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Hammadeh07's Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2)
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| [October 2, 2010 09:10:30 PM]
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For my third and final blog I decided to play both the missions and retry the free roam feature. As I continued with the game play I became more aware of how much the theme of family is incorporated into this game. Since the murder of C.J.’s mother he uses his fellow gang members whom he refers to as his “brothers” as a support system. C.J.’s gang, just as any family, provides him with guidance and support as he continues a long the journey. In fact, C.J. makes several references to how important family is and how it is crucial for him and his gang members to stick together. I found this feature to be one of the few positive things of the game, as families typically provide a good sense of a moral code. However, with this game that is not the case most of the time.
One thing that I found while playing through free roam a second time that I seemed to have over looked the fist time was how much of a negative image this game gives to women. Women in this game, more so minority then white, are portrayed as being prostitutes that you as the character can sleep with and also abuse. By representing minority women in the game as prostitutes it gives impression to the games audience that they are people you can use and abuse since they lack self respect and choose to sell themselves in order to make money. These generalizations about women are similar to the ones this game makes about African-Americans; they are unfair and misrepresent the majority of women. I feel like this feature of the game was not necessary to include, given the fact that this games focus is more on crime. This game already insults its fair share of cultural groups and I felt like this feature just put it over the top.
Overall, from my first play of this game to the third this game seemed to just get more and more violent as the game went on. This game is a very poor representation of American culture as it gives the wrong impression to people outside the United States that Americans are blood hungry animals that will wipe anyone that gets in their way. When you really look at American culture most would agree that killing people and committing crime after crime is both immoral and deviant behavior. Americans live but a much higher moral code that the one that is portrayed in this game. However, I have also come to the conclusion after playing this game was something I stated before. As bad as this game is, it does really shed light on a feature of American society they most Americans choose to ignore. The poverty and crime are big issue in most of the neighborhoods portrayed in the game. They were big issues during when the game is set, in the early 1990s, and they are even a bigger issues now in 2010. These issues need to be addressed and cannot be ignore any more because they just keep getting worse and worse.
In conclusion, I really did enjoy playing this game. It really brought back memories to my first time playing this game. Only this time I am a little bit wiser and more aware of how truly morally upsetting this game is. The player has to understand that this game is in on way like real life and that there are certain moral codes that the majority of our society lives buy, that this game chooses to ignore. This game can be fun but cannot be taken very seriously. As I said before, viewer discretion is advised.
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| [October 1, 2010 09:23:35 PM]
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With my second play through for this game I deiced to try out a few missions. Before I even finished the second mission it became clear to me that this game puts a huge emphasis on a culture in the US that most of us have never been exposed to. It shines a light on a dark area in American society that most of Americans seem to ignore. Most Americans are afraid of the neighborhoods that are represented in this game but in reality they are a true part of Americans melting pot. Just as you would leave out your least favorite vegetable in a dish, Americans choose to ignore the sub-culture that is in this game. The overall feel I got from the missions was that in order to progress you have to break the law in some form starting with vandalism and ending with murder. In fact one the first missions in the game includes you vandalizing property in order to establish your gang’s turf.
While this game does include a lot of gang violence it does bring to light how many innocent lives are lost to gang related violence. In every mission is seems like an innocent citizens life is accidentally lost due to them getting caught in the cross fire of gang violence. This really brings up the question of why nothing has been done to help stop gang violence which, has lead to the senseless deaths of countless innocent lives. I feel as though if this game does promote anything good, while it might not be their intention, it is this issue.
Looking through this from a Kantianism point of view this game can be seen as not following any form of a moral code. The player is allowed to has to live by his or her own set of moral rules and puts their own livelihood over that of others. For example, the whole was to progress in the game is that you have to take advantage of people in order pass a mission or meet a goal. This violates one of the main concepts that Kant has laid out in his moral code, which is to “never take advantage of another to meet the ends of your needs.”
Overall, this game is a poor promoter of a good moral code as it allows the player to pretty much live by his or her own moral code, and ignore the one that is followed by the greater society. Even if a player wanted to live by a good moral code they cannot do so if they wish to progress in the game. The game pretty much forces the player to commit violent acts and rewards the player by being violent by allowing them to progress in the game and gain more respect and prestige as they do so.
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| [September 30, 2010 11:20:56 PM]
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For my first 30-minute play through of grand theft auto I chose freely play through out the city, just to relearn the games game-play. My first impression of the game was much like it was for the previous versions. It is a game where the player has the ability to do pretty much whatever he or she wants, which include actions that violate a number of moral codes and left this player wondering why this game was ever allowed to be made. The game makes a number of stereotypes on certain ethnic groups, which are in no way true. It promotes that the player has to commit violent acts such as killing and stealing in order to really progress in the game. Not only does this game encourage violent behavior but it also gives you many options on how you want to kill someone. A player can either choose to kill them with a gun, run them down with your car, or take a chainsaw or knife to them. However, the game does gives the player the ethical choice of whether they want to be a law-abiding citizen or a notorious criminal, thus it is up to the player to choose who they want to be. I, however, elected for the latter as I felt like the games atmosphere prompted the player to be one.
I felt as though this game really does an injustice to the African-American community as it makes generalizations on them as having an assumed set of characteristics that include: a tendency towards violent behavior, gang warfare, and drug use. Also during free play the player can recruit gang members and start a “gang war” with other gangs over respect and territory. In the game, it seems as though the more territory your gang has the more respect and prestige you have. In particular this game features gangs to be made up or mostly “Blacks” and “Hispanics.” Another upsetting fact of this game is that if a player commits enough heinous crimes, they can be feature on the news. This indicts from my point of view that violence is not only encourage, but rewarded in this game. For Example, the player is ranked on how good they are at being a criminal (this can be seen in the “status” menu when the game is paused.) On the other side the game also allows the player to be a law-abiding citizen and even gives the player the option of doing vigilante missions where when upon the player entering a cop car they are able choose to do “vigilante missions” where they can hunt down and kill run away criminals. It seemed to me though that either path you take still leads to some level of violence. However, the game can get pretty boring if you choose to play this way as the number of options of what you can do is cut down. Thus for this game if a player really wants to get the full experience he or she have to elect to be a notorious criminal, killing everyone that gets in their way.
In the end, I did enjoy playing this game as it did take me back to my first experience playing this game when I was just fourteen years old. Looking back at it though I really did not fully understand how bad of a message this game was sending. This game can be fun, but the user must understand, that this is a game, not real life. A player has to understand that real life does not work in the way the game does and that there is moral codes that society lives by, which include a number of ones that this game violates. I found this game to be fun and enjoyable as it really does give you a lot of freedom, which at times can be enjoyable, however, viewer discretion is advised.
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