Wednesday 18 April, 2012

For my final entry for "San Andreas" I decided to explore the morality of the game. I think writing this, might sound silly to a lot of people as the game is often criticized for being devoid of all morals. I wouldn't necessarily disagree with this statement, on my third play-through I tried to look at the game through a more ethical standpoint but that search hasn't led me to any solid ground. I haven't come across any real moral dilemmas in the game, as the game's missions often leave you little choice but to gun down everyone who gets in your way. Other things the game might reward you for doing would also include stealing and spraying graffiti on walls, again something that people might criticize from a moral standpoint. Though I found this to be certainly not the case, for instance when the player is in a firetruck, ambulance, or squad car, CJ can help the inhabitants of San Andreas by performing good deeds like putting out fires or driving people to the hospital and in fact they even get rewarded for it! (Nevermind that you have to steal the ambulance, firetruck, or squad car in the first place). A lot of critics of the game have argued that Rockstar encourages poor moral behavior in the "GTA" games, but those same people maybe neglecting to mention that the developers created the game to "reward" positive actions as well. Although there's a lot of violent behavior in the game that would have moralists shaking their heads, if you consider the game from a relativist perspective then CJs actions might not seem as unethical as they would appear. The killing, stealing, and general unlawful behavior CJ undertakes is done for his gang. If you consider things from a relativist perspective, CJ's gang is his family and his actions were justifiable because they were made out of concern for the well-being of his fellow gang-members. In the seedier neighborhoods of San Andreas it would seem like people getting gunned down is just an everyday event, so from a relativist viewpoint it might be debatable that a few people getting killed is just a consequence for the things CJ needs to do for gang to survive. In my previous entry, I wrote how I found the neighborhood CJ lives in to be in despair, when I explored the game further I thought "wow" the neighborhood near the "Vinewood" sign, which I took to be inspired by Beverly Hills as feeling like a totally different world, even though the drive between CJs neighborhood and Vinewood was only about five minutes. When I stepped out my car to explore the area, there were of course no gang-members shooting me on sight, neither did any of the people passing by make any threats against me. Taking this into account, it would make it seem like from a relativist point of view CJs actions are justifiable because in a sense he lives in a different world. In his world, violence is just an everyday occurrence and the things he does to "protect" his family might need to be judged in a different manner when viewing things from a relativist perspective.

In some sense we can play the game as a simulation of a world in which, for example, there is little respect for the law, there is corruptions, and so on. The question then becomes: if you lived in such an environment, what would you do to survive?