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United States15536 Posts
Gamers may have noticed a minor event occur last week. A game came out. No big deal. A small title called Grand Theft Auto 5. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. It’s kind of a big deal.
The colossal hype surrounding GTA 5‘s release is not unwarranted. Its creators at Rockstar have an impressive track record with the GTA franchise and their other projects (such as the critically-acclaimed Red Dead Redemption). Yet none of their properties, even large ones like Max Payne or Midnight Club, approach the success of the GTA games. Like Zelda, Halo, or Final Fantasy, GTA is a series for which people anticipate the games for years, eagerly making predictions about the next installment. They set the standard for open-world video games, regularly achieving milestones in graphical fidelity, environment detail, and sheer world size. It’s one of few series that strive to transcend the label of “video game” and get closer and closer to something like a “world/life simulator” with each iteration of the franchise. According to reviews and trailers, GTA 5 significantly improves the series by innovating in the game’s storytelling and enhancing gameplay mechanics.
So… I’m curious why I don’t find myself interested in it at all.
Most people would probably determine that the game probably isn’t for them. While that’s certainly a part of it, a game like GTA 5 doesn’t necessarily have to be “the kind of thing I normally enjoy” for me to be interested. As a gamer, I’m often interested in game that allow me to experience things I haven’t. By all accounts, GTA 5 is an experience no other game can match. The scale and scope of GTA 5‘s Los Santos and the myriad activities in which you can participate (from tennis to arson) makes it unrivaled in the realistic open-world genre. Moreover, GTA 5‘s three protagonists and the ability to swap among them is a new storytelling technique that (allegedly) still has some kinks, but is an incredible addition to the franchise. In contrast, Skyrim, a phenomenal open-world title, and its narrative mildly suffered from Mary Sue Syndrome because your character was always the best at everything and most important to anyone. Such is not the case in GTA 5. So different is this approach that Rockstar’s take on the player’s characterization throughout the game might yield a new way to express a narrative in open-world games.
I also seek to understand the gaming zeitgeist, which usually makes me excited for games like GTA 5. This happened back when Halo 4 came out, astonishing me with the level of interest I had for a game I anticipate wanting. Seeking the culturally significant within gaming inspires me to play titles such as Dishonored, The Last of Us, and Papers, Please. The games are interesting, but even the commentary surrounding them might be intriguing enough to warrant a playthrough. GTA 5 is not only the latest entry in a respected* franchise but the final major release of this generation of consoles (which ends in November with the release of the PS4 and XBox One). This auspicious practically ensures that GTA 5 will be discussed for a long time. On top of all that is the fact that the game will almost certainly be a Game of the Year contender, alongside such titles as Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us. Usually these GotY candidates get my attention regardless of genre, but that’s just not the case with GTA 5.
* “respected” (?)
Part of the reason I don’t feel compelled to play GTA 5 is that I feel like I’ve played it before. Obviously I haven’t, but I still can’t shake the feeling that GTA 5′s gameplay loop is barely differentiable from those of the rest of the series. Like many teenage boys, I enjoyed wrecking havoc in GTA games over at my friends’ houses in high school. We never played the story, but amused ourselves with diversions like running around with a tank, how many stars can you get with a katana, etc. Unlike many games that I insisted I get for myself, I always was just fine leaving GTA alone. Now, looking at GTA 5′s gameplay on the internet, it just seems like an updated version of the same games I used to play. This perceived lack of change makes me very apathetic about the title. This is still odd to me because I’m usually fine with repetition (League of Legends) and nostalgia (Final Fantasy XIV) but the franchise-specific style of GTA V cannot hold my attention.
The reality of the game also prevents me from investing in GTA 5. When The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim came out, many players commented that the world was a bit too real (if such a thing is possible) and that much of the leveling or questing approached real life chores. To me, GTA 5 seems similar, except that it’s actually the real world. Where gathering sheepskins in a game like World of Warcraft or The Secret World feels like a job, delivering pizzas is a job (and probably something you can do in GTA 5). Furthermore, I’m not nearly as compelled by shooting a gun, driving down the freeway, or owning a house as I am with tossing a fireball, riding a chocobo, or commanding a spaceship. While I can appreciate the value of GTA‘s satire, being reminded of things or people that piss me off might actually just piss me off. When I play games I’m always looking for a bit of an escape. When the “escape” sends me from one set of real world chores to another… well that’s a rather bad escape.
I’m also pretty concerned with some of the content in GTA 5. According to Polygon, not only is the game rife with sexism in the script (mostly due to the asshole characters), it also only includes six female characters, none of whom are relatable or playable. If this is supposed to be satire, it’s not doing a very good job of showing what the correct thing to do is. It’s strange that GTA, an incredible technical achiever, remains so backwards in this respect.
Maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps I’ll suddenly feel the need to play GTA 5. The reviews’ positive scores might finally hit me so hard that I want to try it out. I could play it at a friend’s house or see more of it online and decide that I must have it. I just don’t feel that way right now. It’s neither good nor bad to feel this apathetic towards a game (lord knows I feel this way about many other games), but it’s always strange when I feel this way about one so popular and influential. I guess I’m just curious as to what I’m missing that so many others notice.
You can read this post and lots more besides at the N3rd Dimension.
  
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I agree with most of what you're saying, except for the sexism part.
It seems that you're worried that the game is potentially non-satiric, or at least the satire is hard enough to discern that people might be influenced by that. After mentioning slaughtering people with a katana or setting fire to someone's house while they're still inside of it. I don't really buy what you're saying.
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fireball > gun. fact.
simulations of violence in the world we live in are just less fun imo imo
i doubt the female representation was so much satirical as opposed to standard. and sexist.
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I’m also pretty concerned with some of the content in GTA 5. According to Polygon, not only is the game rife with sexism in the script (mostly due to the asshole characters), it also only includes six female characters, none of whom are relatable or playable. If this is supposed to be satire, it’s not doing a very good job of showing what the correct thing to do is. It’s strange that GTA, an incredible technical achiever, remains so backwards in this respect.
Oh god did you really type that? It's a game... Yet it's alright when the characters are fantasy (Dumner in TES)? LOL double standard.
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On September 26 2013 13:51 iTzSnypah wrote:Show nested quote +I’m also pretty concerned with some of the content in GTA 5. According to Polygon, not only is the game rife with sexism in the script (mostly due to the asshole characters), it also only includes six female characters, none of whom are relatable or playable. If this is supposed to be satire, it’s not doing a very good job of showing what the correct thing to do is. It’s strange that GTA, an incredible technical achiever, remains so backwards in this respect. Oh god did you really type that? It's a game... Yet it's alright when the characters are fantasy (Dumner in TES)? LOL double standard.
Maybe I shouldn't answer this but i can't find where he insinuated sexism was okay in fantasy settings. he also said he wasn't too hyped on TES. and are you insinuating that its unreasonable to criticize a game for being sexist? did you really type that?
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to me, being a 'gangster' sent to steal diamonds is just as much fantasy as collecting wolf pelts. Sure, there's plenty of sexisim in the game but that doesn't bother me any more or less than the violence... I've enjoyed the game - but I understand that it seems just like any other GTA (well, maybe not quite like 1 or 2).
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Last GTA I played was Vice City, but I got it taken away from me when I blabbed to the class how fun it was to run over people and take their money. I didn't like my 2nd grade teacher after that.
But from what I see, I'd agree that all the past GTAs do look pretty similar and don't differ very much.
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I can't get enough of it but I've loved all of them and never seem to get sick of them despite how similar they may or may not be. Different strokes and all that
Also you can take selfies. That has kept me occupied for countless hours already.
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On September 26 2013 13:05 9-BiT wrote:
I agree with most of what you're saying, except for the sexism part.
It seems that you're worried that the game is potentially non-satiric, or at least the satire is hard enough to discern that people might be influenced by that. After mentioning slaughtering people with a katana or setting fire to someone's house while they're still inside of it. I don't really buy what you're saying.
thats because you live in a sexist society.
it is satire, but the satire is from an inherently sexist (and white) perspective. franklin and his life is nothing like the hood, even a good satire of the hood would be different.
its satire making fun of things that are not objectively true, its making fun of a slightly skewed point of view.
you have to think a little deeper and use your brain to see the nuance, but its not rocket science.
so yes, its satire. its intentionally all the things i described above, but even so its intentionally making fun of things from a perspective. this perspective has inherent biases by nature....
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i got it on release and i haven't put more than about 5 hours or so into it i don't know why.
sc2 is the first game i have really gotten into since i found world of warcraft 5 years ago. (stopped playing it years ago now)
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When you're in a game where the gameplay involve "being an arsonist" and killing cops, I find it strange to complain about sexism. Actually I find it very americanish =) If you have the 2nd degree to know you're in a game and the murders aren't real or shocking, why would you be shocked about the sexism in the same game ?
Reminds me of the US TV, where a small bit a boobs gets censored while ultra violent images are everywhere.
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On September 26 2013 14:41 nath wrote:Show nested quote +On September 26 2013 13:05 9-BiT wrote:
I agree with most of what you're saying, except for the sexism part.
It seems that you're worried that the game is potentially non-satiric, or at least the satire is hard enough to discern that people might be influenced by that. After mentioning slaughtering people with a katana or setting fire to someone's house while they're still inside of it. I don't really buy what you're saying. thats because you live in a sexist society. it is satire, but the satire is from an inherently sexist (and white) perspective. franklin and his life is nothing like the hood, even a good satire of the hood would be different. its satire making fun of things that are not objectively true, its making fun of a slightly skewed point of view. you have to think a little deeper and use your brain to see the nuance, but its not rocket science. so yes, its satire. its intentionally all the things i described above, but even so its intentionally making fun of things from a perspective. this perspective has inherent biases by nature....
