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Lesson 10-Gta Background

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744 views

Lesson 10-Gta Background

Uploaded by

api-224303452
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Background and genre

What do you know about GTA?


Watch this documentary,
showing the development of
the videogame, Grand Theft
Auto, making notes on what
you see and hear.
How has the nature of the
game-play changed?



Then read the notes on the
development of the franchise.
Be prepared to answer
questions about what you read



1. How was the first GTA game marketed?
2. GTA 2 was pretty much the same game as
GTA 1 how did they market it differently?
3. GTA 3 was released on which console?
4. Why is this significant?
5. GTA Vice City has what in common with CSI?
6. What clues are there that GTA Vice City had a
bigger budget?
7. How else did GTA Vice City widen its
audience appeal?
8. What controversy was attached to GTA San
Andreas?
9. What sort of storylines do the games
feature?
10. What sort of characters?
11. How has it changed or developed since it
first began?
Genre
Genre: GTA as RPG
RPG = role playing game
The player inhabits a character (or characters) within the game
As the GTA series has progressed, a sharper sense of characterisation has
occurred you can learn back story from the accompanying booklet or the
strategy guide
When you become the protagonist you choose to play him (always
him!) in a certain way but you are bound by the rules of the game-world
and the narrative of the game over which you have no control
If you chose to be a law abiding citizen you would spend the game
running around on foot getting nothing done; to make progress you must
break the law e.g. carjacking, stealing money via physical assault by doing
this you enter into the role of the protagonist
Genre: GTA as free
roaming
Even taking the previous slide into consideration, the player is granted a
large amount of freedom in the game play
Traditional action games are structured as a single track series of levels
with linear gameplay, but in Grand Theft Auto the player can determine the
missions that he wants to undertake, and his relationships with various
characters are changed based on these choices.
the cities of the games can be roamed freely at any point in the game,
and are examples of open world video game environments which offer
accessible buildings with minor missions in addition to the main storyline.
There are exceptions: missions follow a linear, overarching plot, and some
city areas must be unlocked over the course of the game.
Genre: GTA as
racing/driving game
Much of the promotional material for the first GTA stressed the
racing element of the game
This is a different experience to a traditional racing game inc. ability
to swap cars
One of the elements of any of the GTA games is to drive unfamiliar
and difficult to control cars on unfamiliar streets and racing circuits
Genre: GTA as beat
em up
A long-standing and popular genre within the gaming industry
staple element is having a variety of characters to beat up
In GTA you can run around and beat any number of people up in a
variety of different ways e.g. you can beat up an innocent
pedestrian and make them bleed, or bleed a lot!
Genre: GTA as hybrid
By blending these genres, GTA appeals to a great many people, criss-
crossing many demographic boundaries and target audiences
Genre: GTA as
gangster story
Location: fictional places based on real ones; these locations are
recognisable as those associated with gangsters

Narrative: a young male character becomes involved in low-level crime,
then rises through the hierarchy of the gang until they have it all. They
then fall (killed/sent to prison) and lose everything they gained through
their criminal career. This provides a moral code.

Genre: gangster films reflect the social issues of their day e.g.
immigration, social deprivation, economic hardship and turn the
American Dream (working hard and making it big on the basis of your
own talent) on its head by operating outside of societys rules the
gangster goes from having nothing to everything via his criminal hard
work. This is similar to the GTA narrative.
Genre: GTA as
gangster story
Some players will recognise these elements as staples of the
gangster genre therefore they will have a firm idea of how they
are expected to play, setting aside their own moral codes as they
recognise the artificiality of the game text. It is to be played, in the
same way an actor plays a role. Its just a game and easy to
distinguish from reality. (cf. effects debate)

Game producers use intertextuality to signal this.

Do you need the knowledge of the genre for this to be true?

Genre: GTAs
intertextuality
Characters: the characters in the game are clear references to stock
characters from films in the gangster or crime genre, e.g. the young
black thug; the middle-class Irish or Italian gangster; the white
trash psychotic wild man.

These films deal with prostitution, pornography and alienation from
mainstream society (cf. the American Dream) and there are echoes
of these themes in GTA.


Genre: GTAs
intertextuality
These recognisable stock character types are used for intertextual
reasons the baggage they bring with them allows the player to
take on the role with a pre-established idea of who they are/will be
(so the player does not become a real criminal, but plays a role in
which they can set aside their own moral views)

It allows the player to take on a role in which they do things
they would not do in the real world.

Is this a signal that it is only a game?

Homework:

Read the profile of
Rockstar Games,
visit the website
and answer the
questions.

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