Case Study

Plan: In this case study I will be

describing and explaining the

video game “Grand Theft Auto V”

in detail. I will discuss the games

style, content, and goals

alongside other important elements of the game.

Introduction: Grand Theft Auto V

(GTAV) was released on the 17th

of September 2013, for

PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The

genre of GTAV is ‘Open world action & adventure’, where players can control their avatar in third

person around huge map that can be roamed freely. In GTAVs case this roaming can be done in a

variety of ways, using aircraft, road vehicles, boats, and more.

Graphics: The graphics of GTAV are very realistic, obviously following the artistic style of Photo-

Realism. All the characters have a high amount of physical detail, as do the rest of objects,

architecture and terrain. The game was greatly improved graphic detail wise from GTAIV, everything

from the characters facial expressions to the plantation detail on the bottom of the Los Santos coast.

Rockstar aim to make GTAV as graphically pleasing as possible with the available technology,

Rockstar are expected to bring out the sharpest and best photo-realistic graphics on the game

market with every new release, and they really pushed the boundaries with GTAV, creating a game

which excels any other Open World detail quality by a long shot. Although GTAV was not a console

exclusive, so the PC graphics quality are a lot

sharper, but the console games are made as

good as they can be. Compared to a console

exclusive such as “The Last Of Us”, Rockstar

seem to have let down the consumers and the

reviewers. An online critic site has picked this

point up in one of its GTAV reviews, stating

that “This isn’t a console exclusive title like

the much better looking The Last of Us” But in

Rockstars defence, GTAV is an open-world

map where as “The Last Of Us” isn’t, meaning

that Rockstar had to put more time, effort, and money into detailing the whole GTAV open-world.

Visual Style: GTAV offers a very bright and vibrant visual style, in contrast to GTAIV which often

shown the darker and more bleak atmosphere of life in the world of crime. GTAV contains v isuals

which really attract the eye and enrich it, with the bright glare and reflections off cars and aircraft,

and the sharp colourful glow from signs and buildings when the sun goes down in Los Santos. This

style really gives the gamer a more energetic and exciting feel, failing a mission and appearing next

to your cherry red Conquette (GTAV Corvette Replica) against the deep blue sky makes it not such an emotionally damaging event.

Graphic Characteristics: The sandbox style, free roam world, is very relevant to the type of graphics

in the game, and the high amount of details. The free roam style gives the user a feel of freedom and

realism, and to make the realism more real, the graphics are made very realistic and very sharp. For

example the dustiness is visible on vehicles when you have been driving through the desert like

areas on the GTAV map. Although the game wants to be very realistic, the setting is usually sunny,

this is because the gamer creates a virtual life, usually one more exciting than their own, and the

good weather means it’s always looking visually pleasing in the GTA landscape. It’s similar in other

sandbox games such as Red Dead Redemption, where the weather is always sunny and landscape is

visually amazing to look at.

Storyline: The game follows an interesting and exciting storyline that was enjoyed by millions. The

story follows 3 very different criminals, all each to their own criminal speciality, a street hustler, an

ex-con, and a violent maniac, driven by the chance of a cheap high. The game allows the player to

jump from character to character with ease to play the intertwined missions, all leading up to the

large bank heists towards the end of the story mode. The heists are the main aim of the game, they

are the true goal for the gamer as each character out of the playable three can earn a very rewarding 25Million dollars (on average) each, which is definitely going to put a smile on the players faces.

Avatar Customisation: GTAV allows the player to create a custom avatar, very custom, the game

allows you to choose what the characters parents and grandparents looked like in order to change

your characters appearance. Personally I thought this would a great way of customizing your avatar,

but that was before I experienced the character creating experience, it was dreadful. It didn’t help

that GTAV multiplayer online repeatedly formatted characters for about a week or 2 once GTAV

online was launched, meaning I went through the avatar creating process about 5 times. That was a

problem experienced by many, in fact it happened to everyone I personally know that bought the

game soon after its release.

Multiplayer Online: GTAV has a huge online gaming community, but it has been very rocky since day

one, and has caused a lot of annoyance for the GTAV fans. First of all, the graphics on GTAV Online

are noticeably lower quality than on Story mode, this is disappointing as the majority of GTAV

players now play online rather than story mode. And secondly the game lobbies often contain no

more than 3 players, which is seriously irritating for anyone wanting to make some cash with races

or mini missions. Although Rockstar has made a great effort to improve the online content, by

adding new missions and cars, and events such as the new “Hipster DLC (Downloadable Content)” or

the new Air force training missions using the new jet aircrafts that have been brought onto GTAV online in the most recent update.

GTAV Addiction: GTAV is in fact so realistic, and so personally involving, that it is pulling millions into a state, or close to, an addiction to gaming. GTAV gives people a place to meet up and do activities such as racing or missions, and also a place to be social in a similar way to being on a social networking site. For example, GTAV has its own “Social Club” where gamers can share their photos (Taken with the in game camera phone) and can message each other, gamers can even call each other using the in game phone by using a microphone earpiece or headset. This gives gamers a true sense of real life, except in this virtual reality that they are involved in, they can do anything they want, they don’t have to pay the price for crashing at 180mph into a speeding jumbo jet or for stealing money from a convenience store and using a submarine as a getaway vehicle. Many gamers start to prefer this life online more than their outdoors social life, which is a real problem for people of all ages, for teenagers who are supposed to be developing mature social skills and for adults who are supposed to be working and taking care of their families, rather than taking days off work to play

on the new update of GTAV or ignoring their children, or even worse so, getting angry and frustrated at the game and taking it out on family and friends in reality.

Video-Game Addiction: Video game addiction can be fuelled by the realism of the game, but it can also be a more bio/psychological reason for these addictions. One of the major causes for addiction to video games is the brains reward system. When we achieve or succeed in something the reward system in our brain releases a chemical called dopamine, dopamine is often nicknamed “The happy chemical”. The happy chemical is what causes that feeling of happiness and excitement when you finally pass a level or win a competition. The reward system is a great part of human evolution, it means we strive for and crave achievement, but it’s made for the achievements such as running further or getting that job you wanted, not sitting at home playing video games, because that is unhealthy, very unhealthy. Back in 2011 a man died after playing video games for too long, as this quote from a sky news article explains; Chris Staniforth, 20, died of deep vein thrombosis - a condition often linked to long-haul flights, his father believes Chris developed a fatal blood clot after spending up to 12 hours at a time on his console.” These addictions can have a seriously bad effect on a person’s mental state and a person’s bodily health.

Conclusion: GTAV is a seriously exciting game, it involves the gamer unlike any other open world video game, and based on my research the vast majority of gamers would agree with that. Rockstar really did a great job making GTAV what it is today, with constant attention and development in the game, especially on the online side of things.