ESSAY

Examine the informational structure and interactive possibilities of ONE piece of conditional design’ (game, interactive, collaborative process) of your choice. Explore these as examples of interaction, within particular reference to the role of the audience and designer in each.



This essay will examine, explore and give examples of the informational structure and interactive possibilities on the game ‘Grand Theft Auto, San Andreas’ which is developed and published by Rockstar. I shall do this by referencing the roles of the audience and the author then further challenging the idea of who has more influence in and over the game as a whole. To challenge this idea I will begin by writing about the informational structure on the game play followed by the interactive possibilities within the game itself and how both the audience and author interact and individually influence the game in their own ways. I will attempt to do this by focusing on different areas of game play such as focusing on Cheat Codes, Mods, etc. Within the essay at times the audience may be referred to as the ‘player’ and the author as the ‘designer’. Also I shall abbreviate the title Grand Theft Auto San Andreas to ‘GTA SA’ or at times just ‘GTA’ to keep things simple.

To begin with I would just like to clarify the definition of the word Influence in the English language, which is to move or impel (a person) to some action or process of producing effects on the actions, behaviour, opinions, etc., of another or others.

The game Grand Theft Auto San Andreas begins with the opening credits followed by CJ (Carl Johnson) who is the main character at the airport, just landed back into San Andreas after several years to see his family. On arrival he gets a call from his brother Sweet telling him that their mother is dead. He gets into a cab and makes his way home until a few crooked cops stop the cab he’s in to frame him for the murder of another police officer that they them selves committed. Once framed they then drop CJ into a rival gangs neighborhood, where the gameplay begins. The designer lays out pop up boxes with instructions that guide the player by making him/her familiarize themselves with the controls. The first thing the designer tells the player to do is to get on the bike and to ride it toward the marker that says ‘CJ’ which is the player’s home. As the character rides the bike toward the marker, the designer keeps informing the player with the relevant information via pop up boxes. Once the player (CJ) gets to the house the first mission called ‘Big Smoke’ begins with a cinematic cutscene with CJ meeting with an old friend called Big Smoke. This first mission consists of CJ driving himself and Big Smoke in Big Smoke’s car to the cemetery for his mother’s burial, where he meets his brother Sweet, his sister Kendl and Ryder who is another old friend.

As you can see, from the beginning the designer has influence over the game. Giving the player no choice but to follow the instructions. Yes, the player can go off course and do as he or she wills but at what cost? The cost being the progression minimalized and slowed down to an eventual halt resulting then at some point with the player having no choice but to return to the game play and continue the story line in order to move forward as the designer intended. Just by looking at the beginning game play scene it is clear that the designer has the upper hand and is already influencing the game.
Focusing more on the structure and specifically the screen display, the audience interacts with the character via third person perspective. Putting them in control of the player entirely, almost like they are living another external life parallel to their own. As the game progresses CJ acquires an income through different means like missions, mini games, and picking up side jobs like being a vigilant, fireman, a paramedic or even driving a cab. By these means of making money it enables him to purchase items that enhance game play but also change the way he looks. By changing the way he looks, the player can almost rebuild the way CJ looks externally to how he started at the beginning. This way the player interacts with the game at almost a personal level and may even make the player feel as if they have control but its quiet the opposite here. The designer is the one who gives and creates the perception that the player is in control but the player is only in control of what the designer has created.

Going back to my point from above, about how the designer through out the story line of the game keeps the player on course reminded me of another good example where the designer subtly displays authority. The player faces difficulties such as an intense police chase if he or she ventures out in locked areas of the map. These intense police chases can in some ways be thrilling for the player but by without locking items such as weapons, armor and the means to modify their vehicle can become rather frustrating for the player because they would keep dyeing and having to re-spawn which means that their attempts to go against the designers intended storyline would be at a fault. The only way the player can unlock these means of making the game play experience more enjoyable is by following the storyline the designer has created and by doing so they would have to get back on track. Although the player doesn’t always need to follow the story line to unlock the items stated above. The player can do this by using cheat codes.

