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trent.scheffert's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)
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| [November 3, 2010 06:25:33 PM]
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Today, Wednesday the 3rd of November 2010, I decided I wanted to look at ethical systems in GTA: San Andreas. This caused me to realize that the entire game is one big lesson in Ethical Egoism. Everything you do is about CJ. Eat a sandwich CJ gets energy, eat to many and CJ gets fat. Kill a hooker, CJ gets money but CJ also gets a notoriety star which means the police are after him. Carjack someone, CJ gets a car and maybe a star. It's all about risk vs reward for CJ. Nothing really happens to the other people that matters to the game players. They will get wasted but the ambulance will come and rescue them whilst you get all their money or guns or night stick etc. With all the almost two hours that I played I never once found a point where you were faced with a decision of what to do that didn't affect you. Not only is it all about CJ though, the game implies that you should do whatever you want! It's a sandbox game where you explore the game and experience it yourself, doing whatever you want. So you can get into an ambulance and go save people, but only after you steal the ambulance and I believe you get a reward for it, money. There is no altruism, there is no point in the game where you are put against a tough ethical dilemma, and instead it's all if I do this will this benefit or harm CJ. Supposedly CJ does try to save his brother Sweet but he still ends up getting rich and famous while doing it. This whole CJ vs the world thing says you should do things based on how it affects you because you can't really do anything else. There are no game options that let you decide whether you should do this or not because of what it does to harm/benefit other people, it's all about whether it will harm or benefit you. GTA: San Andreas demonstrates Ethical Egoism down to its core.
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| [November 3, 2010 06:11:46 PM]
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Today, Tuesday the 2nd of November 2010, I played GTA: San Andreas. During the game I found it difficult to operate and to do anything without getting "wasted" so I cheated for some guns and body armor. Cheating in anything really isn't ethical and the means don't really justify the means but I just wanted to continue to play the game and experience, just make it a little easier. After I was done playing I cheated some more and went online to the wonderful/terrible website of wikipedia and looked up the synopsis of the game. I read about everything that happens in the game. This I feel reduced the quality and importance of the game playing experience. In this day and age when we can easily use the internet to cheat and look up stuff like that than it reduces the power of games, books, or movies. Everyone is always in an uproar when you "spoil" stuff for them and I can understand why, because I too get mad when I know the ending before I have gotten that far in whatever it is I'm doing. But giving us the option gives us the ethical choice of whether or not we want to cheat. We have to weigh the pro's and con's and see how it affects all of those involved. In the case of cheating in GTA: San Andreas I figured that it would harm me in removing some of the challenges in the game and making it not a true gameplay experience but it would make experiencing and playing around in the sandbox game easier for me. My goal was to experience everything I could about the game in a short amount of time and I think cheating helped me achieve that goal. Instead of having to spend 30 hours playing the game I could spend 2 minutes reading a few paragraphs on wikipedia or a few moments pressing a few buttons and all that time would be saved. I could still get what I wanted out of the game just in an easier way. I suppose I just took the low road instead of the high road for experiencing the game. If I didn't know there were cheats or the internet and spoilers didn't exist then I feel I would not have gotten as much out of playing GTA: San Andreas as I did.
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| [November 3, 2010 06:11:17 PM]
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Sidenote: I didn't realize that they were all supposed to be uploaded on different days, sorry. I noticed that we were supposed to today when I was double checking the assignment parameters right before uploading. I wrote them all right after I played (in word) and then just didn't upload them till today.
Today, Monday the 1st of November 2010, I played Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the first time. My immediate reaction was that it was very similar to other GTA games that I have played, namely GTA:3 and GTA: Vice City. The graphics engine was similar to Vice City and the gameplay was nearly the exact same as both games. The first thing I noticed that was different was the emphasis on your gang and against other gangs. I decided to follow through on the missions so the first one was to go reunite with ma crew and then we went bike riding through another gangs territory while they attempted a drive by shooting. While I was on a bike. The next few missions included going to get a haircut so that I wouldn't ruin my gang's rep, getting something to eat and of course holding up the fast food stop, and then tagging other gang's graphiti with our own. This I guess indicates that we now own that territory or something and not to mess with CJ and his gang of ruffians.
Our entire Gang was African American I believe and we fought against other gangs in Los Santos with the Ballas being the biggest. I found it astounding how racist the game was, maybe this is how people in Los Angeles talk, though I didn't notice it when I was there, but it fit with all the stereotypes that I've heard of.
Another aspect of realism I found interesting what that I never saw any unattractive women, at least I don't remember any, maybe I only saw like one and I don't remember because that doesn't affect me as much as a female walking around in sexy clothing does. All of them were in bikini's walking around in residential neighborhoods, walking around in the ghetto or slums, walking everywhere in bikini's. The most modest clothing I saw was a few women wearing short shorts and a short t-shirt.
The game itself was only realistic to the point where it was fun, so I could "waste" other people in two shots if my accuracy was good enough, but they couldn't "waste" me unless they shot me like 15 times. Or I got really skinny after 10 minutes of bike riding and running around, and if I ate a few too many burgers I gained all that weight right back. So the effort of doing things was marginalized to make it fun, while making it less realistic.
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