Grand Theft Auto – Interactive Digital Narratives

Final Game Log

We spent a lot of time talking about gender and feminism in class, because of this I had a feeling that it would be a common topic to blog about. I was curious what my classmates would come up with in terms of games that addressed or failed to address this topic. In my mind I had already picked games such as GTA and Gone Home, which fit both sides of the spectrum for how they approach these two major subjects. I was reading through people’s blog posts, and found that Samantha, Emi, and Luke all wrote about misrepresentation of women in videogames. Sam Wrote about Grand Theft Auto, a game the, unsurprisingly, was a common topic in class and in our blogs. I agreed with most of what Sam wrote as GTA is well known for its objectification and misrepresentation of women. Emi chose to write about Bioshock which surprised me. I had never thought of Bioshock as a game that sells masculinity. Her post made me think more about Bioshock Infinite more than the original, which she wrote about. The “little sisters” are just little girls, yet in Bioshock Infinite you have a female follower that is very powerful and eventually changes the outcome of the game. Lastly in Luke’s post he wrote about a game I had never heard of called Broken Age. His analysis was investing especially his statement about how girl’s common role in most science fiction games. All of these were strong points that I hadn’t necessarily considered when playing through games. I typically, subconsciously, turn a blind a blind eye to this topic as I do not look forward while I play a game.

What surprised me the most about reading through people’s posts was the level of detail and range of discussion. People were writing about things ranging from Chris’ article on perspective within Skyrim to Jasmine’s post on Rhythm Heaven. I learned a lot and enjoyed scrolling through people’s blogs. Chris wrote about my favorite game of all time and yet he still noticed things that I had overlooked about the impact of changing perspective. Jasmine wrote about a game I had never even heard of, yet I still was interested in reading what patterns and ideas she had noticed in her play-throughs. Overall these blogs helped me learn more about the the gaming industry. I was able to see patterns across games and platforms. It helped me connect much of what we discussed throughout the year into the real world.

Final Reflection

Throughout the semester, I found our unit on the portrayal of race and gender in videogames to be one of the most interesting topics we covered. In my previous exposure to videogames, I have always been more of a passive absorber of subliminal messages. I was never really aware of the problems with the decisions programmers make about race and gender until experiencing this unit. As such, many of my posts critiqued the portrayal of gender in the videogames I played, and I was extremely happy to see posts that did the same, or critiqued the portrayal of race in videogames.

I noticed that the majority of the games critiqued for their portrayals of race or gender by our class were big-budget, console games. Chris, points out the sexist lack of agency in the female characters of Skyrim, while Desmond points out the villainous and weak portrayal of Arab soldiers in Metal Gear Solid V. Sam critiques Grand Theft Auto for including the mechanic of easily obtaining a prostitute and sleeping with her, sexualizing the few female characters in an extremely successful game franchise.

I think that Sam really highlights the main question that everyone should be asking of the decision to sexualize females, give them no agency, or to portray race in certain ways: why include the mechanic? In a videogame the creators must code everything that happens, so no decision is made “just for the heck of it.” Even a game that attempts to break stereotypes like Paul claims The Walking Dead does still fall into racist assumptions.

I think that it is extremely important to engage with videogames so that we can learn the effects they have on society. Players must take note of the underlying assumptions found in games, so that they can then take note of the underlying sexist and racist assumptions that permeate our society. As Violet points out in her post, the assumption that only white, heterosexual males can make believably strong characters simply illustrates that society only values white heterosexual men.

The more people that notice this problem, the greater the chance will be that differences can be made. With my final project, I was inspired to make a game that works against these tropes thanks to my eyes being opened to them. As we teach people to draw attention to problems, we increase the chance that people will work to solve these problems. If we have more people inspired to engage with—and even make games that subvert—painful assumptions in videogames, we begin a path that can lead to society correcting these assumptions.

