Grand Theft Auto: Love it, hate it, or play it.

GTA has created it's own nice

After browsing through the blogs I found there was no in depth review of the highly popular and controversial video game series: Grand Theft Auto.  GTA has no doubt become every wannabe Bart Simpson/ Eddie Haskell’s dream come true and every parent’s worst nightmare manifested in the form of a cartoon like video game.  I decided to cover this game because I felt that it needed to be discussed, rather than being shoved into a dark closet to be forgotten about by people of a conservative disposition.

The original GTA format

Grand Theft Auto is a video game that revolves around the obvious title; stealing cars.  This simulation game puts the player in the position of a hardened criminal where the objective of the game is to pass all the levels with the highest possible score or money. The player is given various options or missions to complete in order to proceed to the next level of game play.  The majority of the missions revolve around breaking the law to some extent, whether it be street racing, chauffeuring mafia bosses around town, or committing gangland type assassinations.

Grand Theft Auto was originally released as a PC-CD Rom game in 1997 by DMA, now known as Rockstar Games which is based out of Edinburgh, Scotland.  DMA ,aka Direct Mind Access, was started in 1988 by David Jones.  DMA is also responsible for their most popular game LEMMINGS. Yes LEMMINGS!! Which has become one of the most popular early PC games that has sold over 20 million copies on 21 different gaming platforms.  Grand Theft Auto has now become their primary bread winner which now has 10 standalone versions with 3 expansion packs also available.

From GTA Vice City; an obvious play off the hit show Miami Vice

So why is it more popular now than ever?  The original GTA was a “top-down version” where the player has bird’s eye view looking upon a 2 Dimensonal environment similar to other games like The Legend of Zelda on the original Nintendo.  The original version was popular because it was provocative, not because the gameplay was the coolest or cleanest.  Finally in 2001 the first 3D version was released for the Sony Playstation 2 console which was also the top selling video game of 2001.  The 3d version was huge improvement in gameplay and how a player interacts within the environment.  Many of the video games created after GTA 3 were built on virtually the same platform.  GTA3 allows the player to roam freely throughout the environment, do almost anything without affecting the game’s storyline in anyway.  This new and exciting concept is known as Sandbox in video games where structure of the game is open and the player can choose to participate in the story at their own pace.  Sound familiar?  Many of the new titles being released  now use the Sandbox concept and has revolutionized the way video games are now designed.  For me, the Sandbox concept sounds like an instructional designer applied some  asynchronous theory combined with Keller’s ARCS model to this game.

When I first played GTA has college age student, I found myself diving into the character’s role and the addictive movie like storyline which quickly grabbed my thought process.  Attention diverted!  The story echoes that of classic mobster movies like Godfather which made it easier to understand the concept of organized crime. Relevance achieved!  The gameplay starts off with easy missions that lead  into other story line related adventures which encouraged me to keep going in the game.  Confidence check!  After I passed the entire game a list of statistics is given to the player which determines the progress passed and how much the player has yet to achieve.  This enhances the video game because instead of being passed once, the game can be  played over and over with “choose your own adventure” scenarios.  Satisfaction successful!

A live action screen shot from GTA4, the graphics only get better in movie mode

So what does the release of GTA and its multi-million dollar success say about our society?  All it really says is that human nature hasn’t changed much in the last several thousand years.  This video game appeals to the male violent instincts that have continually plagued our civilizations.  Some would say that the release of this game is a social and moral indicator of worse things to come.  This video game is a reflection of what IS ALREADY GOING ON in society not a creation of the crime that devours our streets when most people are home sleeping.  Much of the GTA series is generic rip off of The Godfather, Goodfellas, and Scarface, which are three ULTRA-Violent movies that were released before I was even 5 years old, before I received my first Nintendo (I’m 25 now!).  I wasn’t able to watch those movies as a child because they’re all Rated R and mother knew better than to let me become desensitized at a young age.  Those movies were designed for a specific audience in mind (Males 18-35 years of age) so it should come as no surprise that GTA3 is designed for the same age range as well. Personally, I would NEVER let my children play GTA because I would not buy it for them, a mistake many parents have made due to ignorance and whiners.  GTA is made by adults for adults, not for children!  Parents are responsible for teaching kids morality not the MEDIA.

GTA4 in movie sequence

It’s easy to blame the ills of our society on video games and the media’s undeniable influence.  Have we lost control? or have we as humans (especially Americans) just become negligent and lazy when teaching our children.  Have we left our kids to electronic baby sitting instead of good ol’ Mary Poppins discipline?  I’m not here to push politics onto anyone, but Obama was onto something when he said “parents have to do their job too. We’ve got to turn off the TV set, we’ve got to put away the video game, and we have to tell our children that education is not a passive activity.”