| Sex and Drugs. |
[Dec. 5th, 2005|11:57 pm] |
Since I've already talked about the violence in this game enough for my taste, I've decided to devote my last entry to sex and drugs, the last two elements of the debauchery trio of this game.
So in various places in the game there is a big pill that you can take. It only lasts for a minute, but everything goes into slow motion. You walk slow, shoot slow etc. And everyone else is slow too. I'm not sure what the point of it is. I think I heard it makes one of the missions involving lots of shooting easier, but I'm not sure how.
As far as sex goes, it seems to be just another part of the game that adds to the Hollywood image. There are little details like bartenders wearing nothing but a G-string and pasties that are funny and there are missions involving sexual themes. There is a strip club in the game in which you can have a private dance. It's not really a lap dance and no one in the game is totally naked, but it is suggestive. There are also pole dancers in the club, but it's more a broad cleaned-up representation of a strip club. One of my favorite parts of the game is picking up hookers. Someone showed it to me in high school and I couldn't believe you could do something like that in a video game. I also just find it amusing. It's just like with the violence, the sex in the game is more funny than gross and it's definitely not a turn-on. I laugh every time the hooker gets in the car and it starts rocking. Basically what you do is pull up next to one of the obvious hookers in the game and wait for her to approach your car. She'll get in and if you drive to a secluded place, your money goes down, your health goes up and the car starts a-rocking. There are some suggestive noises also.
I find it interesting that everyone focuses on the violence in this game instead of the sex when people usually seem more about upset about sex on TV. Part of the reason is definitely that the game is more violent than sexually suggestive, but I barely hear the sex aspect mentioned except among teenage boys who want to get the hooker to get in their car. I haven't played San Andreas so I don't know about the porn in that, but that brought a lot of attention to the sexual aspect of these games. I don't think there is anything terribly immoral or disturbing in this aspect of the game, but it's nothing underage kids should really be exposed to even though they are in other forms of media and they certainly still have access to this game. Playing the game has really proved to me that it is a mature game not meant for children who can't appreciate the humor or distinguish between reality and fantasy. I know it's impossible to keep them from playing it, but there should be tighter restrictions and of course parents should not allow their children to be exposed to inappropriate material as much as they can. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 5th, 2005|11:38 pm] |
I found another interesting place while I was exploring. There is a lighthouse on the south end of one of the islands where apparently cops can't get you but I didn't try that out yet. You can go into it, and get to the top via a spiral staircase. So I started going up it and after a few turns around, the thought that it might never end crossed my mind, just like in The Navidson Record. But I finally reached the top, and the view is quite pretty. The game simulates sunlight very well in my opinion, you get a glare when it's sunny, especially on the beach. And the light reflects of the water in a realistic fashion and it looks really nice. There's also wind blowing so you really feel like you could be in Miami. You can't get to the light on top of the light house though. Also while I was up there, I could hear all the random characters talking. That happens a lot in the game. You can be anywhere and you'll hear those voices and sometimes you cannot find the people. The voices I heard were the people walking around at the bottom of the lighthouse. I heard some fighting words and went down and found a man and a woman in swimsuits arguing and punching each other, so I shot them both to put an end to it. Then a hobo asked me for money. I drove around in the ghetto/gang turf in a really fast car for awhile after that, that was really fun. But you can never get the fast cars you need in the missions without a lot of strategy and usually cheating. That annoys me.
