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Sunday 18 April, 2010
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Well needless to say, playing this game really brings me back. Even back when I used to play it a lot about five years ago, I could never wrap my head around how a game as suggestive, violent, with such brutal undertones such as this one could be released. Don’t get me wrong I loved playing it, but it was always sort of a guilty pleasure since some of the themes of the game are truly ridiculous and even semi-absurd. One thing that always surprises me about this game is the totally laissez faire approach in both the dialogue and the game play with regards to gang mentality, territory and the pursuit of $$$ at literally any cost. Perhaps herein lies the bulk of the allure surrounding this game, as one may cruise the streets of San Andreas listening to rap music then get a bite to eat, or go to a rival gang’s territory and do some drive by shootings. This is truly insane, almost laughable, that L2 and R2 actually serve as the drive by shooting buttons.
Anyways, refreshing myself on how to play this game I realized that the game player cannot really have ethics or morality insofar as to follow the missions as prescribed almost always entails shooting and killing others, running innocent bystanders over with cars, or blowing things up. As a result of these activities my character is compensated with money and respect. In retrospect, back when I used to play this game in high school I was purely taking it for face value. I never really gave much thought to the artificial reality of senseless killing and brutality that is pretty much endless in this game. Is this good or is this bad? One could argue that the ability to simulate you are driving around causing havoc killing people without looking back could maybe vent stresses or other potentially violent behaviors. However, at the same time one could argue that such simulation might purely exacerbate those behaviors and potentially distort one’s sense of what is right or wrong, ethical or unethical.
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