If there’s one factor that the Grand Theft Auto sequence is not any stranger to, it is American politics. There was a time when legal professionals and politicians have been virtually tripping over one another in an try and denounce Rockstar Video games for any variety of causes.
Very similar to how rock and roll and Dungeons & Dragons have been thought of countercultural at greatest and outright satanic at worst, GTA was seen as one of many faces of an business that was corrupting kids and turning them into violent criminals.
Fortunately, these days are successfully gone. The rise of recent web tradition, getting old demographics, and a greater understanding of video games as an entire definitely contributed to the normalization of Rockstar Video games’ picture. Nonetheless, Grand Theft Auto 5 nonetheless managed to draw its personal justifiable share of controversies.
Whereas Grand Theft Auto 4 did contact on political points like immigration, GTA 5 turbocharged the political messaging by actually placing it in your face. Most individuals in all probability do not must be reminded how a complete arc of the sport addressed the way through which america utilized torture, home spying packages, personal army firms, and lots of different dubiously ethical means to guard “freedom” and “democracy.”
Grand Theft Auto 5’s Edgy Satire Loses Its Edge
After all, GTA 5 is merely a sport, so its exploration of sociopolitical points was largely restricted to surface-level analyses. As stunning and uncomfortable as GTA 5’s torture mission was, it wasn’t actually advancing a revolutionary viewpoint to say that torture is dangerous.
If something, the sport’s criticism of the U.S. Warfare on Terror and home police insurance policies have been wholly unoriginal by the point it launched in September 2013. Working example, Spec Ops: The Line got here out in 2012 whereas Steel Gear Rising: Revengeance got here out in February 2013.
The identical may very well be stated of GTA 5’s portrayal of society. It is enjoyable to snicker at social media, celebrities, and actuality exhibits, however the sport is not offering any new commentary. More often than not, you’d get some grade-school sexual innuendo earlier than being whisked away to the subsequent joke. Consequently, the viewers isn’t left with a deeper message.
The most important casualty of this by far is Michael’s household. Everyone seems to be an unlikable strolling caricature, and their story arc concludes in such a means that it could as nicely be lifted from a actuality present. The depiction of the household virtually fails to be satire as it’s neither intelligent nor enlightening and solely barely manages to be humorous.
GTA On-line doubled down on the absurdity, culminating within the notorious flying assault motorbike. In all equity, the multiplayer portion was by no means anticipated to be severe or grounded in actuality, besides it is exhausting to think about that anybody was anticipating such a wild flip.
That is to not say that each sport needs to be a fancy and severe deconstruction of recent society. GTA 5’s method to political subjects is barely price mentioning as a result of it is virtually juvenile once you take a look at Rockstar’s earlier video games.
L.A. Noire for instance is a relatively severe story about PTSD, corrupt cops, society’s remedy of warfare veterans, and large fraud. Max Payne 3 options extra corrupt cops with ties to an organ-harvesting ring, set to a backdrop of political corruption and basic class battle. Pink Useless Redemption had a narrative and themes that, although not wholly unique, have been a minimum of introduced in a comparatively distinctive means by advantage of the setting.
Grand Theft Auto 6 and the “New” Rockstar
If Grand Theft Auto 6’s trailer is any indicator, Rockstar goes to proceed satirizing the extra unflattering elements of recent American society. The trailer itself had quite a lot of scenes that regarded like punchlines to the Florida Man meme.
Amusing as it could be, there is a positive line between primarily placing a well known joke right into a sport and a billion-dollar firm punching down at individuals who cannot defend themselves proportionately.
There’s additionally the query of how Rockstar will method criticisms of companies and client tradition. GTA 5 allowed you to show a CEO’s head into instantaneous ketchup on dwell TV and relentlessly mocked Fb and Apple, but GTA On-line’s success can simply be attributed to the identical vapid consumerism that enabled these fashionable tech firms to thrive.
One might go as far as to say that the second GTA On-line turned profitable is the second that Rockstar become one of many societal points mocked by their very own video games. It is satirical in and of itself that an organization, which advantages from the established order, would have a flagship product that is primarily “Society Sucks, Do Crime.”
Coincidentally, a parody sport in GTA 5 has additionally turned out to be prophetic. The preliminary goal could have been the Name of Obligation sequence, however seeing as how GTA 5 was re-released a number of occasions and have become bloated with microtransactions over the previous decade, the joke hasn’t precisely aged nicely.
With the Subtlety of a Rockstar
To their credit score, Rockstar’s writers are nonetheless fairly sharp on the subject of political points. Pink Useless Redemption 2 virtually beats you over the pinnacle with its political messaging by the tip, pitting you in opposition to capitalism in a figurative and literal sense as you combat in opposition to each Pinkertons and the U.S. authorities.
That being stated, on the finish of the day Rockstar poured all of its sources again into GTA On-line when it was clear that Pink Useless On-line was not as well-liked. Unsurprisingly, an organization goes to chase what’s well-liked as that is the place the cash is, and cash is their precedence above all else.
What this implies for GTA 6 is unclear right now, but it surely presents a worrying chance. It is not out of the query that Rockstar would possibly take GTA 5’s over-the-top satirical tone into GTA 6 and crank it to eleven. The whole lot is a joke as a result of that is what sells, regardless of the sequence’ inherent sociopolitical undertones.
By the way, this could flip the sport into the identical corporate-approved edginess parodied within the fashionable GTA video games, serving as a extra correct parody of society by way of its mere existence than what any sport can hope to attain.