Monday 6 October, 2008

My last time playing San Andreas tonight was spent continuing in on the missions portion of the game. My missions were now done through Sweet, Carl's brother. He's a reformed gang member who wants the streets cleaned up.
His first mission reflects this as you Carl has to drive around with Sweet and spray over other tags in the area.

This mission is actually a reversal of moral standards for Carl. Carl is doing a positive and cleaning up the area, through non-violent ways. The mission after this continues the same trend, but by using violence. You have to track down a drug dealer, kill him and take his bat. Then, you head to a crack house and beat a rival gang senseless. You return home and collect your reward for killing gang members and drug dealers. Sure, the "bad people" of society are eliminated, but at a violent and immoral cost.


A utilitarian approach would say that if these actions produce happiness amongst a person or group, then these actions would be considered moral. The result of the action is what is important, not the action in itself. Would the drug dealer and the rival gangs lives still being there have made Carl's group less happy? Or does more unhappiness cause from the drug dealers being dead? I'd say more happiness comes from the gang members and drug dealer being dead, but at the cost of ending their lives? I can't really say if it's worth it because I don't believe in ending anyone's life, no matter the cost. I guess under that philosophy, it's not worth it all and should be deemed morally incorrect.

After playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas tonight, and examining the game in a moral context, I still don't see the game as anything but a great escape to reality and something that should not be taken too seriously. It's a fantastic satirical look at today's American society and places great examination at a culture centered around race, violence and the American dream.

I think you made a fair assessment of the game even though you felt that the game is just a release. However, you still viewed the decisions faced by the player from the perspective of utilitarianism very well, you saw that killing the dealers would have a positive effect on the community but its questionable that you as a player has to use violence to solve the problem.