Why all Grand Theft Auto apologias are bullshit

[prog]

Or anyway, most of them; I roll my eyes every time someone puts forth the argument that you only kill hookers and run over little old ladies if you want to play the game that way.

This statement is literally true, but it carries the false implication that the game offers you alternative interactions with these non-player characters. Lookie, here are your two options for communicating with any of the random people walking around the game world:

• Ignore them

• Beat / maim / kill them

That's it. The controller doesn't have a "talk" button, but it has an array of buttons dedicated to punching, shooting, and breaking into things.

Your character in GTA is Frankenstein's monster. He wants to talk to the little girl with the flower, but he just doesn't have the facility, and ends up drowning her instead, because his action-range is so limited. Sad.

Comments

[chocorisu.livejournal.com]

You could talk to people in GTA San Andreas by pressing left or right on the d-pad. They took that out in the latest one for some reason. It was funny because you could accept compliments from passers-by if you were wearing a sweet outfit, or insult people back when they swore at you.

But, yes. I'm a little sick of people claiming GTA is anything other than what it is: titillating gamer porn. The whole series is one long joke. I LIKE that, I get the joke, and I don't think it needs excusing.