The series has been around since the late 1990s, driving frequent visits to neighbourhood cyber cafes in the early 2000s. The game is a pioneer in open-world game play, immersing players into a world where they can be anybody without facing the consequences. Not that the GTA games are the only games to offer such chaotic freedom, but several factors have made them the most popular of them all. Subhrojit Mallick explains the reasons behind the craze.
A platform to play out deep, dark desires
A look at social media is enough to tell us the extent people are willing to go to behave badly in a virtual world. In simple terms, the GTA games provide a platform to players to play out their deep, dark desires of maybe torching a group of people with a flamethrower in an amusing and light-hearted manner, and most importantly, without consequence.
For 25 years, the game has given players the freedom to don up as a hardened criminal in dystopian America replete with all its excesses and hedonism. Players can wander around stealing cars, beating people, picking fights with the police, with the game designed in a way that such acts feel par for the course for the character in the times they live in.
A fair share of criticism
It is also for this reason that the game has borne the brunt of criticism around violence in video games, going to the extent of being banned in countries like Thailand. The game’s publisher, Take Two Interactive, has faced multiple lawsuits each time a new title was released, as well as the ire of anti-video-game activists for its depiction of violence and allegedly promoting violence against ethnic communities.
The game has also fuelled the omnipresent fear that such video games lead to real-world crime. Tesla boss and X owner Elon Musk said he was unable to finish GTA 5 because “he didn’t like doing crime”. “GTA 5 required shooting police officers in an opening scene. Just couldn’t do it,” he said.
As a result, most GTA games have been rated Mature (M) by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), the body behind assigning age and content ratings to consumer video games in US and Canada.
A violent gift that keeps on giving
The formula helped Rockstar sell north of 405 million copies worldwide across all platforms including consoles, PC, and mobile devices so far in the franchise, with a bulk of sales coming from the fifth instalment in the series which has an online mode. It is this online mode, called GTA Online, that continues to be the money-spinner for the game studio and even a decade after its release, GTA V continues to be one of the top games on gaming platforms in terms of active user counts.
The India connection
GTA’s online mode has the option to set up one’s own server which houses one’s own world where one can become any character and role-play with other players in the community. It’s essentially an early version of the metaverse, where a virtual world becomes a platform to mingle with other players, complete missions, and live a virtual life. One can earn virtual money and spend it in-game in clothes, cars and real estate.
Such unbridled freedom has given rise to a culture of video-game streamers setting up worlds of their own, attracting thousands of viewers who tune in just to see their shenanigans. There are well over 1,000 such streamers in India who regularly stream GTA Online for viewers. Indian content creators such as ‘S8UL’, winners of the ‘Content Creator of the Year’ award in the Global Esports Awards 2023, joined forces with Velocity Gaming to create a star-studded roleplay server in GTA, garnering thousands of views in their livestreams. Another streamer, ‘Dynamo Gaming who also runs his own server, has nearly 10 million subscribers tuning in to watch him live his life in the virtual world with his friends.
“We have a huge base for RP-games in India. A lot of Indian servers are there that attract a lot of audience. GTA is big in India. Even till now they still enjoy playing the story mode of older GTA games. Those are some epic stories that people love to watch streamers play out,” said Aditya Sawant aka Dynamo Gaming.
