So, this is my final log. I had sat down last night to play this game around midnight. I had thought about what we had discussed earlier in class. How that we should play this game at different times so that we can guarantee that we are in a clear mindset and might notice something different, and I will be honest, I have notice a few different things this time around when I sat down to play.
One thing I had noticed had to do with the concept of our “sign” conversation, the fact that different signs that have been set as a standard in most games to give clues to the player on how to advanced. See, the thing is, most things that I would considered to be “red”, I would consider them to be bad, something that can possibly hurt you, something that should be avoided as much as possible. And something that I had noticed is that in order to start the mission, the portal that you step in is red. Don't get me wrong, I'm probably looking at this way too deep, but go humor me for a moment. Lets face it, all the missions in GTA, will say for simplicity, are fairly violent. Beating up drug gangs, killing gangs that are on trains because they had set you up, etc... In other words, they would be what most people consider bad things. Maybe Rockstar was giving the connotation to for warn the player, especially the players who are minors, that they are going to do something “bad”. Of course, in order to unlock more in the game, the player needs to complete the missions, but there are so many different things that you can do in this game that are not necessarily bad, and not the missions. I knew quite a few people that when this game first came out, didn't exactly focus on the storyline, but rather just messed around. It's possible that this is the reason that Rockstar implemented cheats in this game, to give the player the ability to enjoy all the weapons and invincibility, while at the same time being able to avoid the campaign. Maybe that is a stretch. Maybe it's because red is the easiest to see. However, throughout missions if you need to go to certain spots to unlock more cut scenes and make the objective of the mission more clear, each spot is designated by that same red portal, that same concept that this is going to be “bad.” It was just a small observation, and maybe I'm looking way too much into it, but something I think that should be at least considered.
Another thing that I had noticed, while going to continue a few missions, is the spray tags. I had totally forgotten that you do a few in one of the first few missions, but there are actually 100 scattered throughout the map. Of course, these are not required, but they do unlock something if you reach all 100 (forgot what it is) and you do earn respect as well. Again, it's this concept in doing something that is essentially illegal in order to unlock new things. I decided to purposely wait until a cop car drove by while stood at one that was near a street. And when I saw one drive by, I painted the wall, clear in site, and I didn't even get one star. Of course, maybe it was a programming fault that it didn't register as being known, but again, it possibly shows even more in depth the corruptness of the LAPD.
I also had decided to do a few more missions as well. There were a couple missions that I found quite interesting. The one was with the main character's brother, Sweet. He is in trouble when he goes to pick up his girlfriend and gets ambushed by gangs, so you need to go out and help him. Of course, you have the typical choice of killing people in order to move on, but this time factor that these people are actually shooting back at you, so you need to defend yourself. Aside from that, the concept of family comes into play here. Carl is sacrificing himself in order to help out his brother, risking his life essentially. Or as the famous phrase goes, having his brother's “back”. I believe that what Rockstar is trying to show here that although Sweet may be Carl's brother, if Big Smoke or Ryder were the person involved, he would do the same for them. Family is very key in this game. I believe Rockstar is trying to display that your family goes outside of just the members that are by marriage or by blood. It's showing the fact your gang is also your family.
While doing these missions, or going to Sweet's and/or Ryder's house in order to start them, I also had noticed that more and more people are walking around the area in green. I found this interesting, because in order to gain respect and have more people gain trust in the Grove gang, I had to essentially do all of these missions that involved the killing of other minorities.
Also, I had started doing more of Big Smoke's mission (coincidentally labeled BS) and after doing the first few, we start to see officer Tenpenny more since the start of the game. He seems to always have been leaving Smoke's house right as you get there. It isn't exactly clear and Smoke never really tells you, and unfortunately, I do not remember why they end up going there. Smoke covers it up that there just poking their nose in everybody's business. What I find interesting about Smoke's missions is that almost every mission that I played, according to smoke, I'm “going to get into some real deep shit.”. It's interesting that this is coming from a person who earlier in the game actually references the bible but yea goes around shooting people off of trains and killing people in a mall. It's possible that this is the so called “friend” that goes a little too far. I remember he ends up dying, but unfortunately I do not remember why. Again, you're in this backing up your homies situation where if you don't go through with this, you'll lose a ton of respect, but if you do, you can end up in some real deep shit.
In this last session, I had noticed that Rockstar does give hints that this game is extremely violent and essentially very bad for minors and tries to give them the option to elude away to do other things which I would still consider bad, but maybe not as bad and of course, that the missions never seem to change. You simply kill enemy gangs, just it seems to be for different reasons each time.
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