Women in Grand Theft Auto

     In the Grand Theft Auto series, all the main protagonists are portrayed and voice acted by men.  As the male character progresses through the story of the game, it’s almost guaranteed that he’ll  have many interactions with female characters.  Although women play a constant role in the game, the way they are presented to the audience only furthers dominant beliefs towards women in our society.  The game does this in multiple ways.  First, the game portrays women in a way that is obviously meant to strengthen its already large male audience.  For instance, almost every female character present in the game has substantial cleavage and a rather prominent behind.  This strengthens the popular image that many men have in mind when it comes to identifying the ideal woman.  This would correlate with the section in chapter 11 entitled “The Male Gaze” and how women are often constructed in the media as bait for men.  Posters for the game and advertisements in stores display the logo with a women posing seductively in the background.  I guess one could call this a sleazy sales tactic, especially in an age when women still strive to be seen equal to men.
    Another aspect of the game that degrades women is the way it portrays them as prostitutes and criminals.   In the early games in the series, the woman you interact with tend to be prostitutes who are affiliated with criminals as well.  Even in the newer titles where the game is constructed to resemble everyday life, the main characters interactions with women seem to be only criminal related.  The character is often instructed to ride the prostitutes to clients where dialog can be heard throughout the car ride.  The dialog is often crude and presents a stereotypical lack of intelligence view towards women.  Other occupations of women within the game include pornography, modeling, and drug dealing.  It’s obvious that Grand Theft Auto has been a bit excessive when it comes to the portrayal of women in the video game world.  Even though the game has sold millions of titles.  Obviously this looks bad in a time when woman have proven that they are just as strong, if not stronger then men.

Grand Theft Auto: The Story of Niko Bellic

      In the game Grand Theft Auto IV,  We are introduced to one of the most complex protagonists that the franchise has created.  Niko Bellic, an immigrant from an unnamed country in Europe, has traveled to the fictional Liberty City in the pursuit of the American Dream.  After communicating with his cousin Roman, who lives in Liberty City, he is informed of the rewards of coming to America such as money, women, and power.  Niko soon discovers that Roman was very much bragging about these things and realizes that the American dream is something that must be earned, even if it means pursuing a life of crime.  As well as being an immigrant, Niko is also a veteran of an unnamed war, and is haunted by the events he witnessed during his time in the military.  Throughout the progression of the story, Niko reveals the other reason why he came to Liberty City.  During the war, Niko’s platoon was ambushed and nearly all the soilders were tortured and then murdered.  After witnessing this, he discovered that it was one of his own platoon members that revealed their position and brought about the bloody ambush.  He swore to exact revenge on the traitor and eventually learns that he or she may be living in Liberty City.  With this information, Niko makes the final decision to travel to Liberty, not only to seek revenge and bury his past, but to start a new life with his cousin Roman. 
     Niko embarks on a journey within liberty city in which he must climb the ladder of the criminal underworld, with hopes of escaping and leading a clean life someday.  Unfortunately for Niko, his attempts to escape the criminal life on propel him further into it, resulting in conflict and tragedy amongst the people he cares most about.   However, towards the end of the story, Niko is presented choices that ultimately effect the ending to the game.  He can choose a criminal path in pursuit of money, power, and seeking revenge, or he can refuse the crime offer and begin starting a new clean life in liberty with Roman.  The choice is left up to the player of the game, however choosing the crime life is labeled as being the “failure ending” to the game.  The more righteous path is considered the true ending to the game.
    In my opinion, I believe this is how Hodkinson would relate his theories on “the public sphere” to this episode of Grand Theft Auto.  Throughout the game,  Niko attempts to transition from one “Public Sphere” to another.  In the beginning, Niko finds his place in the criminal part of the public sphere.  He knows his skills, personality, and lack of morality fit well within this part of the sphere, and he uses the attributes to seek revenge on enemies from his torturing past.  However, he believes he is not to remain in this part of the sphere forever.  He eventually realizes that breaking the law to achieve success does have its consequences.  After tragic events befall his family and friends, he realizes he must make a change, and is give the option to escape the criminal part of the public sphere.  The “good” ending of the game reveals Niko and Roman released from their ties to the crime world and planning to make money legitimately.  This displays Niko entering the better side of the public sphere, where him and his cousin are decent, hard working individuals who are pursuing the American dream the correct way.
    The games story depicts values that are present in our towns and cities.  We have multiple paths that will lead to success, however one may be uglier than the other.  The story defines what monsters we can become when we let the urges for revenge and power consume us.  We also get to see how this can affect the ones close to us, and what choices we can make to turn things around.

    

Grand Theft Auto: Reaching a new audience

    Since the start of the series, Grand Theft Auto has commonly been perceived as violent and raunchy due to its excessive mature content.  It contains the three words that can quickly spark controversy around any form of media.  Sex, drugs, and violence.  The lead designers of the series, Rockstar Games, are almost always under fire for the gritty content of their infamous title.  Their main argument always revolves around the fact that the games are not meant for younger gamers and never will be.  Since the beginning of their development, and even still today, video games are viewed as a means to entertain younger audiences with cartoon like visuals and addictive button mashing.  However, looking past the violence, it seems Rockstar games may be attempting to refute this stereotype and branch out video games to a larger audience.  If Hodkinson examined the situation of Grand Theft Auto, he would describe our cultures current views on video games as the Dominant Ideology.  This ideology insists that video games are much more for the children and serve no entertaining value for the more developed minds of adults.  Grand Theft Auto challenges this ideology with concepts present in its games.
    The Grand Theft Auto games introduce a style of gameplay that aside from the sex and violence, is generally more suitable for mature minds.  First off, the games in the series feature challenging storylines that can take up to 25-30 hours to complete.  The challenging missions within the story can contain strategic or moral decisions that can cause the player to think rationally.  Also the game requires players to customize weapons, cars, and clothes to progress further in the game.  Another feature to be introduced in the next Grand Theft Auto game is a more realistic system of money.  In an interview conducted with Rockstars Dan Houser, it was revealed that the current economical situation in the country will be mirrored in the game, forcing the player to make more economical decisions while playing.  With characteristics such as these, it’s obvious the developers of the game are not focused on entertaining children.
      With games like Grand Theft Auto it is probably safe to say that the views on video games and adults are changing.  Video games are reaching different audiences the same way television and music has.  Although it is still not widely accepted, it seems safe to say that video games are expanding at a steady pace.        
    

