Postmodernism in GTA VBRETT & ROSS

Institutional Details Grand Theft Auto V is an open world, action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on 17 September 2013 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, on 18 November 2014 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and on 14 April 2015 for Microsoft Windows.

Within 24 hours of its release, Grand Theft Auto V generated more than $800 million in worldwide revenue, equating to approximately 11.21 million copies sold for Take Two. The numbers nearly doubled analysts' expectations for the title. Three days after release, the game had surpassed one billion dollars in sales, making it the fastest selling entertainment product in history.

Why is it postmodern? Inevitably being a game simulacra and the idea of simulation is the most prominent postmodern feature of this particular text. This also conforms to Castells notion of real virtuality because the lines and boundaries of life and virtuality have become seemingly blurred. Although this is relatable to the whole franchise it is particularly notable in the latest instalment, GTA V because of the inclusion of the online feature to which allows players to create their own character and fight against other players characters in an entirely virtual world.

Incredulity towards the meta narrative (Lyotard) is also key in this case study because the game is entirely dependent on the way the player plays the game and so there is no chronology to the way the game is played.

The rejection of binary opposites would also suggest this is a postmodern text because this opposes the general norms of story based texts such as games and films that often have a generic hero, villain and damsel in distress based narrative however in GTA the villain is represented as the hero. As such the lack of a distinction between good and bad conforms to postmodern conventions.

Why is it postmodern? There are strong intertextual references and parodies through out the 5th instalment, with reference to social media site ‘Bleeter’ depicting an animal logo as a clear parody of twitter; an entire wheel of radio stations playing a wide variety of real songs (also blurring the lines between virtuality and reality) as well as the name of certain boats and jet ski’s being ‘Speedophile’ a clear mocking of the aqua brand ‘Speedo’.

Other means of postmodernity include Roland Barthes notion of the author being dead, presented in the way that the outcome of the game is entirely in the hands of the player most notably at the end of GTA V where the player is given the option of killing 1 of the 3 main characters or killing government officials in order to save the players virtual allies.

This may also be an example of immersion therefore to which is a key theme throughout the game because the game is set up to maker the player of the game the most important component compared to other games which are seemingly out of the players control such as the Call Of Duty franchise for example to which the outcome is pre-planned.