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SpitFire's Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas (XBX)
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| [January 18, 2010 11:10:52 AM]
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It is strange how this game encourages different behaviors. Your character in this game initially starts out with a white t-shirt and jeans. But your fellow gang members criticize your for not ‘representing’ the gang and wearing green. I went to the clothing store and even though I had my choice of selecting kind of clothing I wanted, I choose a green hoody and baggy jeans. The first thought that came to mind when I stepped out of the dressing room was “now I really look gangsta”. I had my choice of any color and style of clothing but at this point in the game I wanted to look like the other characters who I had been spending most of my time with.
Before I took on the next mission of the game I decided to build up my character a bit. I spent some time wondering the streets, beating down people for money and collecting weapons. I didn’t think twice about my actions. I was doing stuff gang members are expected to do and such actions are rewarded in the context of this game.
After I built up a nice arsenal of weapons and collected some cash I decide to take on the next mission. I had to go into rival gang territory and shoot them up in several drive bys. I failed at this mission several times. The first attempt my car blew up because not only did I take damage from my reckless driving but also from gunfire. The next attempt I learned the closer I drove to the rival gang members, the faster I could gun them down. But after I made my runs I had a wanted level of two starts and the police cars then began to chase me. At this point my car was on fire and the police would drive their cars into mine. It wasn’t long until I was overwhelmed and my car blew up.
I was then brought back to the hospital with half my money gone and all my weapons taken away. I was furious. Not only did I fail the mission but all the people I killed was for noting. On top of that I still had to complete the mission. So what did I do? I went back out onto the streets to kill more people for money and weapons.
This game not only encourages what would be considered illegal activity, but you can’t advance in the game with out. The characters in the game are based off of stereotypes so you come to expect how they would react when you interact with them. You become desensitized to violence as you massacre and entire city to collect money and weapons. Any negative consequences from these actions don’t act as a deterrent or show why these actions would be considered wrong outside the context of the game. Instead they provide the challenge of the game. That becomes the very reason you will either enjoy the game or be feed up and disgusted by it.
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| [January 17, 2010 10:40:50 PM]
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After following the first few missions of the story line I wanted a change of pace and decide to explore the city. To get money or weapons at this point in the game you have to beat down people in the street and kill them. You can go after pimps, gangs, police, or women. It didn’t matter who I killed as long as they dropped weapons or money.
In some cases the characters would put up a fight and deal damage to my health. Once I did manage to kill them I could continuously kick their corpse. For some reason murdering them wasn’t enough. I needed to desecrate their remains as payment for dealing damage to my health and further prove my dominance over them. At another point I got into a fight while some fellow gang members where near by. To my surprise they all pulled out guns and shot down the person. After that I smiled with contempt.
It now feels strange to reflect on my in game actions and question them. In other games I don’t express myself as violently. In Grand Theft Auto almost every character can be murdered. It doesn’t matter if they are a police officer or a woman. Killing them will get you money, weapons, or a strangely satisfying thrill. In the end everyone in the game are dehumanized while the player is being desensitized to violence.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 17th, 2010 at 22:42:47.
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| [January 17, 2010 10:38:25 PM]
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I want to start out by saying I don’t care much for the Grand Theft Auto series. Not because I find any of the language or material offensive, it is because I can never out run the cops! Once I start playing this game I can’t resist the urge to cause total mayhem and carnage. However the level of destruction I can cause depends on how well I can evade the authorities which would be nothing past two wanted stars.
At this point I would just enter the cheat codes for all weapons and unlimited health while also taking away the thrill of the game with in an hour when I have had my fill.
But I know there is more to this game then a giant sandbox where someone can live out their violent fetish. So with cheat codes aside I will play this game for its intended story.
The game starts out with the protagonist tossed out of a cop car into a rival gang’s neighborhood. The first thing I do is grab a BMX bike and peddle back to my old home. Being a PC gamer I am not very graceful when I need to use a thumb joystick instead of WSAD keys. I crash my bike into a group of guys dressed in purple. They started hitting me so I began to punch back. Then I was surprised when one of them pulled out a gun and shot me down. Not even three minutes into the game tutorial and I was already wasted!
What just happened? Did I really suck that bad at these games? Perhaps, or maybe I just wasn’t accustomed to the context of the game. I should point out the majority of the games I play have monsters, aliens, and zombies as the enemies and not random NPCs walking the streets. I had to play through the first few missions of the game before I really understood the context of this game.
My character was a gangster returning to a hood that had changed since he had been away. And things needed to be set straight. I didn’t recognize at first glance that a group of black men all wearing the same colors was a gang. But the first few missions of the game taught me they were a rival gang that had taken over my territory and purple was their color.
After outrunning a drive by shooting on a bike, I pull up to the safe house where scantily clad women were walking around outside. I must have pressed the wrong button when I dismounted my bike and hit her on accident. She then pulled out a knife and started to attack me. I dialogue the characters shouted out labeled her as a ho. She must have been a prostitute carrying around a knife for protection.
After these two encounters I began to look over the characters walking the streets and deciding who was dangerous or not. Black men seemed particularly dangerous while the few white characters didn’t seem to be a threat. It was then I then realized that I needed to stereotype the characters of the game. Their clothing and how they talked all signified if they were brought up on the streets and carried weapons or if they were just business men who posed no threat. The next two missions in the game had me spray paint over rival gang’s graffiti and beat up a crack dealer. While on the streets driving around I knew I could run over some of the NPCs while others would shoot back if I hit them. I also learned I could get better weapons off of gangsters that carried guns after I killed them.
I had originally saw GTA games just as an environment where I could open fire at random strangers. But the game teaches you to recognize stereotypes and make assumptions about them in order to avoid a lethal gun fight when you don’t use cheat codes and play the game seriously.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 17th, 2010 at 22:42:23.
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SpitFire's Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas (XBX)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Saturday 16 January, 2010
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