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Sunday 16 August, 2009
Unfortunately, I had to start the game over again today because I had played on a different computer. Luckily, however, since it was my second time playing through the intro, there were things I noticed that I didn't before when I initially played the game yesterday. For instance, the first time I played the game, I didn't really look around Eric's room at all, but this time I did. I thought was interesting finding extra elements in the game because it helped me sort of get into the mind of the two boys to somewhat understand where they were coming from. Although there was also a part in the beginning that also irritated me about the two boys; when Eric (or "Reb") picked up his copy of DOOM, it read "Let the desensitization to violence BEGIN!" This part initially made me angry because this sounds like the justification of all parents when they forbid their kids from playing video games. I've heard parents say they're afraid of their kids becoming psychopaths because of so many games, and I've even heard my fair share of my own parents telling me that, so it just made me groan. But then I also thought about the one article we read about Grand Theft Auto where kids who played the game worried about that "one kid who gets way too into the gameplay," or something like that... I guess these two kids were just some of those bad cases.
Another perk about it being my second time playing was that I was able to bypass the stupid hallway part where I had to plant the bombs in the cafeteria. After waiting for the explosions to go off, I was finally able to load up on my weapons and go in and start the actual combat aspect of the gameplay. Yesterday, I thought the game reminded me of Pokémon, and now it reminds me of it even more with the gameplay. I also thought the types of students were pretty funny in regards to some of their attacks. I think the one that tickled me the most would have been the church girl and the fact that she kneels down and prays right before getting a health/defense boost.
One thing I thought was interesting from an ethical perspective this time around was that in games like this, I usually get motivated to defeat as many enemies as I can so I can level up, but this instinct/tendency of mine was halted by the fact that these were the Columbine shooters and that I was killing innocent students and leaving their bloodied corpses on the ground. I thought the whole experience of mowing down students was a bit harrowing and I ended up quitting after killing a certain amount of students, unwilling to progress further in the game. But tomorrow, I want to see what happens further in the game; hopefully I won't have to have killed many students to progress further.
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