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Nov 3rd, 2010 at 23:28:01 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2) |
I decided to get a tattoo to improve my gangster look. As I stated earlier, the only way I know to earn money is by beating people and stealing their cash. Killing hookers did not garner me any cash, so I began fighting random pedestrians. After stomping out four people, my bank account was only thirty-seven dollars. Since all the pedestrians I passed were African-American, I decided to attack a white guy. It sounds stupid since I was only killing people that were in my vicinity but I felt racist. I don’t know if it is because we live in a society that stresses being politically correct, but I felt I should kill people of different races equally. Since I lack directional skills, I was attempting to get back to the jail since I saw a lot of white people there but after driving around I realized I had a snowballs chance in hell of locating the county jail. I then decide I’ll kill someone in the current neighborhood I was in. I jumped out of the car and began looking for a victim. Finally I spotted a white male in a dark outfit. I immediately began punching him. Surprise! He was a cop. I was beyond pissed. This is my third time playing and this is the first time I have attacked a white guy and he was a cop. I think that means the game developers were either racist or unaware of actual statistics. I know for a fact that while a higher percentage of African-Americans are lower income, more white people actually live below the poverty line. That means that there would have to be more white people in San Andreas, then just cops. I am especially pissed because the cop begins to return attacking me and then I get arrested. I get out of jail with even less cash in my bank account then I started with. Frustrating!
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Nov 2nd, 2010 at 23:45:40 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2) |
While playing GTA: San Andreas for the second time, I noticed that the game forces me to commit violence and illegal activities. One of my missions was to drive accomplice Ryder to the local barbershop and then a pizza parlor. After visiting the barber, Ryder instructed me to order food at the pizza parlor. Ryder then proceeded to rob the pizza joint. Since this mission is part of the storyline, I as a player of the game am forced to participate. The cashier of the pizza parlor proceeds to chase me and Ryder out of the store and shoots at as we drive away. Driving in a similar manner to the earlier bicycling, I quietly crashed the car and it exploded in flames. I was then sent to jail, fined, and released far away from my home. I attempted to walk there but I would have taken me 10 minutes since my avatar runs so slow. The game basically forced me to steal a car in order to continue game play. While a defender of the game could say I chose to steal a car instead of running, I would respond that if I wanted to watch someone run long distances I would just watch the Olympics. The point of the game would be to complete mission, so I had to steal a car. Stealing the car allowed the game to continue. Also to complete the mission, I had to receive a haircut at the barbershop. In order to afford the haircut, I had to beat up and kill several pedestrians. The game is often described in the media as a medium to “kill hookers”, well in my quest for cash, I killed several. I learned that greater amounts of money came from non-hookers and that not all kills acquired cash, which meant I killed pedestrians for no reason. Since the object of the game is to complete the storyline by passing mission, the morality of right or wrong is based solely off how your/the avatars actions affect completing the game. So in the game actions that are illegal that help you complete the missions are considered correct. This would put the game on the ethical spectrum of relativism.
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Nov 1st, 2010 at 23:43:51 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2) |
Since I own neither a PlayStation 2 nor the game GTA: San Andreas, I had to trek to the loop campus and visit the CDM gaming lab in order to play. I had never been inside 243 S. Wabash (the CDM building), kind of like Mars, I’ve heard about it but never actually been there. The building had a flurry of activity and I rode the elevator to the seventh floor. I hoped off the elevator and entered the lab. Inside the lab there were seven people, all male, playing in front of large screened TVs. I kindly smiled at the fellow famers, gathered the GTA disk, and began setting up the system. The game began; I watched the cold video opening as the character “CJ” is introduced. I learn his mother had died, the police were framing him for murder, and he had to earn back the respect of his crew. The game then told me (playing as CJ) to hop on my bike and ride it home. As I clearly looked lost and confused, a classmate offered up the game playing manual. Since the game manual was bulky, I only quickly looked at the maps but my lack of directional skills carried over to the virtual world. Lost and confused, I ran over a man completely by accident. The man then began beating me up. I attempted to defend myself but the game gave no instruction of how to beat someone up. So after getting back on the bike only to be knocked off by the angry pedestrian I had run-over, I figured out the triangle button allowed me to punch the attacker. I peddled off and ran into a telephone pole. Embarrassed, I looked around the lab and thankfully no one was paying attention to me in my little corner of the lab. I finally navigate myself to my residence. I’m told by the game program to meet up with some of my homies. After another harrowing ride on my bike, during which I learn to wheelie, I arrive at an urban space where three fellow gangsters (one of which is apparently my brother) are mourning the loss of my mother. Then for some reason we are shot at by a rival gang and we all hop on our bikes and I am to follow Ryder to another location. In the confusion, I ride my bike directly into a cement pillar, fall off, and am killed by the rival gang. That’s when I hear the sound of laughter behind me. My horrible game playing and I assume my gender, garnered myself an audience. “I’m sorry. It’s just that you totally didn’t see it until you ran into it,” says the owner of the laughter. I now have a group of guys discussing whether I need the brightness of my television adjusted. I try again and pass my first mission, with the help of the boys directing back to my/CJ’s house.
From my first experience playing GTA: San Andreas, I learned that it is not game conditioned for novice video game players with little to zero knowledge of the game. I had a money count but no knowledge of how to earn cash. Only after told by fellow gamer that I had to beat money out of people did my bank account grew. Also, my only contact with video games has been with the motion senor control of the Wii. This meant when I tried to steer my bicycle, I tilted the entire controller instead of the joystick as instructed by the program. Basically, I sucked at riding the bicycle. Overall I found my experience playing the game as a sexist. First, I was given no choice on the gender of my avatar. While I realize that majority of real-world gang members are male, a percentage is female and in turn should be a viable option to play as. Also, I garnered the attention and the help from the entire gaming lab. While this work to my advantage because I did need their help, is the stereo-type of gamers being for the most part male? And was I reinforcing the stereo-type of crappy female gamers?
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