Project Space

Gustavo Vieyra          

Professor Sean Pessin

English 114B

15 April, 2012

Project Space

            In this world we can always count to be surrounded by one thing at all times, that is space. What is space? Space is defined by an online source as a continuous are or expanse that is free, available, or unoccupied. Space is found everywhere we go and in all dimensions, such as two-dimensional, three-dimensional, in our world, or virtual ones, like video games. Space is an essential element for our survival, if we had no space we would not exist, we are space! The way we use it can change us though, it is up to us how we take advantage of the space that is provided for us. Furthermore in my English class 114B with Professor Sean Pessin we were assigned to play a video game. From that we would analyze how the space inside the game or outside was used or how it affected us. For my choice of game I picked Grand Teft Auto III that is an action adventure game who was developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar. My game system of play is my own iPhone 4s. This game became the first three dimensional game to the Grand Theft Auto series. The story line of this game consists of a criminal named Claude who was backstabbed and is made to work his way up to the criminal pyramid to later face the one who backstabbed him. This game is described as a third-person shooter and driver game, where you control the player but also the vehicles he manages to steal. The setting of this game takes place in current time “Liberty City” or pretty much New York City. I have provided images of how the play of the game works to give a better understanding of my descriptions. In the pictures you can see how it looks in the third-person perspective and how it looks when you are conducting a vehicle.

The objective of the game is to pass missions that are given to you by high lord criminals where you have to do the dirty work of killing people, robberies, chauffer, and deliver for them and as a reward you are paid with money. Within the game story you unlock and are able to retain new weapons, these weapons can be from a hand pistol, to a rifle, to an rpg launcher to a tank. This game is truly mde very realistic; you can get arrested, killed. To add on you are in control of the player at all times so you are free to roam around and do as you wish with Claude. The basic controls of the player are simple; on the touch screen you are given an analog stick, a fight button, a run button, a jump button, and a button to steal the closest vehicle to you. As for driving you are given another analog stick, a gas button, a reverse button, and a break button. It is up to you the player how you put use of these controls to manipulate the space in the game.

            Space in the game not very limited, you are freely ably to go pretty much anywhere but some buildings and outside of the city. There are invisible barriers that are held in the game that restrict you from going to certain areas. A lot of limitations occur in the game, such as; how far you can aim with a gun, the velocity a car could go, the height of Claude’s jump, the health the characters are given, and many more. When on a mission if not all the steps are followed or you get killed the mission is failed and you are made to start all over to the beginning of the mission. The good thing about this game is that you are not given a certain amount of lives; you can die as many times as you want and you won’t get to a game over. The only end to this game is when you succeed in all the missions and you become the top dog. The use of space can be carefully analyzed of how it makes everything work in the game, how one space affected thing can cause of chain effect that will eventually put you in front of a limitation barrier. Although I can get into further detail about how the use of space happens inside the game I have chosen to analyze how the use of space outside of the game constrains me.

            In our human world space is pretty much endless; there is space beyond space beyond space. Our area of space is so great that we have not accomplished to reach even the farthest of sights; we have not been able to conquer every single part of space available. We may have the technology and space crafts to carry us throughout outer space but no matter how far we go we will never travel it all, that is because it is endless. Even though we have no limit to the amount of space, we do have limits to where and how we can use it. This Grand Theft Auto III video game can demonstrate exactly how it limits me to a certain extent on the levels of space that I can play it or control. I may be outside of the game but it still places great limitations as to where I can or how I play the game, many factors determine just how the game is somewhat in control of me in some areas or spaces. The following factors somewhat have a significant impact on the use of space; portability, battery restrictions, memory, expenses, processing speed, small screen, small control buttons, lighting, easily can break, time consumption, and overall the environment that it is played in.

