The Game of Life Related Text Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Rockstar Games.

Title: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Rockstar Games - Video Game (2004).

Five years ago Carl Johnson escaped

from the pressures of life in Los Santos,
San Andreas... a city tearing itself apart
with gang trouble, drugs and corruption.
Where filmstars and millionaires do their
best to avoid the dealers and
gangbangers.
Now, it's the early 90's. Carl's got to go
home. His mother has been murdered,
his family has fallen apart and his
childhood friends are all heading towards
disaster.
On his return to the neighbourhood, a
couple of corrupt cops frame him for
homicide. CJ is forced on a journey that
takes him across the entire state of San
Andreas, to save his family and to take
control of the streets.

Rockstar Games: http://www.rockstargames.com/games#/?page=3&gameDetail=31

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: http://www.rockstargames.com/sanandreas/
Homework:
Definition of Ethnicity:
Definition of Violence:
Definition of Game Play:
Definition of Multi-Modal text:
Define semiotics:

Area of Study: Standard and Advanced Outcomes:

3. A student develops language relevant to the study of English.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

The Game of Life Related Text Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Rockstar Games.
Watch the trailer, view the game slides and familiarise yourself with the narrative for Grand Theft Auto: San
Andreas and answer the following questions in your workbooks. Material available:
http://www.rockstargames.com/sanandreas/
1) The opening line states, Oh Sh**, here we go again! What does this tell us about this game? What
inference can be drawn to life being a game?
2) What do we learn about life in San Andrea from this trailer?
3) What clues are we given to how Carl lives his life?
4) Why did Carl start working as a car thief?
5) What single incident could have led to a different outcome for CJs life?
6) San Andreas is a fictional city based on Los Angeles / Hollywood. Why would Rockstar Games have chosen
this location to base their fictional city?
7) In what ways is CJ a customisable protagonist?
8) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has been heavily criticized for its portrayal of women. How are women
represented in San Andreas? What conclusion can you draw upon lifes chances for this women?
9) How does the overuse of violence play into the sense that life is a game?
10) Can you break the rules in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas? In your answer discuss how this applies to Frank
Abagnale and his breaking of the rules.
11) How does Grand Theft Autos open-ended play-space reflect life?
12) How are the gangs recognisable in San Andreas? What games (other than video games) use similar
distinguishing markings?
13) Academics posit that due to the open-ended play-space and loose narrative, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
allows for multiple meanings to be made. How is your life an open-ended play-space?
14) In what ways does your life follow a narrative?
15) Make a list of all the ethnicities that are poorly represented in this video game?
16) What effect is created by using a 3rd person perspective?
17) Explain how the player is positioned and what impact this has on CJs rise to wealth and power.
18) Outline how the use of famous voice actors, such as Samuel L. Jackson and Ice-T, influence the players of the
game.
19) What are the developers hoping to achieve by making CJ a fully customisable protagonist?
20) Not everyone plays the game of life by the same rules Discuss in relation to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
and Catch me if you can. Your response must include particular reference to Carl Johnson and Frank
Abagnale Junior.

Area of Study: Standard and Advanced Outcomes:

4. A student identifies and describes language forms and features and structures of particular texts that shape meaning
and influence responses.
5. A student describes the ways different technologies and media of production affect the language and structure of
particular texts.
6. A student engages with a wide range of texts to develop a considered and informed personal response.
7. A student selects appropriate language forms and features, and structures of texts to explore and express ideas and
values.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

The Game of Life Related Text Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Rockstar Games.
Complete a character flow chart that shows the relationships between all characters. Be sure to include the
relationships between different family members and their gangs.
Name
Carl Johnson
Sean Johnson
Kendl Johnson
Brian Johnson

Nickname
CJ
Sweet

Big Smoke
Ryder
Cesar Vialpando
Catalina
The Truth
Woozie
Frank Tenpenny
Eddie Pulaski
Jimmy Hernandez
Officer Pendlebury
Salvator Leone
Madd Dog
Mike Toreno
Jizzy B
T-Bone Mendez