Grand Theft Auto: The epic crime saga

   In the early days of the Grand Theft Auto series, the games most attractive feature was the players immense freedom.  From the very start of almost any Grand Theft Auto game, the character has the ability to run free within a virtual city.  The list of things possible within this virtual city seem to be endless.  The favorite being attacking pedestrians and stealing their money which is more then likely followed by a thrilling chase with the ever persistent police force within the city.  After the player calms down and takes a short break from chaos, he or she might discover the epic story mode the game features.  Each Grand Theft Auto game on the market contains a lengthy story/campaign mode with the longest being estimated to take a full 30 hours to complete.

    For each Grand Theft Auto game, the story is usually a crime drama that often parodies another work of crime fiction in cinema history.  For example, Grand Theft Auto III parodies elements from epic cult crime films such as The Godfather and Pulp Fiction.  Its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, embraces the same concept and mirrors crime classics such as Scarface and Carlitos Way.  The creators of the game pull this off by combining these elements and adding a cartoon like comedic twist to the well known scenarios.  The games also take place in different time periods such as the 80’s and 90’s to help set the mood of the game.

    In pretty much every Grand Theft Auto game,  the main protagonist or hero is a skilled criminal, who often has a troubled past and is sometimes haunted by regret and guilt.  The main conflict in the game often arises when the protagonist is betrayed by the helper of the hero, who in turn becomes the main villain.  This is the disruption being talked about by hodkinson in chapter 4 within the narrative analysis section.  The normal is commonly reinstated when the games story mode is complete and the protagonist takes his revenge.  Only some of the games contain a female that the protagonist must rescue from the villain, but every game still reaps the rewards of success.

    Along with the nonstop in-game action the story mode provides, there are also well scripted cut scenes within the game.  These dramatized cut scenes help the audience get an even better look at the characters and their struggles.  It’s almost like watching a crime drama with a game around it.  What more could a fan of the genre ask for?

 Here is a video celebrating the 10th anniversary of the franchises breakthrough title Grand Theft Auto III

Grand Theft Auto: More than just a violent game.

For a little over a decade now, the Grand Theft Auto series has solidified its place in history as one of the most complex and controversial games of all time.  Each new game it releases manages to sweep gamers right off their feet.  From its ludicrous content, to its extremely smooth gameplay, it has not yet failed when it comes to satisfying hardcore gamers.    With another title being released in the upcoming year, it’s safe to assume that it will also be a success accompanied by much controversy and speculation.  The question that remains is what exactly has kept this franchise going at full speed?  Well when one takes a closer look they might discover some unique concepts introduced by the games that without a doubt changed the gaming industry forever.

It all started with Grand Theft Auto III.  Released in 2001, this was the first game in the series that introduced its go anywhere and do anything concept.  Players were given the ability to explore an entire virtual city on foot or in cars and planes.  Along with this, players were given the choice to interact violently or nonviolently with characters in the game such as pedestrians, law enforcement, and other criminals.  Just recently, the game has ventured into the online world where players can interact with one another in ways such as completing missions together, fighting against each other, and racing.
 
With that being said I believe McLuhan would classify and consider this text as a perfect example of a cool medium, requiring hours of audience participation.  Obviously one could argue that any video game requires audience participation and that automatically classifies it as cool.  However, the Grand Theft Auto games encourage more participation than simply just pressing buttons and getting high scores.  Starting with the first Grand Theft Auto titles, even early in the game, your character is presented with choices in the virtual world that ultimately dictate the success of in-game missions and health.  The choices range from choosing the right cars and weapons for a mission to making business deals that will help you advance further in the game.  The newer titles in the series present even more complex choices such as customizing the characters wardrobe and making modifications to vehicles and weapons.  All can have an effect on the players experience within the game.  Add online interactions into the mix and you almost double your amount of participation.

Another form of audience participation that Grand Theft Auto has experienced is the voice of its fans.   Much like a television series or movie series,  the audience never remains silent.  Grand Theft Auto is no exception to this trend.  Due to the increasing ways of communication, especially on the internet, the positives and negatives are speculated within social networking sites and discussion boards.  For instance, if avid gamers begin complaining about an aspect of the game such as game play physics,  the developers of Grand Theft Auto have been known to make changes between titles to ensure the satisfaction of the players. 

Now, one can see the difference in participation if it were to be compared to let’s say Super Mario Brothers or Sonic the hedgehog.  The series is obvious proof that video games in general are becoming more and more engaging and reaching out to a broader audience.  It also makes a point that video games are not just for children anymore.  Now that technology allows us to create games more complex than just pressing buttons, we have the ability to reach that more mature audience.  This is not referring simply to violence and sex, but the required critical thinking and strategies that only more developed minds can comprehend.  I think McLuhan would accept this medium, based on his beliefs that it is not always the content, but the way it’s presented to the audience.