            To begin with I mentioned earlier that I play this game on my iPhone 4s, making it very portable. With this you don’t have to deal with going to a certain area to play the game, you can have it with you at all times. The phone alone measures about five inches in length, two and a half inches in width, and is about a centimeter thick, this makes it small. The fact that it is small means that I can easily carry it anywhere, like my pocket, or in a small travel bag. The dimensions of the phone are fairly small so it does not need a lot of space to maintain it around. Even adding a case to the phone does not change its appearance much, it will remain small at all times, and this is perfect. The devise is highly portable so it allows opens the doors to play pretty much anywhere or any space that it is allowed in. This is where our first complication with its use of space, although its portable and it is developed to be played anywhere the truth is that I can’t. To explain this further I am limited to playing with it at a meeting with someone important, while driving or in class. It will be highly disrespectful if I decide to pop out with my phone and decide to play it in a public meeting. Meetings are obviously made to “meet” and to be given full attention, whereas if I am playing I will be breaking that purpose of the meeting. The space where I can enjoy myself while playing this addicting killing game is also limited when I am driving. Of course it’s a horrible idea to even try to play and remove the focus off the road and onto the game, that is life threatening. Imagine one hand on the steering wheel and the other on my iPhone, that would not work. I would not be able to do both drive and play because to have full control of Claude I would need both hands, I would not be able to drive like that. My space here is affected because the combination of playing the game and driving would not be a successful adventure, I can possibly get killed here, and in that process more space would be affected by making room for me six feet underground to lay my deceased body.  In class it will be my choice to play or not, but the consequences could involve crucial space and time consumption. My space in a classroom is reserved as my place to get an education and learn. I can easily whip out my phone and decide to play Grand Theft Auto but many people would not appreciate this. I wouldn’t only be wasting my time but others time as well. The professor would not be very accepting of this behavior and could easily remove me from class, eliminating that space provided for me. Without my focus on the material being taught in class I will not learn and possibly not get very far in life, the space of a great genius would never be filled all because I decided to play in class instead of paying attention. This type of behavior is looked down onto; the least of my worries would be to not learn anything and later struggle to recover what I missed, impeding with the space of others by bothering for help with what was missed.

            Battery restriction occur regularly with these type of handheld devices, although not much space is required for the battery itself on the device there is the hassle of having to recharge it all the time. If the iPhone is being used constantly throughout the day whether it be on playing it or using it for other purposes the battery tends to drain out pretty quick, the life of the phone would not last you over a day. Charging it is mainly where space is affected, the quick death of the battery makes the owner carry the charger around most of the time just in case. The cord and the wall plug have to be carried so that take up more space in placing it somewhere where you can easily access it. Another space problem would be finding the right place to charge your devise. Not all places are convenient but if you have to charge it you have to deal with it. Space and time is wasted the most when having to wait for it to charge. These devices charge slowly so you have to wait till it is charges sufficiently for your needs.

            A great advantage to these types of handheld devices is that for video games you don’t have to carry game cartridges for them. All the games that you desire to play can be downloaded through the application store if provided. This saves you space or room for the games you want to play; they are installed and saved in the devise for as long as you please. Although memory or space is taken up the more you play and the more games you add on to the devise. The negative part is that just like anything else you have to purchase the games. Although to first buy the games you would have to buy the devise first, this can be an iPhone, and iPod Touch, or an iPad. Regardless what devise you purchase space is taken either way, this part of used space occurs in your pocket or in your bank. The devise is not cheap so you would have to waste a good amount of money on it.  In the game the more money I make, missions I pass, or accomplishments I make they are saved and every time takes more and more space. There is a high chance that if your iPhone device does not have enough free memory you will no longer be able to proceed in the game because you will have no more room to store your advances. Processing speed of the game affects the use of space and time as well. Luckily my iPhone is the newest version and it is equipped with two dual A5 chips, making it the fastest of its time! Since it allows for the action to run fast and smooth you waste no time waiting for the game to load, as soon as you open the app within matters of seconds you are ready to start the all the blood violent filled killing.

            With the small size of the phone comes the small size of the screen. This goes back to how small and portable it is so not much space is taken up by it. The negative part about this is that your fingers are on the screen as you play controlling the character Claude, so if you got big fingers it will increase the difficulty of play because you will block off a big portion of the screen. To play right you would have to be in the perfect lighting area, which would be a place that is not too dark or too bright lit. Playing outside in the sun could possibly be the worst are to play at because the suns light over powers the light given off by the phone, this would make you move to a new space or area the is more preferred, such as in a closed room or indoors.

            You have to be very careful when handling these types of devices; they are made out of glass and can easily break. It is best if you provide your phone with a durable case that will protected in case it is dropped or hit. Another alternative could be to go to a spacious place with carpet or a soft padded floor. Time consumption is what really determines your area of play. There are those people that are highly addicted and devoted to the game that they have a designated are where they concentrate the best and accomplish more in the game. Whereas there are the ones who only play it as a pastime and will play it when they have nothing else to do, these people generally play it anywhere where they have the best opportunity.

            In the video I provided below specific reasons why playing this game in certain areas is not okay are demonstrated. A good example would be at church, if I were to pull my phone out that would already make me look bad, but what if I start playing with the full volume up. All of those around me would look me down with the craziest eyes, that would definitely be frowned upon! If you listen closely you can tell how much violence occurs in the game just by the noises. I think this is a perfect example on how space is affected and used, I cannot play this game anywhere that I wish.  People go to church to pray and praise gods, being interrupted by this would more than likely result to my exile from church. The environment of play is very important, I also provide a picture of me playing the game. In the picture there is nothing much to it, I am riding on a gondola across the city of Mammoth Lakes, sure it is a strange place to be playing it at but it shows how easily I can play anywhere and how portable it is. Not much is needed from the game but my willingness to play and a good space to play at.