Information
Protagonist
Carls Brother
Carls Sister
Carls Brother (Deceased)
Member of Grove Street Family
Member of Gove Street Family
Leader of Varrios Los Aztecos
Cesars Cousin
A Hippy
Leader of Triads
Senior Police Officer
Police Officer
Police Officer
Police Officer (Deceased)
Mob Boss
Disgraced Rapper
Leader of Loco Syndicate
Senior member of Loco Syndicate
Senior member of Loco Syndicate
Ballas (Rival Gang)
Vagos (Rival Gang)

Area of Study: Standard and Advanced Outcomes:

6. A student engages with a wide range of texts to develop a considered and informed personal response.

Area of Study: CEC English

P1.1 has experience of extended and short texts in a range of forms to gain knowledge, understanding and appreciation
of how English is used to convey meaning

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

The Game of Life Related Text Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Rockstar Games.

Grand Theft Auto: You

Your Life as a Video Game

You are the main character in Rockstar Games next edition of Grand Theft Auto. You must produce a story outline
for your life as a video game (imagined or real). It should include details of key characters, their relationships and the
player experience. It must follow a narrative structure, and outline details of game play.
In addition to your 800 word game narrative, you must provide some additional material to highlight your video
game. This may include, but is not limited to:

game screen shots

game poster
character profiles / pictures
game narration
soundtrack
sample animations
Will you be the next star?

Area of Study: CEC English:

P1.4 produces a range of texts in different forms.
P4.2 works effectively, both as an individual and within a group, to locate and communicate information and ideas
related to a variety of topics.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

The Game of Life Related Text Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Rockstar Games.
Wikepedia (2016). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto:_San_Andreas

Plot
In 1992, Carl "CJ" Johnson returns to Los Santos after spending five years living in Liberty City when his brother
Sean "Sweet" Johnson calls to inform him of their mother's murder. Shortly after leaving the airport, CJ is
intercepted by a group of corrupt LSPD C.R.A.S.H. officers led by Frank Tenpenny, and consisting of three
officers, Eddie Pulaski, Jimmy Hernandez, and Tenpenny himself, with whom CJ has a history. Tenpenny
implicates CJ in the murder of a police officer, Officer Pendlebury, that Tenpenny himself committed, as he was
on the verge of exposing him to Internal Affairs, and threatens to frame him for it if he does not co-operate with
them.
CJ returns to his former home on Grove Street and reunites with his brother Sweet, his sister Kendl, and
members of his old gang, Big Smoke and Ryder. Finding that the Grove Street Families (GSF) have lost much of
their territory while he was gone, CJ decides to stay in town. Working with the others to re-establish the GSF, CJ
gradually restores the gang to power, by helping to reunite the various Grove Street sets who had previously
splintered, allying himself with Kendl's boyfriend, Cesar Vialpando, leader of the Varrios Los Aztecas, and
together they drive off the rival Ballas and Vagos gangs, reducing the amount of drugs on the streets. In doing
so, CJ regains the respect of Sweet, who was disappointed that he had left Grove Street after the death of their
brother, Brian. While en route to join Sweet for a showdown against the Ballas, CJ is called by Cesar, who tells
him to meet with him outside a garage where they witness Smoke and Ryder meeting with Tenpenny and a
group of Ballas, learning that they had been working with Tenpenny all along, and were responsible for his
mother's murder, explaining their suspicious behaviour. Suspecting a set-up, CJ rushes to Sweet's aid, who was
wounded in the ambush, and fights off the Ballas, but the police arrive shortly afterward. Sweet is thrown in jail
while Tenpenny takes CJ into the countryside and dumps him there. With the GSF in shambles, Smoke and
Ryder, now openly allied with the Ballas, take over Los Santos and flood the streets with drugs.
Exiled in the countryside, CJ is forced to carry out favours for C.R.A.S.H, particularly by killing people with
incriminating evidence against Tenpenny, under threat of his imprisoned brother being transferred to the cell
block where Ballas affiliates are housed. He also works with Cesar's cousin Catalina to make money by carrying
out several heists in the area. He also befriends a hippie called The Truth and a blind Triad leader named
Woozie. After winning the deed to a garage in San Fierro in a race against Catalina andher new boyfriend, CJ
goes there with The Truth, Cesar and Kendl to get it up and running so they can make a living. While in San
Fierro, CJ crosses paths with the Loco Syndicate, Smoke and Ryder's drug connection. CJ infiltrates the
organization and identifies its leader, the mysterious Mike Toreno. Along with Cesar and the Triad, CJ kills Ryder
and the other Loco Syndicate leaders, Jizzy B and T-Bone Mendez, and shoots down Toreno's helicopter.
Despite Toreno's apparent death, CJ is soon contacted by him in the desert. Toreno reveals that he is actually a
government agent and enlists CJ's help in several shady operations in exchange for Sweet's freedom.
Meanwhile, CJ travels to Las Venturas, where Woozie invites him to become a partner in the Four Dragons
Casino, where the organisation is facing problems from the mob families that control the city. Seeking to wrest
control of Venturas from them, CJ helps Woozie plot a robbery of the mob's casino and gains the mob's trust
through various jobs for mob boss, Salvatore Leone. Eventually the heist is carried out successfully, earning the
Triad a place of power in Las Venturas, although causing the mob to distrust CJ. CJ also encounters disgraced
rapper Madd Dogg, from whom he stole a rhyme book to help new rapper OG Loc become a name in the

