GTA IV - The Ultimate Critique on Society

Posted on May 3, 2008
Filed Under Fake Culture, Society, Movies, TV and Media |

Most people by now will have heard of the video game Grand Theft Auto IV, which was released on Tuesday this week. Far from being the devil spawned game of evil which many lay claim to - this game is perhaps the ultimate critique on modern society. Naturally the focus of all the hype is on the activities this game allows the player-character to perform, notably; car theft, murder, cop killing, sex with prostitutes and so on. That all sounds pretty grim and dark - but the fact this game connects with so many people speaks loudly.

However there is another layer entirely to the world this game depicts, though yet again this is often missed - because people are too focused upon Trivia (the actions the player can perform) and don’t really look at the Message (the ‘reality’ which the game world depicts).

Get into any car in the GTA game world, switch on the radio - and you will be faced almost instantly with an aspect of this message. Many of the radio stations within the game world display a constant in-your-face form of xenophobia, and hyper-commercialisation. To paraphrase one of the stations; ‘The station where we sell our soul for radio commercialisation!’ The adverts are just as over the top, in one such ad - an oldish guy can be heard, ‘I used to think there was something wrong with me, that maybe I was ill or gay. But then I discovered the electric-scooter and now I never have to walk again!’ The ad ends to the effect of; ‘The bright American Future; saving people from the hardship of walking!’

And that’s without even mentioning the constant onslaught of Terror messages, and terror alerts. Looking around one will find numerous references to the ‘Department of Homeland Peace Enforcement’.

It goes beyond satire - and into the realm of ‘in your face craziness’. The fact that some of us may find this sort of thing insulting should give us pause. Why would anyone be insulted by this? Perhaps it is too close to the truth?

Moving around the game world of GTA IV, one can see billboards with similar crazy messages - cola drinks being advertised in an overtly sexual fashion. Another example being car dealerships ‘AutoEroticar’. The game simply crosses the line which society has already walked right up to.

Nearly everyone in the game is an immigrant from somewhere or other - living in an ‘alternate’ New York. The main character, Niko - an Eastern European - is at a complete loss about this crazy Western American reality. Talking to a friend at one point about hardship in America, Niko says ‘You people don’t know what poor is.’

GTA IV is a world full of crime, drugs and war, where people bemoan the state of the world yet hurl threatening abuse at you if you so much as accidentally pull out on an oncoming car. It is a world gone awry where consumerism, materialism and the need for never-ending ever-increasing physical sensations of all forms outweigh any form of social drive toward a common community. Whilst Niko is clearly a criminal, as he runs around dispatching gang bosses, stealing cars and running people down - he resides in a world of insanity where people have lost all touch with reality, as they are swept away in a torrent of overwhelming media saturation, nihilism, and selfish narcissism.

Woe-betide a society like the one in GTA IV, we should consider ourselves fortunate it’s nothing at all like ours…

Comments

2 Responses to “GTA IV - The Ultimate Critique on Society”

Dan on May 4th, 2008 12:57 pm

Playing GTA IV gives me a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart chakra its so beautiful
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Marcus on May 4th, 2008 1:18 pm

hehe - totally agree!
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