The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto

Okay, so Grand Theft Auto (starting at the third one, anyway) was a revolutionary game that changed and inspired games to come after it. And its themes of violence and misogyny have been raked through the media and subject to politics and idiot like Jack Thomson. But I think the intelligentsia have gone a little too far in analyzing the meaning of the game in this new book with essays on the series. As examples:

GTA is symptomatic of the historical erasure of the mythmaking process; it is reactionary politicized speech meant to satirize through the reformation of identity and participation in the metaphoric destruction of societal obstacles. It is the mirrored fantasy space in which silenced voices are annunciated and performed. - 'Play Fighting: Understanding Violence in Grand Theft Auto III' essay by Tanner Higgin

One of the greatest achievements of the Grand Theft Auto series is its unflinching satire of two of the most noxious political ideologies of those boardrooms, namely market fundamentalism (also known as neoliberalism) and its dim-witted provincial cousin, petro-fundamentalism. - 'Grand Theft Video: Running and Gunning for the U.S. Empire' essay by Dennis Redmond

It is tempting, given the degree to which this world is fleshed out, to consider GTA:SA in the light of Jean Baudrillard's concepts of the hyperreal and the simulacrum... - 'The Subversive Carnival of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' essay by David Annandale

You can find more quotes from such essays as 'Cruising in San Andreas: Ludic Space and Urban Aesthetics in Grand Theft Auto', and 'Positioning and Creating the Semiotic Self in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' at the techdigest article on the book.

Classified under: video games, Grand Theft Auto, academia