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batman.jenkins's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)
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| [November 3, 2010 11:06:34 PM]
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For my final game log I decided to go back to my GTA roots, so to speak, and do my own thing. My own thing usually means that I carjack someone (killing them if possible), cruise around the city looking for a kickass motorcycle, and then cruise around town generally wreaking havoc upon innocents. The hardest part is not getting caught, since after killing as many people as I like to my star rating skyrockets. That’s why cheats come in handy, because San Andreas has one for weapon aiming while driving and making it possible to punch people so hard they fly away. I quite literally threw all my ethical standards out the window in order and beat the shit out of hookers. It’s arguable that by allowing this sort of side action in the game, the GTA franchise promotes ethical egoism. I’m not following any missions or gaining respect by committing all this crime, I am doing it simply because I want to and it makes me laugh. It’s probably worrisome that I get so gleeful cruising around on my bike making childish revving noises when I turn corners until I hop off to kill somebody, but I don’t care. It’s not real life and that is what matters, at least in my (expert) opinion.
Since I had already obtained a bike the last time I played, I had to ditch it to steal somebody’s car and then run them over with it. I followed the pattern of running people over as they strolled along the sidewalk until I found a prettier motorcycle than the last one I had and it was time to switch up my ride. It’s not easy killing people on a motorcycle unless you, say, enter the vehicle of death cheat that makes any mode of transportation invulnerable. Once that baby’s in place you don’t even need to pull out a gun. My ride was my weapon. Basically how this usually goes is that I’ll play like this and avoid the cops for as long as possible, then find the weapons cheat and fire some heavy artillery on their asses until they strike me down. If this entire rampage doesn’t perfectly demonstrate the concept of (maniacal) ethical egoism, I don’t know what does.
Overall this game has a terrible message. Racial and gender profiling aside, this game sends a negative message about the government via the corrupt police force, and portrays justice in a murky light. Violence is more than okay; it’s even applauded at times. There is nowhere in the game that dissuades you from killing or maiming. Several—if not all—of the missions involve violence on some level. Beating up drug dealers, fighting with rival gangs, and stealing people’s cars is all in a day’s work for San Andreas. Its message about self image is also insulting, considering the only way you can really make it through the game is to get specific hairstyles and stay buff enough to be attractive to other people. Fat characters are mocked, and if you aren’t driving a decent ride it affects you negatively. Stereotypes for women are everywhere in this game. The ones who aren’t prostitutes are either dressed like prostitutes or are complete weaklings who are down in a fight after one punch. They’re displayed as moronic, promiscuous weaklings and it’s appalling. I don’t consider myself a feminist, but honestly it’s terrible that this is the only image of women they were willing to work into the game. It says something to disprove people’s belief that video games have some sort of mind or behavior-altering affect on people because if it was true, I would have no hope for women as a gender. I would also be in jail for several different crimes, the very least being vehicular homicide.