So I ended up at the golf club. The car I found is almost too fast, its normal speed is way faster than the other cars. I went into the golf club after changing into the appropriate Scottish attire. You have to go through a metal detector to take away all your weapons. But it let me keep my chainsaw and brass knuckles. I know it let me keep the saw because in the game it's technically a weapon, but I'm not sure about the brass knuckles. There's not much to do in the golf course, so I found a group of old people standing around talking and joined their circle. One lady was muttering about mumus, and the longer I stood there, the more she said things about "young people" and "excuse me, young man" and something about boy scouts. I think they were irritated that I was there. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 5th, 2005|12:47 pm] |
Even though I have issues with the whole violence in video games debate, there are some unnecessarily violent aspects of the game. I'm not easily disturbed by violent images in cartoons or video games, but there are some things in the game that kind of disturb me, so I assume they horrify others. I'm definitely desensitized to fake blood and guts from all the media I'm exposed to. (Excessive or realistic blood still gets me among a few other phobias) But you have many means to kill people with in this game. Several of these involve fire. There is a molotov cocktail thing that I always burn myself with and a flame thrower. I was messing around with the flame thrower and as you burn people, they scream in pain. It is disturbing. It sounds more realistic and upsetting than it should. After they're done burning, instead of a body on the ground, there is a black figure, or as I interpreted it, charred remains. I don't think that really adds to the enjoyment of the game. Maybe I'm a hypocrite since I liked blowing people's heads off, but the burning and screaming was not cool.
There are consequences to killing or even just shooting a gun in this game. If there are cops nearby or even if they're not, they come and try to arrest you, and usually succeed if you don't use a cheat code. Also, some people fight back, especially the games, but sometimes the hookers or WASPs with throw a punch at you. There are no children or animals in the game you can kill, so there's some restraint there. But when you kill people you can take their money, so you basically get rewarded for killing them.
I really don't know what to make of the violence in this game. I certainly couldn't just kill hobos and hookers in the game all day, I would get bored and disgusted. I guess some children or teenagers could kill things in the game all day, but they shouldn't be playing it anyway. I don't mind violence in movies or TV, if it disturbs me then it was probably supposed to and is part of the plot, themes, or goal of the movie. One movie that really disturbs me to the point where I will never watch it again is Reservoir Dogs. The torture scene with the cop is absolutely awful. It's just pure heartlessness and violence. There are other movies where I felt the violence or torture was unnecessary or heartless, but maybe that's the point. I know in some movies it is character development showing how unmerciful a killer is. Violence not involved in missions in Vice City is probably not that great of a thing, but I think people should be able to restrain themselves or naturally get sick of it. Violence exists in the game because it's about crime and gangs and being a drug lord basically. There are other games based on similar premises and certainly plenty of gang and mobster movies so it's not like Vice City is setting some sort of precedent.
I guess the world is just violent, it always has been and it always will be. And the media we are exposed to will reflect that. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 5th, 2005|10:07 am] |
This time I explored the vast stretch of beach in Vice City. It was night time and there was a thunderstorm when I first arrived. There is lightning and thunder and everything. There is rain and there's even little raindrops on the screen, like it's a real camera lens. That really adds to the cinematic feeling of the game. It also reminds me of Once Upon a Time in Mexico, where blood spatters on the camera making it feel closer and more realistic. After it rained and it started to get light out again, I was looking around and of in the distance I saw a rainbow. It is very faint, but subtle little details like that are fun to find. My friend's brother told her that if you zoom in with a sniper rifle on some of the license plates, they are real Florida plates and there's a UF plate. I haven't seen it yet, but that would be awesome.
Something interesting about the beach is that people are always walking around on it, like they were on a street or something. Sometimes it gets kind of empty but then suddenly people appear out of thin air and continue walking around. It's really weird to be looking around at an empty beach and then see a bunch of people walking around. Also the people throughout the game are always talking. Hookers say mildly suggestive things, people speak in Spanish and Creole, hobos ask for a dollar, etc. So it can be amusing just to go around and listen to all the people in the games and their programmed speech.
On the north end of the beach there's a little race track for little remote control cars. If you get into the "Top Fun" van that's sitting next to it, you can play a mini mission/game. You race one of the remote controlled cars around a dirt track. I have tried this race many times and as simple as it seems, my little car goes so slow while the others speed off. I don't get it. It's just a simple racing game but I just can't figure it out. Little missions like this that aren't essential but I guess might be kind of fun if you can do them pop up every so often. They are more arcade-ish and simpler than the overall game, another throwback to older video games. |
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| space |
[Dec. 5th, 2005|09:50 am] |
According to the Wolf article about space in the video game, modern video games tend to follow film in terms of off screen space. I can see this in Vice City. A lot of Vice City seems to be more like a movie than a video game. The opening credits, the backstory and the themes of drugs, violence and sex are all very Hollywood. As you play you can change your viewpoint and it functions a lot like camera angles. One of the camera angles you can use while driving is a low shot from the side of the car looking up, it really looks like it belongs in a movie. You generally play from a third person point of view which also adds to the feeling of film. There are also parts of the game that play just like a movie, you can't use your controls, but you and other characters talk and move. These serve to explain missions and the plot.
