Is Grand Theft Auto ‘art’?

(Authors Note: This piece was originally a term paper written way back in November 2007, before GTA IV came out for my Cultural Anthropology class… I was really lucky to have a supportive Professor, as most critical analysis of video games is non-existent it seems in college… regardless, please forgive the speculation and/or inaccuracy of the GTA IV material) 

 

Conservative lawyer Jack Thompson has made a personal vendetta against Rockstar Games, developers of the Grand Theft Auto franchise of games. Jackson has accused GTA and other “violent video games” such as  Counterstrike to be “murder simulators”. According to Jackson, after ‘training’ on such games, individuals become capable of going  “room-to-room, very calmly, efficiently, coolly killing people” (Hardball 4/19/07). Thompson crusade has taken him on a quest to not only sue Rockstar and its publisher Take-Two, but other publishers/developers as well. Is GTA nothing but a simple murder and carjacking simulator (Today 10/24/04)? Jackson has indicated with great disgust how publishers, developers, and other video game supporters have claimed the game is art, and therefore protected as a form of free speech. But what exactly is art, and how does GTA stack up against this criteria?

 

 

Peoples and Bailey define art as  “Any human action that modifies the utilitarian nature of something for the primary purpose of enhancing its aesthetic qualities; or actions or words that are valued largely for their aesthetic pleasure or symbolic communication” (402). That is, art includes communication through human made imagery or language. There is also the aesthetic component: the pleasure we get from viewing fine paintings, listening to good music, or dressing with style. In that sense, this “art for pleasure” is a simpler form that’s more interested in enjoyment then communicating complex social or personal issues. But what does that mean? Just because a group of ‘artists’ have decided that something is worth review doesn’t mean that it’s clear and free, right? If this were the only claim, then it would certainly be a tenuous position. But it isn’t. Because art includes communication through human made imagery and language, remember? Video games explore many themes that film and literature have, but now they do something that the former could never do – they immerse the user. Film and literature have the audience sitting passively throughout the experience. But in video games, they are active participants in that experience. 

 

Jack Thompson made a passing comment on Chris Matthew’s Hardball that video games are “art imitating life”, and although Thompson would likely be loathe to admit it, games like Grand Theft Auto do imitate life. With a sardonic wit, GTA comments on life in 1980’s Miami and 1990’s LA in various incarnations of the series. Taking cues from movies such as Scarface, GTA: Vice City portrays a fictionalized Miami, it’s nights awash in splashes of neon and shuddering in the throes of the drug trade. GTA: San Andreas depicts a fictionalized American west coast, focusing heavily on the impovershed ghettos of Los Santos, the symbolic twin of Los Angeles. San Andreas borrows from movies such as   Boyz n the Hood, weaving a sprawling epic of one man pulled back into a life he’s tried so hard to escape.

 

With the processing power of video game platforms growing exponentially each generation, Rockstar could have taken the route of it’s competitors and recreated the cities it depicts in each games. One such title, Streets of LA, “scatters real landmarks… in an attempt to facilitate way finding”(Bogost and Klainbaum 167).  Certainly, once GTA evolved from it’s primitive roots of play from simpler overhead perspective and blossomed into a fully three dimensional world, it could have accomplished a much realistic rendering of the cities it was depicting. However, Bogost and Klainbaum explain why Streets of LA serves as an example as to  why such a technical recreation would be doomed to fail: 

 

 

As a result, there is a certain comfort to the iconic experience – major landmarks are evident. But the game breaks down on a more intimate level, because it fails to match each street perfectly – Bogost and Klainbaum go on to elaborate how “spectral streets” appear, or areas of Los Angeles are mislabeled or incorporated incorrectly into other neighborhoods. It’s to be expected, really, since cities, like any organism, change over time. It would be impossible to accurately recreate a universally accurate experience of  a city in a video game. GTA:SA, achieves a much more meaningful presence because it uses symbolic interpretations to represent each area of the city (Bogost and Klainbaum 170). 

 

Each area is patterned off of real life locations such as Comptom, The Sunset Strip, and others – but Rockstar focuses on the atmosphere rather then technical details to immerse players into the world. It’s this immersion that succeeds on a level games like Streets of LA couldn’t. As result GTA:SA invites players to remember their daily experiences of what it was like to live in these places, but also identify with the constructed ones of television and film (Bogost and Klainbaum 170). GTA:VC explores a similar  tactic, exagerating a composite of imagery taken from Scarface, Miami Vice, and media coverage of 1980’s Miami (Bogost and Klainbaum 171). But here, the Vice City narrative also composites protagonist Tommy Vercetti from all of these places, whether it’s seeking revenge for a murdered sibling or “seeking fortune far from Castro’s communism” (Bogost and Klainbaum 171). But using the archetypes created in other media, the player is able to identify immediately with Tommy on a familiar level. This is a person we’ve seen before, just a new version of previous archetypes. Being an earlier game in the series’ evolution, Vice City doesn’t focus as heavily on immersing the player in the location, instead parodying the generalized lay out of Miami and possibly a few amusing moments for those familiar with real life and pop culture locations (Bogost and Klainbaum 171). Locales are heavily patterned off of those in Scarface, and even the game’s opening credits are montage of sights and sounds in the vein of Miami Vice. In this way, “GTA:VC exaggerates the symbol and myth of Miami, making the fimlic space of Scarface and Miami Vice playable” (Bogost and Klainbaum 171). 