Race Relations in GTA 5’s Cinematic Introduction

As perhaps the most famous urban/street game, Grand Theft Auto is one of the most played and quoted game in our class (and across the country.) This game log marks my first experience with the Grand Theft Auto series. I found the introductory mission helpful in learning basic controls of the game, but I was surprised…

As perhaps the most famous urban/street game, Grand Theft Auto is one of the most played and quoted game in our class (and across the country.) This game log marks my first experience with the Grand Theft Auto series. I found the introductory mission helpful in learning basic controls of the game, but I was surprised when the mission ended and cut to a very cinematic introduction to the game. Complete with music, title cards, and crew credits, the intro could easy be that of a hollywood film, aside from the characteristically video game graphics.

The introduction follows Michael as he lurks in the shadows of his own funeral and, at some later point in time, attends a therapy session. The intro then follows Michael (our current protagonist) as he walks down the street along the beach in LA. From Michael’s therapy session the viewer gets the sense that he had a rough upbringing and is experiencing a sort of mid life crisis. He passes an older homeless black man (who has just been scolded by a police officer) stumbling around with an empty glass alcohol bottle and says to himself “I know just how you feel.”

Upon seeing this I wondered if Michael actually knows how the homeless man feels. Sure he had a rough upbringing and presumably came from a low income background, but Michael can now afford a nice suit and a therapist and is still much younger than the homeless man. Furthermore, Michael is white. Can he really know how a homeless black man feels after being yelled at by police? By saying he knows how the homeless man feels Michael denies his own privilege and erases the black man’s struggle. I think the developers’ selection of a black homeless man and a white cop, whether intentional or not, comes with many codes and connotations of race relations.

Michael then sits on a bench and two black men (later introduced as a playable character Franklin and friend/business partner Lamar) walk past. Lamar calls Michael homie and asks for directions to the Bertolt house. After sizing them up Michael replies sarcastically “No, homie, I cannot.” A few seconds pass before Michael stands up and calls the men back, saying “Actually, yeah,” he can give them directions. He points them to a house on the nearby row. I read Michael’s initial refusal to offer directions and use of the word “homie” as him profiling and mocking the black men. His tone suggests that they are not worth his time. When he does point them to a house, I believe it could be out of malice (perhaps the house was wrong and I have not yet uncovered that in my gameplay) or out of the same “sympathy” he felt for the homeless man.

Another scenario in a cinematic cut scene that highlights race relations occurs towards the beginning of the game when Franklin and Lamar arrive at Simeon’s auto shop for the first time. Franklin (the current player character) enters the shop as Simeon yells at a customer calling him a racist and a neo-nazi. Lamar yells at the customer asking “who you calling a n*****,” to which the white male customer replies “no no I’m not calling nobody a n******.” Lamar yells at the customer some more before Simeon concedes and says maybe he is not a racist, but that he “[doesn’t] think he is man enough for a car like this.” Simeon and Lamar continue to emasculate the customer, and as he turns to the side his neck tattoo comes into clear view.

It reads “Entitled” in large script.

Franklin leaves the shop before Lamar and Simeon swindle (or at least that seemed to me what was about to happen) the customer.

The player does not know exactly what was said between Simeon and the white customer, but his slip up with the n word and his large (possibly telling) tattoo don’t paint the customer too favorably. In the presence of the two black characters the customer does not act overtly racist (aside from his seemingly accidental use of the slur), but he easily could’ve changed his tune upon their arrival. Or perhaps Simeon made it all up as a way for Lamar to further emasculate the customer, making him even easier to deceive. It is clear though in this situation that the power is not in the white customer’s hands.

Within the first few missions and minutes of Grand Theft Auto 5 players have the opportunity to play both as white and black characters and experience situations where relations between races furthers the narrative. I am interested to see how the game progresses narratively and how themes of race continue to develop. As this is my first time playing GTA I am not sure how the characters I have written on fit together and whether or not they will reappear/ if some of the questions I am pondering will be answered.