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shakespearesdead's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PC)
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| [September 19, 2010 01:56:39 PM]
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Today I played Grand Theft Auto San Andreas with cheats. I turned on the "give pedestrians weapons" cheat, the "riot mode" cheat, and I provided myself with tear 3 weapons. Needless to say, this was insanity.
The streets were chaos. Driving a car for any amount of time is a challenge in itself. Pedestrians would shoot wildly, and some of them had rocket launchers which blew up my vehicle.
This gave me an adrenaline rush. The citizens of San Andreas were killing each other as well as myself. But if I would fight back and obtain wanted stars. The police chased after me as well. However, their efforts were generally useless, because they would be targets to the other characters. It was true anarchy.
This brings up some interesting questions to consider. 1. Does anarchy work? and 2. Are people stronger than their government? Now GTA is only a game, and I don't think it can fully support or deny any argument. However, it certainly made me think.
I don't think anarchy would work because I believe something like this would happen. I believe a government is needed to enforce rules. Safety and sanity would be would be at steak. Even playing as CJ I had to fight just to stay alive. The previous times I have played I killed people for the fun of it, but now I fought because I had to. I believe this would surely happen if there were no laws. I wouldn't be able to trust anyone.
If there's ever a riot in reality, the swat team usually comes and they use their crowd control methods. If it is still out of control I imagine that the military would get involved. This does not occur in "riot mode" of GTA. However, unified chaos would be difficult to stop. Violence causes more violence. If I was a police officer and government casualties were on a constant rise, I would certainly question my career choice.
I died a lot when chaos mode was turned on. I last longer with 4 wanted stars than I did in chaos mode. Could this ever happen in reality? It sometimes does..but always to an extent.
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| [September 17, 2010 07:36:52 PM]
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I played Grand Theft Auto for the second of my four times today. I'd like to further point out how there are no just characters in the game. I have done missions for Ryder, Big smoke, and Sweet. Now the game introduced "OG Loc." The first mission is to steal a sound system from a beach party. You show off your dancing skills and then go back to the DJs van with her. Then you drive off. CJ is considered doing a "nice" deed for OG Loc by stealing the van and sound system.
I've noticed the overall thrill and appeal of the game is breaking the law. It's what the entire game is about. Even the title speaks for itself. I suppose one could play it and follow all the laws, speed limits, etc, but then it would be boring.
There are very minimum consequences for committing crimes in the game. I murdered a random pedestrian and obtained a wanted star. But shortly after the police stopped looking for me.
The worst case scenarios are not that bad. This encouraged me to be more bold. I could murder and steal, knowing the worst thing that would happen to me would be that a police officer would shoot me.
If CJ is killed by the police he goes to a hospital. So he's never actually killed. However, they do take his weapons, which can be annoying if I have accumulated a lot of them. If CJ is arrested, the game explains that his weapons will be taken, and the police will be bribed to let him go. This means you pay money and are let off scott free.
It certainly makes me wonder. If reality's consequences were not as severe, would people be more bold? Would there be a higher crime rate? It's difficult to tell.
Although there are other factors as well. It's only a game, and therefore, I have fewer morals playing it because it is fiction. I can murder someone in the street and as crowds of other people run away I can quickly and unregrettably shoot them as well. It's almost encouraging. The graphics are also very cartoonish. There are bright colors and exaggerated character traits. San Andreas was certainly made in a time where if the creators wanted the game to be more realistic than it could have been. But despite the cartoon violence, the creators certainly make going on killing rampages and fleeing from police fun.
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| [September 16, 2010 12:47:28 AM]
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I just finished playing GTA San Andreas. Now it is midnight. It is a very interesting game. Playing it with a moral perspective can be very difficult. I noticed right away that every character in the game is corrupt. CJ, the anti-hero of the story, returns to his hood and has to prove himself with small tasks such as doing jobs for Sweet and his family, including kill other gang members in a cemetery. CJ, his family, and his friends are violent people.
And how do you make an anti-hero more likable? Make everyone around him worse than he is. The police who pull him over at the very beginning are corrupt, evil men who treat CJ like dirt. They disrespect him by taunting him, asking "how's your family Carl?" knowing that Carl's mother and brother are dead. Finally, the drop him off in a neighboring gang's territory and CJ has to get out of their fast.
And now it's time to "repair the hood." Missions include killing people and earning respect for it. One mission encourages CJ to spray paint over gang tags. CJ's "hood" is repairing itself. Although, thinking from an outside perspective, it would seem that the area is just becoming increasingly violent and another gang is rising again.
However, one redeeming quality about CJ is that he is against the drug situation in his "hood." It is explained that drugs ruined the once thriving family "hood." However, this game shows that killing someone is a better choice than doing drugs. I entered the crack house as CJ and killed the drug addicts. There are also prostitutes in the house which CJ has the choice of killing. I chose to murder everyone in the building, even though it was not necessary.
This game fully embraces murder as if it is second nature. Anyone in the game can be killed and it still goes on with little or no consequences. The choice to murder a random pedestrian in the street, as well as the encouragement of murder in the missions, is shocking. However, it is addicting and it has me hooked.
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