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

The Game of Life Related Text Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Rockstar Games.
business. After rescuing Madd Dogg from a suicide attempt, he asks CJ to be his manager once he returns from
rehab.
Tenpenny, fearing his arrest is inevitable, tasks his partner Pulaski with killing CJ and disposing of the body of
Hernandez, whom Tenpenny found out was informing on them to Internal Affairs. While CJ is digging a grave for
both Hernandez and himself, Hernandez, still alive but wounded after being hit in the back of the head with a
shovel by Tenpenny several times, manages to attack Pulaski, leading to him being consequently killed. Pulaski
then flees, but CJ pursues and kills him.
Madd Dogg returns from rehab, prompting CJ to return to Los Santos to get his music career started again.
Toreno contacts CJ for one last favor, destroying some spy ships in the area, and finally has Sweet released
from prison. Now rich and successful, CJ attempts to cut Sweet in on his businesses, but Sweet becomes angry
that he ran away and let their home be taken over by drug dealers to make his fortune. While CJ helps Sweet
once again drive off the rival gangs, Tenpenny is arrested and tried for several felonies that he has been
charged with, but the charges are surprisingly dropped due to lack of evidence, prompting a city-wide riot. CJ
helps Caesar regain control over the barrio and also regain territory for his gang, so as to have enough power to
obtain knowledge of Smoke's whereabouts.
Sweet soon learns that Smoke is holed up in a fortified crack den in the city, and seeking to stop the flow of
drugs on the street, he and CJ go there to confront him. CJ enters the building alone, fighting his way to the top
floor and confronting Smoke. CJ attempts to reason with Smoke when the latter admits that he's made a
success and cannot be touched, but Smoke refuses and instead engages CJ in a gunfight battle. CJ eventually
wins and Smoke confesses that he got caught up with the power and money in order to see his opportunity, with
his dying breath "When I'm gone, everyone gonna remember my name, Big Smoke!", Smoke dies of his wounds
and CJ replies "What a waste". Just then, Tenpenny appears, holds CJ at gunpoint and steals Smoke's drug
money, intending to use it to leave the city before the rioters kill him. Tenpenny then prepares to kill CJ, but CJ
yells Sweet's name, tricking Tenpenny into thinking Sweet is behind him. Having fallen for CJ's trick and missing
his chance to shoot CJ, who has taken cover from Tenpenny's gunshots, Tenpenny quickly rushes out of the
building and CJ and Sweet pursue him as he flees in a fire truck. While CJ and Sweet are in pursuit, Tenpenny
eventually loses control of the truck, driving off the bridge over the Grove Street cul-de-sac and crashing at the
entrance to it. CJ and his friends watch as Tenpenny crawls from the wreckage and dies of his injuries.
In the aftermath, CJ's family and friends arrive at the Johnson house for a meeting. Cesar proposes to Kendl and
Madd Dogg announces his first gold record. As his friends and allies celebrate their success, CJ turns to leave.
When Kendl asks where he's going, he replies, "Fittin' to hit the block, see what's happening."

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas