Another Unnecessary GTA Clone

GameSpot has reported the development of yet another unnecessary Grand Theft Auto clone...

I love playing Grand Theft Auto because of its gigantic "sandbox" game world that allows a palpable sense of freedom both physical and behavioral. But that same freedom enables a virtual cornucopia of immoral, perverse actions to be carried out. That should be obvious from a simple glance at the franchise's title; it's undeniable that crime is at the heart of the game, and that wanton destruction is encouraged, if allowably ignored by more innocuous players.

In the time since Grand Theft Auto III (the first 3D game in the series) and its two successive sequels have released, there have been a great number of clones produced to capitalize on GTA's success. All have thus far failed to match let alone triumph over GTA, with games like The Getaway and True Crime: Streets of L.A. at the top of the list of the defeated.

Why do these clones continue to fail while GTA continues to succeed? The clones attempt to emulate GTA's knack at injecting controversial content into every facet of itself but they forget that GTA does so with a playful, over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek attitude. In that way, the "violence, sex, and drugs" content is only an embellishment, even a throwaway aesthetic, pulled over a deeper, more complex structure that would be just as good without such controversial subject matter.

Even with that in mind, I still admit to thinking that GTA's developer, Rockstar Games, would do well for itself to stop making "controversy" a focus of its products and marketing, evidenced by games such as State of Emergency, in which you incite masses of less discerning citizens into city-wide riots, and Manhunt, in which you maim and murder others in sickeningly gruesome methods for a snuff video. After the infamous Mortal Kombat era of the 90's during which government legislation pressured the game industry to create a (much-needed but woefully under-enforced) ratings system to avoid censorship and banishment, today that very ratings system has ironically allowed game developers to get away with even more violent and salacious content, under the justification that such games now carry an "M" rating which means that they are only for adults.

Rockstar is well known by now for leading that school of thought, primarily because of Grand Theft Auto's explosive success. Though, as a gamer, I love GTA, as a morally responsible member of society, I do lament its success because of the negative reinforcement it has brought upon criticisms of the video game industry that can only see GTA's degenerate aesthetic but not see the importance of its creative and technological breakthroughs. Even other developers in the video game industry cannot seem to see past any further than those horse-blinker critics, and that, in turn, has led to the production of sensational trash like Dealer: Chronic, Pills & Coke which will surely be another black eye for the video game industry and community, and those of us within it who are trying to elevate the form above mere entertainment and toward true art.