Does the narrative component of Grand Theft Auto add to the overall experience of the game? Yes! It absolutely does. Maybe a better question to ask is, “What’s better – the action or the story?” My vote is for the action. I didn’t fire up the PlayStation to watch “tweener” narrative. Furthermore, I cannot directly interact with the narrative. The fact that I cannot interact with the narrative removes me from the story.

All together I do like the game, it shows us a way to tell a story from a different perspective and that can only be a good thing. There are many obsticles to still undertake in this type of narrative though. I don’t know how to keep the player focused on the narrative more. When I play these games I ultimatley wind up caring only about the “game” part and not the story. I’m not sure that is the games fault though. Maybe it is just a personal preference. I am more of a “gamer” than a reader. There is nothing wrong with that, or vice versa. There is no difference to me, save the technical one, between reading a narrative or playing one.

The narrative of the story seems to come out of a low budget movie, a rating below Boyz in the Hood. However, Rockstar Games has really improved on its games since than. What I like overall is the functionality, the ability to move around a 3D environment and interacting with other characters in the game. I can sense the agency here, where you have choices to make throughout the game. I threw a couple punches at some innocent bystanders, which I thought was pretty funny but it wasn’t without consequences as I was being chased by the police and other bystanders.

I also noticed that there was alot of promotions of well known hip hop artists at the time and the music is how we say “kicking” a very good upgrade from the old midi sounds. To be honest, if I was playing the game when I first got it at the time, it may seem interesting but I would grow tire of it. The narrative is unentertaining to follow as I am a big fan of fantasy ala “Final Fantasy”.

I feel narratives depicting modern society is limited because of my present knowledge of society but with fantasy there are so many stories and sub-stories that can be created. I believe the this early version of Grand Theft Auto was an introduction to a genre that has grown tremendously. Like it was mentioned in class, players want that sense of agency and immersion from a first person perspective so gone are the days of Metroid and Super Mario Bros. and intro Halo, Mass Effect and Gears of War.

And I don’t think I ever will be. It is hard at best to get through GTA San Andreas. I found myself either depressed from the sad narrative or bored from driving up and down the streets of one neighborhood after another, looking for something to do. And then there’s the after effect of feeling like so much time was wasted. But I feel that whenever I play a game unless I am playing it with my kids, which is more like a shared experience. Then again, I would never play GTA with my kids.

But enough about that.

First, there’s the narrative. It’s like a mission and you’re told what to do— you just have to find your way there by a somewhat cryptic map. The narrative, at least to me, was pretty horrendous. I couldn’t put myself in Carl’s place. For example, when he got news of his mother’s death at the beginning, I didn’t feel any sympathy for the character. Aren’t we supposed to feel sympathy in a well-written narrative? Well, it didn’t happen here. Running from rivals and tagging other neighborhoods does not make for much of a hero. I suppose the point here is to survive. The narrative expands a bit more and I am sure that it would continue to grow on me if I had the patience to pursue it. But I am not patient enough to follow the threads and still stay interested.

Then there’s the non-narrative, where you get separated from your homies and end up getting into trouble. This may be of interest to some, but I found myself bored. Some of the neighborhoods resembled Los Angeles (particularly in Vineland and the beaches) but other than that…zzzz.

I think that GTA San Andreas is more simulation than story. What little there is of a narrative (did I really have to tag 100 sites?) didn’t sit well. In a way, it’s kind of funny. I can sit for hours and read *why* a game is a narrative, but having to play the game itself is a whole different thing.

Narrative: Bad guy is now good. Mom’s dead, gangs changed, good guy is still bad and must kill worse guys.

Game play: Run around and start trouble (complete missions). Try not to die.

Entertainment value: None.

After failing the spray the green “tag” over the pink ones mission more times than I cared do count, I made little progress. Perhaps if I played racing games or fighting games I would have had more luck uncovering whatever RockStar is trying to tell us, but their story is safely locked under a car I could never catch. I have nothing good to say about Grand Theft Auto. The narrative was thin and appeared tacked to a “game” in which the player runs from cut scene to cut scene. Nothing of the story comes out during early “missions.” Instead, they give the player a reason to suffer through more scripted material. Whatever the player could bring to the narrative is strangled by what the writers carved into cut-scene stone. I get that the point is to run around and commit crimes in order to work your way up the criminal ladder and avenge you mother. Great. Got it. But I don’t have the skills to stop the pink shooting car – four hours of chasing (and trying not to throw up) a car in circles and failing.

