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NoorAta's Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2)
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| [February 15, 2009 04:38:42 PM]
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The next mission I played was the 'Drive Thru' mission. Through my many failed attempts at saving my homies from the rival gang drive, I got another glimpse into the atmosphere of the game. Because of the many time that I had repeated the mission, I noticed the radio advertisements playing in the car. Two that stuck out were for a clothing store for over sized people and for cough medicine. These advertisements revealed the satirical nature of the game from how outrageous they are. The clothing store advertisement says stuff like (paraphrased) 'If making love means eating three hot dogs, then come down to (name of store). We're just the clothing store for fat people'. The cough medicine advertisement talks about how it can make you forget about any cough or cold and even your own name. The special formula for the cough medicine includes alcohol and morphine. It's stuff like this with the stereotypes that makes the game joke. It's 'M' rating suits it. Although I do need to play more before I can completely judge the game, I think that the entire point of the game is to exaggerate these stereotypes and make up an environment that other people can enjoy. While others may classify it as a 'gang game', like I did before, that encourages destructive behaviors in the game, I change my mind about my initial thoughts about the game. A responsible adult would be able to identify these stereotypes and the exaggerated nature of the game. Therefore, the 'M' rating makes this game suitable because it is intended for people ages seventeen and up. Sure, some people have committed acts of violence and claim that it is because of games like GTA, but even before playing GTA, I always questioned their mental health.
This all causes me to agree with both the 'Gamers' and the 'Athletes' we discussed in class. The game exaggerates a lot of different elements and uses stereotypes, while providing the player with quite an amount of objectives, making the game enjoyable. I think the game itself is ethical because of this. Any well-minded adult would be able to spot these things and not take the game as a way to learn to be a criminal by emulating it.
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| [February 15, 2009 03:06:24 PM]
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I continued playing for another hour. Before heading out on another mission, I explored the house and found a wardrobe. Although I left wearing the same clothing that I was wearing before, it brought to my attention the stereotypical gangster outfit, specifically, the sagging jeans that revealed the top part of his underwear. The entire game seems to be built on stereotypes. The biggest is what gang life is. All characters talk in slang and dress in way that society has stereotyped gangsters. However, I have seen in real life people who dress and speak in similar ways, yet I wouldn't classify those people that I've seen as gangsters.
This time, I completed two missions. One in which I was required to spray paint over another gang's graffiti and another in which I was to beat down crack dealers. The first was just a matter of claiming, while the other was about protecting my homies from the harmful effects of crack. The crack den mission conveyed one of the values of my gang, 'drugs are bad'.
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| [February 15, 2009 01:56:19 PM]
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I played the game for about one hour, completing three missions. During the beginning cut scene, I could see the corruption of the cops mentioned by the 'Athlete' group. It managed to draw even more sympathy from me, as my character was only coming back to bury his dead mother. Carl was human and not some blood thirsty, 'let's go destroy everything' person, as I had imagined him to be from the things I have heard about the game. I had thought my prejudice of the game had been shattered.
As I continued to play, I realized that my previous idea may have been right, in that this game is essentially, a 'gang' game. You go on missions with others in your group and complete an objective that is assert your group's power.
So far, nothing I've done in the game is over the top, bizarre violence. The only bad thing I've done so far is help hold up a pizza place. Of course the the game allows you to run over pedestrians and crash into other cars, but I didn't find this to be a big deal as I didn't find there to be any award for doing any of these things. Rather the game was being realistic in that running over someone will kill them and leave a pool of blood. However, even when doing these things in front of cops, I was never chased. This may further convey the corruption of the cops. I makes the city seem like everything is corrupted and so it doesn't matter that you are part of it. This is the social norm of the environment in the game.
I've heard that you do get chased by the cops if you do break certain laws. I'll have to continue playing to see when these chases actually happen. It will allow to me to further evaluate the city's police force.
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