GTA, Humor, and Protagonists - Wordplay and the Discourse of Video Games - page 84

5 GTA , Humor, and Protagonists

Grand Theft Auto ( GTA ) is an excellent base upon which to demonstrate
how wordplay can move from analyzing the context of gaming in general
to the texts found in a specifi c series of games. Originally developed by
Scottish game company and typically set in a reimagined United States, the
game simultaneously is “all about the American Dream” 1 and “highlights
the real threat to the American Way of Life” as it is symbolic of “the war
on middle class values.” 2 A polarized reaction to GTA is manifested in
almost any discussion about the game. Those who have played it are likely
to regale others with their favorite memories of places like Liberty City or
San Andreas, while those who have not played are appalled by tales of pick-
ing up prostitutes to restore one's health and then killing them to get your
money back. I witness this division each time I talk about GTA in class,
as those who have played the game rapidly split from those who have not.
Wordplay helps assess both sides of the reaction to identify how games in
the series can be so many things to so many people, enabling a complex
understanding of how discourse functions when multiple audiences con-
struct perceptions about video games.
Elements of GTA have been addressed in scholarly literature, but most
existing research analyzes various game play dynamics 3 or racial construc-
tions within the series. Much of the latter category of work focuses on Grand
Theft Auto: San Andreas , where the protagonist is a young black male and
the game's early setting mirrors South Central Los Angeles. 4 Public contro-
versy about the series is noted in much of the scholarship about it and is
typically paired with dismissive attempts to compartmentalize external dis-
cussion about the game such that we are not “guided by reactionary and
emotional propaganda.” 5 Instead of dismissing the controversy surrounding
the game, investigating the whole of the response to GTA of ers an opportu-
nity to better understand games as texts and how those who play GTA see
the violence within the game as a warranted game mechanic, rather than
as a threat to society. Reveling in the controversy, it is easy to see hostility
on both sides and how the divide is instructive in developing wordplay and
understanding the composition of GTA as a cultural product.
In an ef ort to cease perpetuating myths “when we should be interro-
gating them” 6 and illustrate how “uses of this technology require greater
responsibility and renewed social concern” 7 the division of opinions about