The concept of mapped spaces also applies to Vice City. You have access to a map of Vice City, which has some similarities to Miami. The most obvious is Starfish Island, a representation of the real Star Island in Miami where the rich and famous live. In missions you can see pink dots representing other characters, goals or objects involved in the mission. So the map helps you visualize off screen space and accomplish your mission. You can also keep an eye an the shape of the road and your route to help you drive around better. |
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| really. |
[Dec. 4th, 2005|11:24 am] |
So I'm still exploring the mansion and after I got through the red hallway I came to some stairs, some led up and some led down. I went up, and wound up on the roof. I walked around on the roof and looked over the edge. In the backyard of the mansion I saw a mini hedge maze! I decided to jump off the roof, kind of expecting to die, but I didn't. I lost a few health points, but I was fine. Oh, part of the reason I jumped off was because I saw a glowing weapon thing hidden in the maze and I wanted it. So I jumped off, but couldn't find the gun even in this simple little hedge maze. I retraced my steps and used the mansion as a reference point and got the gun. It was some sort of sniper rifle that I could zoom in on things. I decided to try it out on all the random guys standing around. So I blew all their heads off and took their money. While I was running from the cops and doing the lower wanted level cheat, I found a secret package. You're supposed to get 100 of them altogether. So that was cool.
Obviously this game is known for its violence. In my opinion, this game—although detailed and intricate—is totally unrealistic. The violence is in a totally different world and it is not real. You can and often do die in this game, but you come right back to life, and a few cheat codes gets you all the weapons and health you need to get back on your feet quickly. You can also sustain injuries from falling, jumping off roofs, getting into car accidents, etc. but it is not real and again, cheat codes or even a trip to the hospital gets you all patched up. The fact that you can get injured and die are just extra details in the game to make it more interesting and harder.
I doubt that the vast majority of video game players and most people in general would not go around blowing off people's heads. But I do it in the game because it's fun. The people I shoot in the game are like cartoon characters, they're not real people and it's funny to see them in violent situations. It looks silly to see a guy with no head and blood spurting out of his neck. It just does. If it were a real person, it would not be silly. But within the videogame, the violence is totally unrealistic. It's all computer generated and looks fake. They make some effort to make it look real, and that does add to the enjoyment of the game, but at its base it is false. The ability to separate reality from fiction is key in the violence in media debate, and in my opinion, people are capable of making that distinction in situations involving videogames. |
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| Detail |
[Dec. 3rd, 2005|11:30 am] |
The details of this game always amaze me. I was exploring the Malibu Club and there are many tiny details in it. There are tables with stuff on them and if you look closely you can see an ashtray full of cigarettes and drinks. Little details like that make the game more interesting. I think it is supposed to make the game more realistic but for me it just shows all the work and ideas that went into creating the game. The same kind of detail is evident in the mansion. I explored all the different rooms there and found tables full of wine bottles and glasses. Also there were bags from a store called "Gash" in a room. Gash is the Vice City version of Gap and it's in the mall there and everything. And at one point I went into the mall and you can shoot out all the glass in the store windows and it's lots of fun, but when you go into Gash, there is a set of clothes you can change into. The clothes are like quintessential Gap clothes, so I see it as kind of parody on 90's fashion since Gap was so big and iconic then. The different places that just this one element shows up demonstrates the coherence of the game to me. It must have been a lot of work to incorporate all these things into one game. I want to say there's even a Gash ad on one of the radio stations but I'm not sure.
