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Mar 26th, 2014 at 19:07:46 - Columbine RPG (PC) |
Columbine RPG: Session 3
3/26/2014
I didn’t expect the game to extend beyond the school rampage, but after claiming your life you find yourself in a version of hell inspired by the game “Doom”. The classic doom theme plays in the background as you roam around hell searching for your partner. Some might argue that this extension of the game trivialized the serious issue it was trying to address, but I actually enjoyed it.
The monsters in hell, also inspired by doom, are a lot harder to beat than the defenseless school goers you fought earlier. I tried my best to avoid them, and died countless times before I managed to find my partner. But even with him back on my team, the battles didn’t get much easier.
I roamed around a little more, with no clue as to what I was supposed to do. The gameplay was a lot better now that the enemy could actually do significant damage to me, but I wish the game had made my goal clearer. After suffering tons of more deaths, I decided to end my session and conquer the game another day.
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Mar 26th, 2014 at 19:07:26 - Columbine RPG (PC) |
Columbine RPG: Session 2
3/25/2014
I started off at the parking lot after arming the two bombs inside the cafeteria. I proceeded to the park located near the school to wait for the bombs to go off. The player witnesses the two students having a conversation describing their frustration at the way people lived their mundane lives. While the developer had no way of knowing what actually occurred between the students, I feel that he did a good job of giving the player an idea of how they felt about the world and their frustration with life.
After the brief chat, we return to the parking lot to arm the final car bomb. But as the minutes tick by, we realize that all of our explosives have failed and decide to go in with our weapons anyway. This is when the game enables the player to combat other students. The combat system is turn based, similar to the one used in the Pokémon games. Most of the battles are easy, with the opponents dying in a couple of hits. A majority of them don’t even put up a fight. This part of the combat felt a little too real, and I initially felt sick killing those innocent people. But I kept at it and fought my way to the cafeteria.
I had read online that the two gunmen tried to detonate the failed explosives by using pipebombs and guns, and hence I knew what I was supposed to do ( It would have been hard for a person to decide the necessary course of action without that knowledge, as the game doesn’t tell the player what needs to be done). As you exit the cafeteria, you get an insight into the sad life of one of the students as he sits alone at lunch, seeking the attention of his peers. The developer explains how this plea for attention gradually turns to hatred and a desire to kill. The player can empathize with the killers to some extent, yet it is difficult to justify their actions.
I decided to look at their actions from two moral frameworks: the utilitarian perspective and the social contract theory.
From a utilitarian standpoint, they ended the lives of numerous people and also caused physical harm to dozens of others. They caused sorrow to the families and friends of those harmed, and also damaged a large amount of property. But their actions made the world aware of the severity of bullying taking place in some institutions, and the trauma some of the students were put through. It brought about the enforcement of laws which would prevent bullying in the future. It is really hard to decide whether the pros outweigh the cons for this act.
Looking at it from a social contract perspective, I feel that their social contracts were violated when they were treated as outcasts at their school and were denied fair social interactions. Does this entitle them to get back at the school and the students who ill-treated them in the manner that they did? Perhaps not.
I made it to the library soon after ( I avoided conflict as much as possible, but I was lost for a brief amount of time and thought that eliminating everyone was the only way to proceed. I killed many innocents under this illusion, till I found a side passage which I had overlooked). After exchanging fire with cops, I witnessed the two gunmen commit suicide. The real life pictures of the victims and the gunmen which followed were really powerful, and as I have mentioned earlier, the game developer has done a very fine job with choosing sound tracks for different events in the game.
More to come in my final log.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Mar 26th, 2014 at 19:09:36.
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Mar 24th, 2014 at 12:54:44 - Columbine RPG (PC) |
Columbine RPG: Session 1
3/23/2014
I started playing this game with a very base knowledge of the tragic incident that occurred at the Columbine High School, and I believe that gave me a chance to experience this game without any prejudice.
The player wakes up as one of the students responsible for the rampage, and proceeds to prepare himself for the event. The game developer has tried to give the player an unbiased account of how things might have actually transpired, and has stayed true to facts as much as possible( I read the lengthy wikipedia page on the incident after the session, and found the game to stay true to most of the facts).
I managed to place the explosives in the cafetaria and exit to the parking lot to arm myself, before I decided to end the session( Sneaking through the hallway was surprisingly difficult). The game had left me exhausted. My high level of immersion actually made me sympathize with the two students to a certain degree( The developer has done an amazing job with the music. The audio tracks were suitable and perfectly timed).
The game made me think about what could have possible caused these two to go to such extremes, but I think I will talk about that in my next log.
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Feb 5th, 2014 at 02:10:09 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PC) |
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
GameLog 3:
I did my first mission for the corrupt cop Tenpenny today. He instructed me to burn down the house of an undesirable person, reiterating multiple times during our conversation that I was his pawn and would do well to remember that fact. The mission entailed retrieving some Molotov cocktails from an alleyway and using them to set a house on fire. On arriving at the target house, I noticed a bunch of Vagos gang members loitering around it. It seemed like the house belonged to them. I personally had no dislike for the gang, but I wondered whether my character in the game, Carl Johnson, would actually enjoy this mission, given that he would be killing members belonging to a rival gang. He probably did enjoy it, but then I began to ponder whether he would have enjoyed it had the house belonged to an anonymous person who had wronged Tenpenny. I don’t think he would have, but he would have gone ahead with the arson anyway. After all, his live depended on it. The game comes across as a good example of relativism. Whatever enables the character to survive is justified and moral.
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