Is Grand Theft Auto still relevant?

[kain_kusanagi]

pezus said:

kain_kusanagi said:

chocoloco said:

kain_kusanagi said:

Look, I'm not making any judgments about people who like GTA. As a sandbox it's full of fun stuff to do. Causing havok is fun. I just don't happen to like playing in a sandbox for long nor do I enjoying being the bad guy. I've played through both Mass Effect games twice. Once as Male and once as Female, but both as full paragon. That's just my thing.

This is not asking if you like it or approve of it. This is about the games relivancy which is mostly judged by the number of people who play it which is up to 20 million plus for the last game. That number is way more relivant than most games. Part of the reason it is not more relivant is it's cortroversial nature which turns many people off, but it is still turns many people on in a big way. Also it is called an anti-hero which many, many games have, infamous being the most obvious game I can think of off hand with an anti-hero.

An anti hero is a character who does bad things for the right reasons. The difference is motivation. For instance, he might steal a car to chase down a bank robber. Or he might beat up a drug dealer to get info on the location of a crime boss. He might even burn down half a city in a quest for revenge on those who murdered his brother. But he wouldn't rob a bank to get rich, kill a random prostitute for a few bucks, or kill police in a quest to own the biggest house on the block.

I haven't played Infamous, but from what I've seen the main character does inhabit the role of the anti-hero. At least depending on the choices of the player. Rockstar seems to make a half assed attempt to make it seem like the GTA main characters aren't so bad. But once the game starts most of the time they steal to get rich and kill cops so they don't go to jail. That's not anti-hero, that's just plain bad. That puts me off and makes it irrelevant to me. It may be relevant to the majority of gamers, but to me it's just that sandbox game that takes itself too serious instead of going over the top with a wink and a nod like Saint's Row.

I just don't get why people like GTA so much. I get the whole sandbox thing, but other games have done the sandbox better. Maybe it's just that GTA was the first so people have stuck with it. When GTA5 is released we will see if it's still as popular after Saints Row The III and Red Dead Redemption have shown how silly and fun or legitimately dramatic the genre can be.

GTA is more than just a sandbox game like Saints Row though. The reason Saints Row isn't nearly as popular as GTA is that, at least the first 2 games, were pretty much cheap GTA knockoffs with a bit more silly in it. For me, the GTA games have by far the most staying power, most fun, best stories, best characters, graphics etc. out of all other open world games. What's so bad about playing "bad" characters anyway? It's not like they're real or as if you're going to start behaving like them.

Obviously it's not real and I never said anyone was going to start behaving like the characters from GTA. That's not the issue. My point is that bad guys doing bad things for selfish reasons is not something I enjoy being a part of. In games we don't just watch a character do despicable things like in a movie, we actively participate in it. That doesn't mean it makes us bad people. But I don't have to like it.

I'm not saying there is anything bad about playing "bad" characters. I'm saying I don't like to be the bad guy. GTA main characters are bad people with very little redeeming qualities. They are not heroes, not even anti-heroes. Link, Master Chief, Gordon Freeman, Lara Croft, Commander Sheppard (at least the way I played Mass Effect), these are all characters worth looking up to. They have strong moral and ethical codes. They do what is right even if it means sacrifice. When I play a game I put myself in the shoes of the main character just like when I'm reading a book. I don't expect them to always to what I'd do, but the characters I enjoying playing as the most are the ones I can identify with. I can't identify with the criminal scumbags in the GTA games.

I'm all for having fun in a game. Causing havoc is fun and GTA lets you do that. When I'm just dicking around with a game I'll do stuff just to see what happens. But that's just to laughs and it's the way I play a game when I'm seriously playing through the story. That's the thing about GTA. The story adds bad guy motivation to why you're doing stuff. If your just dicking around then it's nothing more than a virtual world full of cars to crash, fake people to blow up, etc. When your playing the game it's meant to be a living breathing world with innocent people. You shoot cops who are doing their job and run over people crossing the street on the way home from work. It's context I don't like.

Why is it that gamers talk about how video games are art and have meaning, but when you start to criticize a game like GTA suddenly it's just a game, it's just for fun, who cares? Yeah I get it, it's fun to see how far you can get a car to jump off  ramp in GTAIV. But why am I killing  police officers again? I'm supposed to empathize with Ico and Yorda, but I'm not supposed to question the motivations of Niko Bellic?

I don't have anything against GTA. I just don't like it. I wish parents wouldn't buy it for their kids, but that's a different topic altogether.