Video games have made their way and proven their worth in popular culture over the past few decades. From the early linear, simple pong to today’s advanced graphics and intricate story lines. In today’s video games, character development and story telling are the most important factors that go into making a successful game. However, there are few video games that have transcended simple entertainment and have presented strong statements about culture itself, weaving these ideas throughout the story lines and through character development. Probably the most prominent example of one of these3 games would be Rock Star Games’ “Grand Theft Auto V.” In it, there are endless references to popular culture and a shining light on the flaws that are within society today breaking popular cultural myths by presenting the cultural ideas associated with them.
Those who have played any previous “Grand Theft Auto” (GTA) game knows that Rockstar has come a long way in its character development and story telling. With GTA5, Rockstar attempts to incorporate character development with three characters simultaneously, where the stories of each individual are a part of the game as a whole, yet stand a lone to represent different aspects of society and the diverse mindsets of individuals within society. The game features the lives of 3 characters: Trevor Phillips, Michael De Santa and Franklin Clinton. Rockstar uses these characters to break popular cultural myths. Trevor Phillips is the most insane of the three. His character acts on emotion rather than logic. His strong sexual presence, drunken binges, rage filled rampages and the repeated instances of “act first think later” represents the deeper side of every individual, the deep animal instinct within us that deals with out impulses, our inner demons which we are too scared to present to the outside world. Trevor’s character is a symbol of the inner demons and his character is associated with the consequences that are attributed with letting those demons run wild. He is constantly finding trouble and ending up in weird places (when you switch to his character in the middle of the game you can find him drunk somewhere, even on top of a mountain) proving to be a clever way of saying you may inevitably “lose yourself” when you act the way he does.
Michael De Santa is the embodiment of greed and lack of fulfillment and the willingness to escape your past. His actions are justified by his good intentions in hoping to get his life back together after just “one more big score,” being the heist of the Union Depository. Michael’s life is close to perfect before he gets mixed up in the life of robbery again with is old partner, Trevor. Being that he owns a multimillion dollar house, a wife and two grown kids, Michael is a symbol of the elite, he is what society believes to be the top of the financial food chain. We are presented with the cultural myth that when you have money you have it all however, Rockstar breaks that myth by using Michael actions as a vehicle to prove that happiness isn’t in the amount of money you have but the stability that surrounds you be it in family or friends.
This is a good example. I like the way you outline your points based on the personality of each character. I have not played this game yet, but I am of course familiar with the GTA series, so I understand what you mean when you describe it. Grand Theft Auto is an excellent mirror for society, because it shows people just how wrong they can be by using examples that seem completely ridiculous and over the top, but are really not very far from spot on (the first example that comes to my mind is how realistic the ignorance of the callers on the Chatterbox radio station is in GTA 3).
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