Comment by danpalmer

4 hours ago

I think it's mostly about the characters. GTAV was, in my opinion, much lighter-hearted than this is looking. Trevor was a hoot, Michael's marital problems were made light of, even Franklin as probably the most serious character still had plenty of quite direct comedy written around him.

I'm not sure that would go down well in 2026. The redneck thing feels tired, the public narrative of wealth inequality would likely make Michael feel out of touch, and much of the audience would have identified with Franklin but he doesn't really have the struggles that today's Millennials and Gen-Z have.

These two characters seem more realistic in that sense. Less direct comedy (although I still see that there's the iconic GTA parody in places), a couple who are probably going to be much more relatable even if they're criminals, and a standing in society that is more relatable.

It's not that the comedy wouldn't land, the parody/satire is important and it looks like it's still there, it's more that I think V depended on some stereotypes that are long gone, or that society recognises differently now.

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danpalmer

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al_borland  4 hours ago

I don’t play games to find people I relate to. I play games to become a character for a period of time in the game. Rich, poor, redneck… it doesn’t really matter. They can all be interesting and engaging characters to take on if the game is written well and fun to play.

I think this a mistake a lot of modern game companies are making. They think people want to be represented, when what most people want is an escape. I want to do things in a game that I would never be able to do in real life. That’s half the fun.

I also think the venn diagram of people offended by stereotypes and those who play GTA barely overlap. They may be completely separate circles. The people who will complain about the game were never going to buy it, so Rockstar shouldn’t care about what they have to say. Make the game for the customers, not the activists and critics.

  • danpalmer  3 hours ago

    I see your point, and maybe I'm over indexing on this or not describing it well.

    I don't see myself in either of these characters, but I do see them as representative of society, whereas I don't see the GTAV characters as representative of society. However, I think I did when I first played GTAV the year it came out.

    The last game I played was James Bond First Light – and that's for the escapism you describe, I got to "be" James Bond, great. But in the same way, the game and story felt relevant today, with aspects being believable in 2026, which is a stark comparison to how watching Thunderball recently made me feel – that was jarring and much harder to "escape" into because of how out of touch it was (obviously understandably so).

    • xquce  2 hours ago

      I get what you are saying, I however just don't agree. GTA has it roots in a story about the criminal world in a version of a US city with a clash of many subcultures within it.

      I don't see at what time they tried to cater to teens, outside the parodying themes of that generation which they fit perfectly. I saw that every installment representative of a criminal from one of these cultures to top of the criminal food chain. Be it the Scar Face parody of Vice City, Gang culture of San Andreas, the Immegrant story of the 4th or the trio they went for with the 5 with the LA story melting pot.

      As a none-american it perfectly represented the characters and views of over the top depictions of the movie version of these places.

      2 replies →

  • SXX  3 hours ago

    I agree so much on this.

    Let's say I'm caucasian male grown up in poor ex-USSR shithole struggling through immigration, changing countries and losing social circle multiple times along the way and struggling with loneliness, etc.

    Then the least I want to do is to play game as migrant from Eastern Europe. Because if the character and their story is accurate and representive then I just be bored from it. And if it's inaccurate then it's just bad story telling.

ahartmetz  1 hour ago

I mostly play games that have good gameplay mechanics, be it fast action games, strategy or racing sims. There are very few games that can even get close to movies regarding characters and story, so I don't bother. That includes GTA with the possible exception of part IV.

Bioshock Infinite, for example, doesn't do it for me. It's a pretty bad shooter and the story is not as good as its authors think it is. The Witcher 3 doesn't do much for me, but I will try again after the recent free update - supposedly it's got improved combat.

The only game with not great mechanics that I like so far is Mass Effect. I'm impressed by the characters that feel like real-actual people and the varying environments that all feel true to life, all following the logic of their incentives and resembling their parallels in the real world. For example, the free trade moon(?) feels like something between Switzerland (or Singapore) and an office skyscraper, but with a little more crime and corruption - the local government just wants business to run smoothly and is willing to overlook some plausibly deniable sins of good customers. I have never seen anything like it in a game.