As I explored the mansion further, I found some hallways that reminded me of a labyrinth. The walls in the mansion are red, and when I was going down this hallway that branched off two different ways, the way the color of the game is, you can't see that it branches, it just looks like a dead end that you can't tell how far away it is. The hallways twist and turn for a short period of time and that along with the color and being in a video game is disorienting. |
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| uncarny |
[Dec. 2nd, 2005|11:15 am] |
One of the main things I enjoy about Vice City are the cars. There is a wide variety of them, all different types, colors and styles. The Phoenix is one of my favorite cars in the game because it is obviously meant to be a Pontiac Firebird. My first car was a '91 Firebird convertible that I miss very much. Driving around in Vice City in a Phoenix reminds me of my old car. This experience relates to the idea of the uncanny in a way, because I'm driving around in a computer generated car that looks like my old car, but is not quite the same and is in a totally different realm than me. So like a doll seeming to be alive, my old car seems to be alive in this video game.
One mission in the game involves a gang war between the Cubans and the Haitians. At one point in this mission the Haitians get in a hearse and you have to chase them. While you're behind them, they start throwing coffins out of the back of the hearse. When that first happened, I was shocked. I thought it was pretty sick and messed up to be throwing a corpse around, but then they kept throwing an endless amount out and each one would blow up.
So I was just messing around with livejournal and there is a option you can select called "start speaking." I tried it out and a female Stephen Hawking-like voice started reading my post to me. And since I wrote it in first person, it was like she was talking about her own experience almost. Talk about uncanny. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 2nd, 2005|10:44 am] |
When I was starting up the game today, I paid more attention to the very beginning. It opens on a screen that looks like on old computer screen and it seems that someone is typing "Load 'Vice City'." It looks very old school and it reminds me of a text adventure game beginning, Then retro arcade music starts playing and it fades out into professional-looking movie credits with the kind of music you would hear in the opening credits as well. I find this interesting because it is a blend of two eras in video games. That parallels the idea of this game very well because it takes the 1980's and puts its music, cars, etc into a modern video game.
Since I am not very good at video games, even this one, I use cheat codes. I simply can't do anything without them. Especially when doing the missions because you have to do a lot of illegal things in them and the cops chase you. I would not get anywhere in this game without the "lower wanted level" cheat code. After playing the game for awhile, you begin to memorize these codes. You press a series of buttons on the controller and you get health points, armor points, a certain array of weapons, etc. There are three weapon groups you can get through a cheat code and they are mostly similar except for the last three or four buttons. I learned that if the last three buttons are "down", then I get a chainsaw, grenade, sniper rifle and a tommy gun. So in a way the game has taught me a new code or language. This relates to some of the codes we learned about in class. Johnny's mother taught Johnny a code to be able to read her letters in The House of Leaves. The codes in Vice City don't really help me communicate to anyone, but they help me get a task accomplished so I can continue to the next one. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 3rd, 2005|01:30 pm] |
This journal was created for my game assignment for ENG 1131 Writing through Media. I will be updating about my progress in the videogame Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The game is part of the Grand Theft Auto series, which has several games on a variety of systems. It takes place in the 1980's in a fictional city called Vice City, which is basically a parody of Miami. There are all sorts of recognizable elements in the game. They use 80's style cell phones, real 80s music is played on the car radios, cars resemble real models of cars and the names of many places are similar to real places in Miami. The game is also a parody of Miami Vice and Scarface, resemblances to both are evident in the game. The game is also a sequel to other GTA games, and characters, places, products and other elements are found as well. You play the game as Tommy Vercetti, a recently-released from-prison mobster who is sent to run the drug trade in Miami for the mob bosses in Liberty City (NYC).
Parts of the game remind me of elements of ARGs. Although it is only a videogame and not as intricate as an ARG and only takes place in one medium, aspects of the video game reality are similiar to those in ARGs. First of all, the game takes place in a similiar version of our own reality, albeit 20 years ago and pixelated. Real music is used, but a fictional rock band is also created, along with music they supposedly made. Fictional products that could be real exist, and everything seems very similiar to real life. |
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