The “choices” players seem to have are not choices at all, but rather pre-determined actions. We can kill purple gang members, but we can’t pull our own pants up. We can steal and crash cars, but we can’t go out and be useful members of society. No choices, really, just increased ways to do bad things. The only time I felt I made a choice at all was when I decided to run CJ around without pants. He couldn’t pull ‘em up, so he didn’t get to wear any.

If this game was an attempt to show people what gang life is, it failed. No matter who you are, you always have the choice to stop stealing cars, beating people because of their bandanas, and killing. If something else was the point, I didn’t get that far. Inability to figure out what they want of me or, in other cases, to do what they want me to do kept me in the beginning (according to the resident teenager) and I didn’t see any evolution or value. Then again, I’m not the target market.

For six hours I endured motion sickness, lacked enough fun to keep my interest, and watched a prewritten, unalterable story. I wish I could say more, but all I can do is hope I somehow get those hours back.

1. The quality or state of being literate, esp. the ability to read and write.
2. Possession of education.
3. A person’s knowledge of a particular subject or field: computer literacy, cultural literacy, biblical literacy.

The definition we traditionally associate with literacy is the first: the ability to read and write. This is, and has been for many years, an essential skill to have in order to function in the developed world. People who are illiterate today can and do manage to get by; in fact, they generally develop incredibly creative coping skills in order to do so. Some people who are unable to read and write have developed such good coping skills that they are not only successful in keeping their illiteracy from their families but have even managed to become quite financially successful in a variety of arenas.
People who have not developed the skill to read and write do not, generally, have access to the narratives of books (unless of course, they listen to audio books or see some sort of video adaptation) just as the narrative of “Grand Theft Auto” was not available to me without the written articles. Access to narratives in or video games, while essential to this media is not, at this moment, essential to life in the way that the ability to read and write are. Given the third of the set of definitions above, we can certainly speak of “video game literacy” but how important are the skills developed in playing video games? Are they simply helpful or useful in the usual way that any skills developed playing other types of games are? Will these skills be essential to daily functioning in the world of the future as reading and writing are today?

The world space of 3D models and sound effectively create an immersive experience of GTA. The game is tightly tied to the narrative, but perhaps not what Janet Murray had in mind. The narrative is strongly reinforced with cut-scenes for each mission (and trips to the hospital) but the game also afforded configuration opportunities that make each player’s experience different. For instance, I wandered into an office building and picked up some body armor that helped me accomplish one of the missions. The game let me steal a vehicle and drive anywhere I wanted, even on the train tracks. I even drove a riding lawn mower through Red County.

Playing the game does require the player to learn keyboard commands and conventions unique to the game. These likely fade from consciousness as the player spends more time in the world of GTA, but initially they inhibit player immersion. A holodeck would certainly improve the keyboard situation, but a game world that did not resemble comic book cartoons will be too real for entertainment. Perhaps the holodeck version will exist as a form of punishment.

From the social psychology perspective my friend and I played and I could never kill one of the old ladies and he never messed with the cops, it was interesting where we each drew the line. What was more interesting was within 30 mintues we were hooked like crack babies. As we both started to play we started to figure out if we wanted to survive the name of the game was kill anything and everything — and so the boundaries began to fly out the window and we were both killing anything we could (no old ladies or cops though.

I could never find food, never figured out how to go in a building in general I hard enough time just walking down the street. Changing the radio station was pretty cool. I didn’t like how you have to watch the intro over and over — I am sure there is a way to get around that just not savy enough to know how.

The game was interesting to me because my survival instincts kicked in within minutes and I was adapting to this virtual environment trying to stay alive. What was wild was my friend left my house and then called me on the way home and said man, “I am even driving like I am in the game and I think I can ram into anything”.

However, I do not have to like the fact that this type of game gets into the hands of seven-year-olds and what they ultimately do learn from the game. I see the addictive quailities and I see the constant adrelin rush these type of games produce that seduce young kids. That is not something I feel like is a great idea.

I will admit now I have to go play it some more because it really pisses me off that I can’t control CJ and in the virtual world I make him look like a mental tard’ no doubt.

I also have to say the story was just white noise, I got annoyed by it as I just wanted to play the game and figure out how to get stuff and win the game, the story was secondary even if it really even played a role for me at all and I am not sure that it did…I can’t wait to talk about this on Monday.