Tuesday 21 February, 2012

The second day of playing Super Columbine Massacre RPG was the day I started playing the “action” part of the game. At first, I have to plant some bombs in the cafeteria. Then once that is over, the characters are surprised to learn the bombs didn’t work, so they just start their attack anyways. The first thing to point out about the combat is that the game follows the Pokémon theme again. The characters and victims are treated as Pokémon with health points and an attack list. The problem I have with this gameplay choice is that unless you are trying to lose at this game, none of the victims can possibly beat you. It is near impossible for you to lose when you have guns and the victims just watch as you murder them. Put simply, this game wants you to just walk around and easily kill everyone ranging from teachers to preppy students.
I found the gameplay boring but I also found it extremely distasteful. It wasn’t even fun to kill anyone in this game. I didn’t have the same emotional reaction in this game as I did when I play a game like Gears of War or Call of Duty. In Call of Duty, I am at least having fun defeating the enemy, but in this game, I feel like I am doing something wrong and it is not even fun to play. So that led me to a few tough questions, is it okay to kill people in video games as long as it is fun to do? Do I justify my unethical actions by the amount of impact they have on me? Does this make me an unethical person? I could argue that I am justifying myself through enjoyable actions but I think that is only fraction of the story. Another part of the story is that the people I am killing are not enemies but victims. They are not actually challenging me in anyway. I felt like I was slaughtering the victims rather than overcoming a challenge or trying to reach an objective. Also, when I kill an enemy in Call of Duty or another shooting game, I am killing a mindless, dehumanized character. The same can be said about this game since it is still a game but at the same time, because this game has already tried to recreate the day thus far with all the previous details, it kind of feels like you are hurting people who were actually hurt in real life. This game and the developers do nothing to turn you against this notion. The game itself doesn’t point you in any direction on how to feel about this game, it is just happening how the real life events might have felt. This leads me back to yesterday’s argument, it doesn’t matter what this game does to convince me of a viewpoint, I am still the only the person who can draw a conclusion from this game. I personally did not like this game’s actions sequences not just because it was boring, but because I felt like I was continuing to hurt a real person. Am I a worst person for killing virtual victims from a real event? No. Is this game unethical for giving me the option to do such actions? I still argue no. As long as I have moral reasoning, media cannot be unethical by itself. There can be unethical actions within the game or the developers can be unethical with the use of this game, but the game itself can never be unethical since it is just a piece of media.

Good points, ultimately it's up to you (the player) to reflect on your actions and your feelings towards them. In some sense, the expected effect is for you to "feel bad" without the game twisting your arm into feeling that way, no?