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Nov 2nd, 2010 at 12:17:03 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2) |
My third play session of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas really opened my eyes up to the gang life portrayal in the game. During this play session I stayed away from the missions, which is how I played my first two times, and put more focus on the open world environment. I decided to see how all that "respect" I earned from the missions I did previously helped me out in the real world.
While playing I realized that the respect hadn't earned me anything yet, but it put me very close to earning what you could call your first "respect" reward. During the previous missions, I took on the role as a member of the Grove Street Gang, a gang sporting green apparel, and was quickly thrown into war with the Ballas, our rival purple wearing gang. I intentionally used the word "our" because I really felt like I was a member of the gang. I instantly knew that anyone wearing green was my friend. I also knew that anyone wearing purple was my enemy. I used the weapons I had collected in the missions I did earlier to kill anyone I saw wearing purple. After I did this for a little bit I had earned enough respect to earn my first "respect" reward.
After killing a small group of Ballas, I was informed that I could now form a gang with up to three additional members in it. I'm not sure if I had the ability to form a smaller gang before this, but I now knew that I could enlist the help of my fellow Grove Street brethren to help fight our rival gang, and I did just that. I added members to my gang and found some Ballas and just started shooting. While fighting the Ballas, I upgraded my pistol skill, transforming me into a more accurate killing machine. i also received a frightening message that I was close to "Hitman" level, which would make me able to dual-wield pistols, further increasing my killing potential.
The game world was a very different place at the end of my play session than it was at the beginning. When I started today, the Ballas were not hostile towards me. I could walk right by them and nothing would happen. At the end it was a different story. Simply going near them would result in them whipping out their pistols and shooting me. It even got to the point where I would just be walking down the street and I would see random shots firing at me. These gang members were going out of their way to hunt me down. This is a very frightening look at the gangs not only in the game, but also what gangs can be like in real life.
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Nov 1st, 2010 at 20:51:55 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2) |
My second play session of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas opened my eyes even more to the area of Los Santos. This time I encountered much more foul language and drug use, along with more gang violence. This new play session made it ever more apparent than it already was that there is so much controversy surrounding this game.
The first mission I did today involved heavy drug use. My mission was to go into a crack den and kill the drug dealer and some drugged out members of a rival gang. What frightened me about this mission was the fact that littered all over the crack den were the bodies of many people who were too cracked out to move. At first glance I assumed that these were just limp models used to decorate the interior of the room, but I soon found out that they were in fact living characters who I could target and kill. This people were incredibly weak and put up no resistance to attack, my simple attacks killing them in one hit. This was a frightening look at the effect of drugs on people. This is a grim outlook on the effects of drug use, but unfortunately it wasn't the only presentation of drugs in the game.
The other scene of drug use that i saw was in the character Ryder. Ryder is always seen with a lit joint in his hand. This isn't just a look at drug use in the game, it's who this character is. This drug use seems to be built into Ryder's character. His character model is always seen with a joint in his hands. In the comfort of his own home he has a joint and even in the car while we are going through the drive-thru, he still has that joint in his hand. This is a very different view of drugs as apposed to the earlier scene of drug use. His character seems to be glorifying its use. Ryder is one of the main characters of the game, so this use seems be glorified by the simple fact that it is used so frequently by one of the "Heros" of the game.
This game also has an alarming number of scenes that include foul language. The characters often use foul language and also commonly use the "N" word to address each other. One of these scenes included a phone conversation between CJ and Officer Hernandez, a police officer who is working with Officer Tenpenny. This scene contained a lot of foul language and showed CJ showing disrespect for authority. by playing this game even more I can see how parents would see that this is a horrible game that could be a terrible influence on younger players.
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Oct 30th, 2010 at 12:07:49 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2) |
My first play session of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas introduced me to the characters and the City of Los Santos. You play as CJ, a Black male who just moved back home to Los Santos from the east coast where he lived in Liberty City. When he returns home, he finds that his family's gang, the Grove Street Gang, doesn't have the high street rep it once had. He returns home and meets up with his old friends and his brother. One of the strongest feelings I had during this scene was the strong sense of family that exists in the gang. I think that this can be viewed as one of the most controversial parts of this game. One reason that I think that many people can view this is a bad influence on kids is the games presentation of a sense of family and support within the gang. There is also a huge lack of consequences in this game. After playing this game for under an hour I casually committed a few murders, which resulted in almost nothing bad happening. The only thing that happened was that I got a one star wanted level, which made me have to drive a short distance to evade the cop that didn't seem to interested in putting a do-no-gooder like me behind bars. After that very brief run in with the local law enforcement I just continued my murderous rampage somewhere else. After my first play through I can see why many people find this game to be such a bad influence on children.
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brad.m.garrett has been with GameLog for 14 years, 0 months, and 24 days |
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