 

With all the trappings in place, the series goes one step further: it speaks of the wider portrait of American society of each game’s era.  The majority of video games have a soundtrack that, like a movie, are tied to a specific moment or act of the narrative. Most games lock the soundtrack to specific “levels” or areas that, while they help to create mood, are static and locked. Or, they allow the player to simply substitute their own music imported from a CD or other source for that found in the game. But GTA moves one step further. Here, the soundtrack is represented by the radio found in the numerous in-game vehicles – but it’s not one specific soundtrack, rather it is a selection of “radio stations” that cater to all the different musical genres of the time. But interestingly enough, GTA III had tailor made music to represent the music of the the late nineties, but the next two sequels  evolved  – they licensed the music from the artists whose heyday and popularity were in sync with the times each game focused on. Regardless, these soundtracks  not only establish mood and associate themselves with non-player characters, but their advertisements and chatter parody American society in context of the era. The conglomerate “Cluckin’ Bell” cheerfully proclaims it’s factory farming, and chemically enhanced chicken products cannot be stopped, and “At least we no longer slip in a rat”. (Annandale 96). In GTA: San Andreas,  news radio accomplished this through outrageous parody with radio slogans such as “We talk, you listen” or the bumpers (transitions between station programming segments) that proclaim “We distort, you can’t retort” (Annandale 96). Annandale elaborates:

 

 

The complexity and care taken in constructing such social commentary is not an accident. It represents a deliberate act on the part of Rockstar’s designers to spotlight the problems inherent in our society.

 

Kate Williams’ “The relationship between social networks and ICT use in historical communities” tries to discern if and how there is a link between information and communication technologies and established communities. Williams further explores how ICT might reinforce socially distant groups – people who don’t have strong ties or normally communicate with each other in person. While GTA does not exist “online” as a game, it has generated and united much user content on the Internet. People who might not normally even talk to one another now have a frame of reference and common interest. More importantly, as my roommate pointed out, video game discs count as a form of information technology. While they do not exist in a connected state to an online community, they still communicate a great deal of information to users via software compressed onto discs. In a time when the younger generation(s) watch The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and South Park for social commentary, the use of video games in much the same manner is not implausible. Clearly, GTA  makes such social commentary, and in a manner much more likely to be experienced today then a more traditional critical essay or philosophical tome or other format.

 

The Grand Theft Auto series has continued to experiment and evolve, radically changing the framework of the game (from 2-D to 3-D), and refining the immersiveness of the experience through additional game play elements. Elements have ranged from the addition of new vehicle choices (boats, motorcycles, planes) to the simple ability to swim. But throughout it all, GTA has sought to be relevant in it’s cultural observations. Each iteration since GTA III has focused on a different era, each time revising and examining new ideas. Soon, there will be another Grand Theft Auto: GTA IV. From what I’ve been able to glean from trailers and other snippets of information is that the protagonist is a middle aged Eastern European man escaping a previous life in “The Old Country”. He muses in the trailer: “I’ve killed people, smuggled people, sold people… Perhaps here, things will be different” (Trailer 1). Why is this important? Despite all of the changes in environment and the technical evolution of the series, we see the use of archetypes – universal sets of characteristics or behaviors common throughout film and literature. In the case of the GTA series each individual is trying to leave a life once held behind – in GTA:VC, Tommy Vercetti left Liberty City to “lie low” for awhile . In San Andreas, the protagonist Carl Johnson left Los Santos because there wasn’t a future there for him. In GTA:IV’s teaser information, we see a hint that something similar is happening here. Each individual is striving to become something more, and to leave an old life behind in hopes of a better one. The archetype is a literary convention, put to use here in a relatively sophisticated manner. No matter who we are and where we come from, many of us strive to better ourselves.

Is the Grand Theft Auto series violent? Of course it is. Does it depict ugly and distasteful parts of society and America’s recent history? Certainly. But they are real facets of our society. Corporations do rotten things in the name of consumerism, corrupt police have plagued both our coasts in the last twenty years (and still do), and media still spins whatever sells for them. The GTA series is a reflection of our history, and that can’t be ignored, even if we don’t like it. But more importantly, it allows users to experience these times and places in a way never before possible. It lets us touch the untouchable – places hidden in studio lots or behind a television screen. Never before have we had the chance to be in a Hollywood movie, to be heroes in a sweeping, epic narrative of betrayal and power and greed and lust and feel like we are journeying as the character, rather then simply being taken with them. It’s empowering to walk with giants of popular culture – both the good and the bad.

Works Cited

Annandale, David, The Subversive Carnival of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto, McFarland Publishing, 2006.

 

Bogost, Ian and Kleinbaum, Dan. Experiencing Place in Los Santos and Vice City, The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto. McFarland Publishing, 2006.

 

Grand Theft Auto III. New York: Rockstar Games, 2001.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. New York: Rockstar Games, 2003.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. New York: Rockstar Games, 2005.

Grand Theft Auto IV. New York: Rockstar Games, 2008.

 

Hardball with Chris Matthews, April 19th, 2007.

 

Today, October 24th, 2004

 

Peoples, James and Bailey, Garrick. Humanity: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Seventh Edition. Thomas-Wadsworth, 2006.

 

Williams, Kate. The relationship between social networks and ICT use in historical communities.