Cheat codes and the use of them can be previously seen on GTA (III and vice city) and San Andreas was destined to be no exception to these cheat codes. Cheat codes simply enable the player to ‘Cheat’ thinking they are pulling one over the designer by going against the games intentional design. Little do the audience know that it was the designer who created the codes to enhance gameplay and give the game an almost new reality to which the player would be accustomed. The code itself differentiates with the purpose (maximum life, ammunition, weather, etc.) and also differentiates with the different consoles it is played on. For example the cheat code for ‘Armor, health and $250,000 in cash’ is inputted differently on Xbox than it is on PC or PS2. Once the player inputs the code, a pop up box will appear in the top left corner with ‘cheat activated’ within it.

With the cheat codes coming into the argument, this arises the question to why does the player even need to follow the storyline to unlock items that make the game play more interesting at their own convenience? The answer to this is rather straightforward. Why would the designer set up these codes? Well, the designer sets up these codes for the player to cheat to firstly make the game more entertaining and also once the player has had all their fun with the codes it then hits their curiosity of the player’s progression. In real life we are always curious about how our own lives would have progressed or panned out if we chose another route to the one we are currently on. This idea or curiosity then brings the player back to the designers intended story line willingly out of their own curiosity rather than the designer directly forcing them.

Unlike the cheat codes where the designer purposely creates a way for the player to experience the game, modifications or Mods as they are known for short, are simply alterations within the game itself made by an anonymous Modder (an individual that makes the mod) that will most likely be someone who’s part of the audience. Mods for GTA are made through commercial grade modelling programs such as SketchUp, 3ds Max and Zmodeler by altering the game play and asset files within the game installation. Using the game modification software’s can be used to add mods into the game but the more complex the mod gets or even if you want to use a mod that’s already out there you can use third party software or various fan sites, pooling resources and by sharing documentation with other modder’s. The mods are most commonly used and developed for PC versions of the game, simply because the PCs do not prevent the mods. Console versions do exist to an extent but are less common than PCs.

The whole point of Mods/ modifications are to enhance game play and to almost create an entirely new gaming experience to your imagination by for example adding in zombies to creating new characters the possibilities are truly endless. The designer of GTA, Rockstar, are and have always been against game modification as it can completely alter the game, giving the player complete control. To reinforce their disapproval of modding their game, they have legally put into place that the users may not "Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, display, perform, prepare derivative works based on, or otherwise modify the Software, in whole or in part" to regain control of their game but this does not stop the modder’s from continuing and is evident with the Hot Coffee mod.

The hot coffee mod or patch was essentially a mini game that was rejected during the process of being made by Rockstar for being way too explicit but was forgotten to be taken out (the patch consisted of CJ having crude sexual intercourse with his girlfriend). The result of the patch being forgotten resulted in the game having an inaccessible mini game that was essentially a problem waiting to happen. And a problem did happen. In June 2005 a modder called Patrick Wildenborg discovered it and made it accessible and by doing so made the patch gain notoriety worldwide.

As the Hot Coffee patch got more attention by the media, Rockstar had to face more bad criticism on top of all the criticism that they were already going through from the consumers, politicians and the gaming industry as a whole. And in the beginning of Rockstar blamed the modders or as they put it “hackers” for hacking the game and creating the mini game. This claim didn’t stick as the mini games code and assets were already present on the disk and all the modder did was simply make a mod from existing content that was available to the audience. The ESRB (entertainment software rating board) then made the games rating increase from being an M (mature) rated game to an AO (adults only) rated game. This meant that the game had a restricted audience, which would have significantly affected their sales. They responded effectively by taking the patch out of the game and re-releasing the game, which meant ESRB, gave them their M Rating back and sales progressed back to normal.

The Hot Coffee mod was the reason I challenged the idea of who has more influence over the game as whilst I was reaching on the game, it occurred as I was reading about the controversy and how the modders, individuals who were part of the audience could cause the designers such an inconvenience. The idea came to me and I wanted to speculate and bring this idea to a conclusion.

So finally to conclude I would say that now we can clearly see all the points about the game, I say that yes, the designer has designed the game but without an audience to interact with the game, the designer’s model would in fact be useless. And also with the use of mods and the ability for players to manipulate the game that the designer has created brings the idea that power or in this case the influence really comes form the audience and not the designer.




Bibliography


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