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| [November 3, 2010 12:09:05 AM]
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This isn’t exactly relevant, but one of my fatal flaws is that I am easily distracted from just about every situation in life, and that definitely came into play the second time I played GTA. I spent about 25 minutes just running around tagging buildings for that random and annoying sub-mission instead of actually progressing with the storyline of the game. This game is so dramatic in their language choices. Maybe I live a sheltered life, but it seems way too stereotypical for all the characters to use the slang terms they’re throwing around every other second. The language choice for this game comes off as so exaggerated and cliché it’s kind of ridiculous. I realize I am probably wrong on top of being a sheltered white girl, but if it is true then it’s very Kant-ish in the sense that if it’s okay for them to use those terms it should be okay for everybody else in the world. Wow I got as far as the mission where you have to beat up the drug dealer and there are absolutely no ethical qualms about it at all. CJ thinks he’s doing the right thing and standing up for Big Bear and regular people, but he’s going about it the wrong way. On a side note, I am really bad at riding a motorcycle. Actually my favorite part of this mission was that you’re sent to beat a drug dealer up, but it doesn’t rid the option of shooting him to death instead. It would be such a shame to waste that cool shotgun I picked up from killing that pizza guy, too. It is really so much easier shooting all of these thugs instead of subduing them with a bat. On the downside I acquired two stars for shooting these guys point-blank and had to dodge the police using my crappy motorcycle riding skills, which wasn’t easy and was just a little bit embarrassing. This is why I chose to play in the privacy of my own home and not, say, the game labs downtown. I find it notable enough to point out that the entire time I was nailing headshots on these guys Ryder didn’t say a word against it. Sometimes in games when you go against what is expected of you, like killing the guy instead of beating him up, the NPCs you interact with react in some surprised way. Not from Ryder, though. The only comment he makes is once the police are after us, and I think that’s more in response to the star rating and not a result of me shooting those guys. I realized I forgot to mention how I came into the possession of a motorcycle, and it’s easy to guess that I hijacked some poor sucker’s precious motorcycle. The best part is that CJ was rewarded for my actions because his sexiness level went up. Win!
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| [November 1, 2010 10:57:25 PM]
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Any game that opens with Samuel L. Jackson is automatically good in my book. In all seriousness, though, this game is extremely racist and sexist and so many other awful things. Before you even have control of your character the game is throwing racial stereotypes at you with the language and wardrobe choices in the cut scenes. I admit I’m not very far in the game yet, but the only girl they’ve shown is dressed like a slut and doesn’t act particularly intelligent. She pretty much fawns over CJ or tries to stick up for him by shouting unhelpful things at whoever CJ’s fighting with. Another thing that pops up early on that we talked about in class is the corruption of the LAPD in the game as a representation of their real life corruption. Once CJ is back in the hood, one of the guys he’s rolling with criticizes some other guy (sorry for the lack of specifics) for his style being off and says that the guy needs a haircut because he’s embarrassed to be seen with him. CJ is immediately forced to comply to the demands of the corrupt Samuel L. Jackson and even though it’s wrong, he (and the player) isn’t given another option. He’s also basically immediately invited back into his old group, despite some hard feelings lingering over his five year absence. CJ gets a call on his cell saying that he’s got to “watch himself” because the Grove Street Family isn’t a big group anymore, and it isn’t safe to travel in another Family’s turf. The game gets to throw in a separate stereotype when one of CJ’s friends tells him to show him how people drive on the East Coast. You can drive over to a barber shop and get a haircut, and depending on which one you pick CJ’s sexiness level goes up or down. One of the ethical decisions that pops up is when CJ stops to get pizza, his friend who’s with him (Ryder?) tries to hold up the store and criticizes CJ for stopping him. The absolute best part about the Grand Theft Auto series is that there is a few seconds where the pizza guy has the upper-hand with his giant shotgun, but as soon as you’re in your car you can run him over, kill him, and steal that giant gun for yourself. Which I did. This game is kind of annoying in the way that you technically have the option to choose the “good” path and not partake in the missions, such as the graffiti one, but if you don’t the storyline doesn’t move at all. In order to properly play the game the player is being manipulated into going against what they might want to do because the game calls for specific actions so it can progress. Wow one of the people I was with while I was playing suggested that instead of spraying a rival gang member in the face with the spray paint I should whip out my shiny new shotgun. Which, again, I did. It’s fun to do brash things like that because I would never in my life find myself in a situation like that. CJ displays a bit of ethical egoism in the sense that he decides to take the situation—that is, his mother and friends being killed—into his own hands; screw the consequences. The game also displays a really loose projection of the Social Contract Theory. It seems like they’ve all accepted their individual lots in life and aren’t doing much to fight it. CJ is the exception, because he chose to leave town. Everyone reacts negatively to this though, sort of proving that even though CJ hadn’t signed any contracts he was still supposed to be loyal to his family and stick around with the rest of them.
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