, and when he makes another point that Cesar is trouble, she says he's no better which kind of counters the statement. CJ says as long as Cesar's good to her it shouldn't be a problem. Sweet eventually says to CJ something like "if you value your sisters life, you'll stop her from dating that guy, you'll understand why when you get older".
To me, it seems like Sweet is trying to justify his moral stance on why she shouldn't date Cesar but cannot because they do not come to a conclusion that satisfies him. So instead he just throws out the "you'll understand when you get older" claim, meaning he cannot reason out his conclusion and therefore takes the conversation outside the realm of reason and logic. On the other hand, CJ has a simple and good moral stance that he takes, "as long as hes good to her". Meaning, if Cesar stops being good to her, then she shouldn't date him. This moral stance is based on reason/logic and is impartial. CJ does not take this stance because he wants Kendl to date Cesar, nor because he doesn't want her to date him. CJ takes this stance because it is what he believes is right, and since he can reason it out and since its impartial, it seems to be a good moral stance to take. At least he can reason it out unlike Sweet.
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Sep 22nd, 2009 at 23:32:59 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) |
I went to the DePaul gaming lab to play this game and there was already another student from class playing it, so I watched her play it and discussed with her a few things about the game and helped her out since I had already played the game before.
First let me ask this, what is the point of discussing ethics and having ethics courses if no one follows ethics anyways? Why do I ask this? Well, I didn't think much of it at the time, but after the girl was done playing San Andreas she said "There, I played it for an hour and a half, so now I just need to make 3 entries on 3 different days so it looks like I played it on 3 different days". It says specifically on the homework, "Play Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, on three different occasions for at least 30 minutes each time." ... so sorry, but when I sit down now to write my game log about Ethics in San Andreas, I think just how un-ethical what she said is. I mean, I could do the same thing since I played the game before and I could just make stuff up, but to me, that would be the wrong thing to do because that would be cheating on the assignment. So I am over here trying to install San Andreas on my computer and trying to figure out why it keeps crashing or why it wont read it on my other computer and pulling my hair out trying to find drivers and stuff, and my bro went let me install it on his computer cuz he's using it all the time. And then not being able to play it at the gaming lab because someone is hogging the game for 1hr and a half cuz they want to cheat on the assignment... So, why dont I just pretend like I played the game and just make shit up? Because its the wrong thing to do, the unethical thing to do, so I wont do it. While on the other hand, it seems everyone around me is just doing the wrong thing and are acting unethical, pretending like they played the games for 3days when they are just lying. In the end, looks like I am the one suffering while everyone gets away with it. So again I ask, what is the point of discussing ethics if no one is going to follow them? Ethics isn't hard, everyone knows the difference between right and wrong, just no one follows them. We dont need a course to discuss ethics, everyone already knows whats right and whats wrong. The girl knows cheating is wrong, but still she does it... why? because no one cares about ethics, no matter how many courses they take. Man, I am starting to sound like that guy I met that worked in Japan at Bandai Namco, he majored in Philosophy and I asked him if it was a good idea to major in philosophy or not and he said "No its a waste, no one wants to think anymore now-a-days".
Okay enough ranting, I'll start writing about the game.
1: What was pretty interesting was that the girl that was playing, after playing for a while, she started getting angry. An NPC in a car swerved in front of her and she shouted something like "Get the fuck out of the way!" pretty loud and the game lab mod told her to "Keep it down". Before playing though she was pretty calm, maybe she was just getting into.
2: I thought also it was funny that we turned up the volume so we can hear what the characters are saying during the cutscene and there was alot of swearing and in particular racial swearing, so the game lab mod told us to turn down the volume even though it wasn't that loud, we could barely hear what they were saying in-game. If there wasn't any swearing, it wouldn't have been a problem, especially since we are just 'doing our homework'. I think the fact that we aren't allowed to swear in the gaming lab is retarded, alot of popular games like San Andreas are violent and have alot of swear words, so thats what a gaming lab should have... its almost like forcing us to wear business clothes to go to the gaming lab, its uncomfortable and nobody likes it. We are forced to act 'mature/professional' even though games are 'immature/non-professional'... people need to stop lying to themselves and face the facts, games are violent and have alot of swear words, so if there is swear words in a video game, or if people who play video games like to swear, its whats expected and we shouldn't be forced not to swear, at least not in a gaming lab dedicated only for video games.
My bro just let me install San Andreas on his comp and I played it for about an hour just now. I'll start fresh with whats on my mind now.
