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Nov 3rd, 2010 at 23:58:53 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS3) |
After playing GTA for a third time, I realized that my incredible lack of skill made for a pretty narrow gaming experience. Rather than actually grasping what the game had to offer, I spent most minutes terribly frustrated that I couldn't drive a car without tipping over a street light every seven seconds.
So in addition to my three half-hour gaming sessions, I also watched some game footage on youtube made by people who completed GTA: San Andreas. The video I found most useful is located here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D8_2UIEGxc&feature=fvw. The reviewer in this particular video seemed to be a very experienced player and showed all sorts of sides to San Andreas that I didn't know existed in the game. I had no idea there were airplanes, jet packs, or easter eggs on top of monumental bridges. The game is much more immense than I realized and there are scenes that can only be called artistic. When I played, I was awed by the larger-than-life moon and in the youtube video, I saw sun flares that made the cinematography geek in me go weak at the knees. Suddenly all of my favorite authors began to lose some of their shine. I have lost myself in Orson Scott Card's world and I spent my 11th birthday waiting for a letter from Hogwarts, but I never got to interact with their creation. That's how novels are different from video games -- Rockstar not only writes a story, but they go beyond that by crunching numbers until you yourself can step into that story. But here's the question: just how good is that story? What is the point to this game? Why have hundreds of millions of dollars been poured in its production (Bowditch)? More importantly, why have over twenty million copies sold? These staggering numbers perplex me.
As I have begun to search for answers, a line from the youtube video review stuck out to me. At one point the reviewer says, "This probably isn't a game I'd let children play, but for us, it's a good time because you get to run around like a maniac and just raise hell…it's a great stress-reliever after a day of work." This scares the shit out of me. If Grand Theft Auto is considered a "stress-reliever", I want to say that something is definitely wrong with humanity. Car-jacking, murder, and violence are all things that I think most people would call trauma-inducing, not soothing in any way, shape, or form. Although I believe we can all agree on this, I hear this from friends who play video games all the time -- they're entertaining, fun, a good way to wind down.
There is something to be said for that. In a time when the world moves at 4G speed and only slows down enough to grab a sip of Starbucks, people are craving down time. We need to relax, settle, and digest the gigabytes of information that are being shoved into our skulls every day. It's ironic though, isn't it? We try to unwind by updating ourselves on the lives of everyone we know via social networks, plopping ourselves in front of the TV to soak up what's happening on the other side of the planet, or losing ourselves in crime-ridden pixel-worlds. Don't get me wrong, it's important to be informed, but it's also important to breathe. It's important to go outside, interact with people face to face, and understand what reality means.
All in all, I'd say that playing this game has been an incredible learning experience. Now when I discuss Grand Theft Auto, I can have more to base my opinions off of than the repetitive nagging my mother raised me on. The game brings up a lot of issues that many people across the world are facing, but I feel it doesn't really do anything to actually address them. I spent nine months working in a Latin American slum and I recognize that people need to be aware of what's going on in the ghettos, but I also haven't heard of many people playing GTA and immediately volunteering in rehab centers or donating money to programs that help at-risk youth. In my opinion, GTA does present a somewhat realistic portrayal of that lifestyle, but it does so in a way that romanticizes it; there are no permanent consequences to anything going on in the game.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas doesn't wipe people of all their ethics, but it certainly makes people question them. And if it doesn't, that's when I believe we should start to get worried.
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Nov 2nd, 2010 at 10:08:33 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS3) |
Day two of GTA and I have yet to go out and perform any criminal acts. Nor have I wanted to.
I'm not going to lie though -- after another rough start (my hands are not attuned to video game controls), a very flustered me immediately thought, "Let's just steal a damn car and speed things up." So I did. I wouldn't say I got an adrenaline rush as I pushed that triangle button for the first time, but I definitely felt something in my stomach; I'm telling myself it wasn't guilt.
Video games and movies aren't the first forms of media to pack themselves full of violence and thrust themselves at young audiences. Senior year of high school my literature class tackled Crime and Punishment, a novel that follows an unhinged protagonist as the main storyline. Dostoyevsky creates a character who believes in ethical egoism and divine command theory's distorted love-child; Raskolnikov considers himself one of the few intellectual "super humans" to exist and thus excuses all of his immoral actions. There are other moral issues in the book as well -- prostitution, alcoholism, suicide, etc. I want to bring this up because while Crime and Punishment is hailed as one of literature's greatest works, Grand Theft Auto has a rep worse than Tiger Woods. Both tackle extremely mature themes that are probably not suitable for young audiences, yet one is considered required reading while the other is banned from small hands. The general story line is the same: the lead male becomes a criminal because he is a product of his environment. How are they different?
Russian literature isn't the only thing I was assigned to digest in high school that made me think about murder. Look at the Bible. Although most Sunday school teachers glossed over the bulk of what written on those pages, young minds don't have to flip far to find passages about beheadings, incest, and several occasions of infanticide. How is this any softer than grand theft auto?
The truth is, they are different. GTA smothers the audience with visuals and swearing that doesn't exist in most printed media. It's also interactive -- that hazy word that carries so much weight. It's a proven fact that when students actually physically do an activity, they are much more likely to learn it. Is clicking some buttons the equivalent of actually doing what goes on in GTA? I don't believe so. Following that logic, you would have to say that every six-year-old who has ever played Wii-boxing is going to become the next big bully on CNN. It just doesn't pan out.
What have I learned so far? Video games can't be blamed for bringing about criminal action any more than any other source of a storyline -- music, movies, books, etc. Adults are quick to point at today's media, but they forget that violence has been occurring since the dawn of time; young people don't learn of its existence the first time they play Grand Theft Auto.
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Oct 30th, 2010 at 13:43:05 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS3) |
Today I lost my Grand Theft Auto virginity. I honestly never play video games, except for the annual post-eggnog family Wii session, and I identify myself as a pacifist. Playing Grand Theft Auto was on my top ten list of things to not do in life.
Hence, this has been the most challenging assignment of my short-lived college career.
The experience wasn't as exhilarating as my friends promised me, but it wasn't as traumatizing as I promised myself. If it wasn't for the guidebook at the gaming lab, I would have been puttering around on that bike for the entire half an hour. Instead I made it past CJ's mother's house and vainly attempted to keep up with his brother as people shot at me. At some point in there I ended up standing on top of a moving car, possibly creating a new sport -- car surfing. That was the extent of my adventures.
I did a poor job of interacting with other characters, at least according to the game. At one point I was offered to "respond positively" or "respond negatively" to some one's taunts. After choosing the first option, I was immediately told to "Fuck off and stop kissing ass." Then I was shot down and ended up in the hospital.
That happened a few times; I believe I ended up "wasted" on three occasions in the thirty minutes I played. What struck me was that CJ didn't die. Sure I lost $100 and had to fork over the weapons I had yet to earn, but there was no permanent consequence for getting bullets blasted into me. If I'm not mistaken, that's not how the real world works.
That's the point of video games though, right? So people can pleasure themselves in experiences they could never actually get away with in real life? Whether it's racing a go-cart on a rainbow trail though outer space or shooting some one in the face, these are things that we can't actually do. At least, we can't do them and get away with it.
I believe that's why there are no "morally sound" options in this game. As we talked about in class, CJ can't work for the pizza owner, create a mentored relationship with the man, and change his life around. No. He has to kill him. If some one wanted to better a community, foster a friendship or make any kind of positive change, they could do that in the real world and they should do that in the real world.
Maybe that's why I don't play video games. The world I live in satisfies me enough.
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