I could easily say though that you're viewing this through a white male centric view point as well. We have meth heads, biker gangs, crime family, total nutjob and really a whole city that could count as representing white society. Did you think those were better or more accurate representations than the offending presentations? I personally thought the conversations Franklin had were some of the best and most realistic, certainly less ridiculous than Trevor. I don't know about the specific interactions (buying a hooker etc), but the jokes about the society as a whole were pretty spot on.
As for the game, while it seemed like a great piece of storytelling, there didn't seem to be a whole lot of 'game' to it. There is walking, driving and shooting and the shooting didn't seem that much fun. The rest was basically The Sims.
If you found the character of Trevor interesting, I highly recommend Flannery O'Connor's short story A Good Man is Hard to Find.
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The real issue is that it doesn't exist for PC. Fucking Rockstar. =(
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very well said, it is also why I started playing saints row instead
that game is just epic fun
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Great read, I agree with most of it as well. I got the game the day it came out, and I haven't played it since that day. I don't know why, I really enjoyed everything about it and had minimal complaints. Maybe I thought the same thing and didn't realize it.
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United Kingdom14103 Posts
Nice article, probably never going to play the game beyond seeing some twitch.tv streams because it's not on PC.
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I'm interested, just not at $60+tax. Pretty much every AAA title will be $20 in a year or two, $10 if its on PC (Bioshock infinate comes to mind). I just wait until I the game fall under $5 on PC or $10 on console before I buy them. EVen then half the time I don't even install or play them (hello mass effect series)
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I used to love running over schoolgirls in GTA3, do they have them here too?
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I'd pick it up later if I were you.
I wasn't too bothered about the game initially, didn't buy into the hype. Then once it was out I read around and decided to pick it up and I don't regret the decision.
I don't look back too fondly on GTA 4, something about just wasn't great. Probably the protagonist but other elements too, to me GTA 5 fixes a lot of that, but not without its own issues.
Firstly its well less aggressive with its 'satire', which is good, there are still a lot of great jokes but I think they've started to understand that while jokes can be contained within satire, jokes themselves aren't satire so there's less of the sophmoric 'punchline satire' of 4 and what you're left with is funny stuff, its not a deep or penetrating look at society like some claim but its funny, I particularly enjoyed a walk through the offices of the social network 'lifehacker'.
The game still struggles to juggle the balance between being a narrative driven experience a 'game', although it steps this up hugely from previous games, it's hard to put your finger on and I think its to do with the games pacing and how it sort of fails to set the tone initially. Some of the more gamey bit stood out and felt jarring at first but after a while you settle into the flow and tone of the game and things feel more natural within the game world, it genuinely does keep getting better the more you play and some of the bits are genuinely fantastic.
The idea that you've 'played it before' is a little odd to me, we've all played FPS before, hell if you've played space invaders you understand the basics of every cover shooter out there. It's how those mechanics are contextualized and while I think GTA 5 gets off to a slow start, it soon shakes that off and it becomes genuinely compelling when taken as a whole, however I guess analysing the individual elements might not appear quite so compelling.
The sexism issue is one thing I noticed about the polygon review and my thoughts are fairly straight forward, sexism in gaming only became a significantly debated issue in the last year or two, until then it really wasn't talked about much. Considering GTA has been in development for 5 years, and considering that voice acting and animation and writing are started as soon as possible, writing in a female character probably wouldn't have been something they considered. That being said, they have no excuse for the next game, its a cultural thing in gaming and GTA is the perfect franchise to demolish it. There also is the issue of writing, I'm not sure how many female writers they have on staff and its a legitimate reason to not write good female characters if you just can't do it, Woody Allen said the same till recently, he didn't write women because he couldn't, now he can and he does a great job but again its all about planning ahead. I hope Rockstar have noticed the shift and address this in future games, even though I can forgive it in this one.
To be fair though I wouldn't call it hugely sexist though, almost every character is unlikable in many senses. It's a complicated issue though.
So in short, I would genuinely recommend it, coming from an originally skeptical view point, with a fairly critical eye. I will say though I hope it beats Bioshock: Infinite for GOTY, that was not a good game in my opinion, The Last of Us was excellent though.
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The only GTA I've enjoyed was vice city. I played the other ones at my friends' and the game truly is a relaunch of the old GTA. I'm fine with that, kids will eventually have to play GTA since it's a classic, so might as well relaunch the game with updated graphics a better engine and make money off of it.
I'm not buying for the same reason I don't buy CoD even though I enjoy the game. Sware me as much as you want, I love CoD, love the weappons and love casually stomping noobs with choppers, but I'm not buying the same game every year. If they at least made a subscription thingy for $60 which would give you acess to the game which they would update every year, I'd get it. But they would have to get rid of the previous games, else the player base would be too spread.
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EPT