1. Alot of racist terms I noticed. If the main character was white, then this game would definately have more heat on it. hehe, I said heat... I think if the black people didn't call each other nigga here and there, this game would not feel realistic to what street life is like, and I think realism is one of the main goals in this game. It would feel out of place if they didn't call each other nigga. Also, reflecting now, I dont think they actually say nigger, but usually just nigga... I think that somewhat softens the racial shock for some people that play the game. Nigga isn't the only racist term, but also the white officer calling the cab driver a 'dirty mexican' and then apologizing to his friend that is mexican. Also that same cop calls CJ on his cell and keeps referring to him as 'boy', while CJ refers to him as 'Officer Timpanies bitch', its more comical then anything, but its worth noting that there is still that WASP racist tone in the white officers voice. If it was a lil more racist, it would be out of place. I think its kind of relevant with whats going on in the news right now with President Obama and the racist congressman who stood up and said that Obama is a liar, pretty much saying "You are a liar, boy". There is still that WASP racist feeling in the US that whites are superior to blacks and I think its something that people like to sweep under the covers... or rug. I think San Andreas does a good job of kind of giving a realistic feel of that racism that exists. I can see a white cop calling some black kid 'boy', specially because there's nothing CJ can really do about it, so that WASP racism kind of comes out. I wonder what Obama would say if he played San Andreas, being the first black president and all :)
2. After playing the game for just a bit, I already want to start talking gangsta, just for fun. Like saying things like 'busta' 'packin heat' 'ballas', kind of catchy, maybe because I remember them from when I first played the game, brings back fun memories when I was a true gangsta in the hood back in the day, u dig homie?
3. They speak of the 'Grove' as if its a living/breathing thing. Like CJ says something like "hopefully the Grove will get more active" after I took out a few drug dealers that were making people like Big Bear into slaves. The 'streets/grove' really has a human quality.
4. Just like the 'grove'... the fat guy talks about the bible as if it were a living thing. He calls it "the book". But it seems to have a darker tone to it then the bible we often refer to. He says something like, "where there is good, there is also bad", which seems a way of justifying alot of the evil things that their gang does. Almost like using the bible to justify their actions. It reminds me of Divine Command Theory and the reason why we and not even the catholic religion use that as a workable ethical theory. Pretty much the fat guy is justifying them killing and taking over the streets by using the bible and saying that they are just doing the 'bad' in-order for there to be 'good'. He is obviously mis-interpreting the bible, but it shows how simple mis-interpretations can let some people justify killing as Gods will with Divine Command Theory, kind of like the Crusades... hence why its a bad means for justifying moral actions.
5. Now that I think of it, I remember when I first played San Andreas like 3-4 years ago. I was very surprised at first that the main character was black, because there are like 0 games out there where you play as a black character. But then I thought about it and I said "this is a good thing!" I dont know how to say it without sounding racist, but gangs are more in the black community then white and so if any character should be in a GTA game, it should be a black character. Of course with the main character being black, San Andreas has a much different feel then most GTA games. For example, the storyline is more about respect, the hood, and the family. Whenever you complete an objective, you gain respect which later lets you control homies who help you out retake back your hood. In San Andreas, you can grab your homies, and ride around in your car doing drive-by's and take over turf. It's got a much more family oriented feel to it then the previous GTA games where you pretty much work by yourself to accomplish goals. I think part of that is because the main character is black and (I am generalizing) black people are more family oriented then white people who are more about taking care of themselves.
^A bit off topic, but I remember one time I was taking the bus in Chicago and it was a very black part of the city, somewhere south of Chicago, I was the only white person on the bus and felt out of place. Anyways, the bus driver stopped at a bus stop and was about to drive off but noticed a black women running to the bus, so he stopped the bus again and waited about 45secs for the women to run to the bus to get on, a decent wait time. I realized at that point, if the bus driver was white, he probably would have not waited for the person to run to the bus, because white people care more about getting things done efficiently and dont care much for others misfortunes, whether of the same race or not. Also, if there were white passengers, some people might be annoyed they had to delay their ride for 1 person. While black people, especially in the black community, try to help each other out and wont complain that they had to wait a few seconds on the bus to help someone else out that was running late. Also I think alot of black people are very social as opposed to white people who tend to keep to themselves and not talk to strangers, while blacks are more likely to make new friends. I think these examples back up the fact that San Andreas, does a pretty good job at portraying the black lifestyle where its more about family, community, and friends... something that we don't see in most games since most games hardly ever focus on black characters and communities.
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