One Last Thing: On GTA V, Mainstream Games Media, Critiques, and Perspective
I got this question as fan mail on my Tumblr blog but I have a lot to say about it so I want to respond to it publicly.

…etc etc.
I hope this is the last time I talk about GTA from this angle. I feel like I’ve had my say about it many times at this point, but given its tremendous popularity and importance as a cultural product and its resurgence in the news lately, it happens to be the best way for me right now to address larger issues of how we talk about games.
I also intend for this to be the last time that I use my friend and former colleague Danny’s very good work as a springboard for talking about how mainstream games media shapes the discussion around games.
What this almost certainly will not be is the last time that I talk about the actual issue of how the mainstream media shapes the discussion around games.
*****
A thing that happened:
When I was running this afternoon, a young man on a bike passed me slowly, staring me down. The meaning in his look was clear: he hates sharing the world with me and wanted me to know that he wouldn’t mind doing something about it. When something like this happens to you, your pulse starts racing. You wonder if this is the time someone actually decides to do something about it.
It would be willful ignorance for any of us to ignore that something a great many players love about GTA is that in that world, they can do something about it. They can murder sex workers or commit hate crimes against transgender people for fun! The game is designed to let them do this. In both its mechanics and its so-called “satirical humor,” the game punches down and punches down really, really hard.
*****
What do I think of Danny’s latest episode of The Point? I think it’s really excellent, and I take serious issue with it.
I absolutely love that it is called A Matter of Perspective, because I think that’s exactly, in a nutshell, what all of this–not just the kerfuffle around GTA but the whole ugly cultural battle that has shaken up the world of games media in recent months–is: a matter of perspective. And I think that there are essential perspectives that are given short shrift in gaming media.
We, all of us, bring our own experiences to our interactions with media. All of us have perspectives that are informed by our experiences, and our experiences are largely impacted by things like our race, our gender, our economic class, whether we’re cisgender or transgender, and so on. I wrote the other day about how my own perspective is informed by my being trans and how my own experiences have made it very clear to me that things are just not the same if you’re seen as a straight white man and if you’re not. Danny has talked about how his own way of approaching things is informed by his experiences growing up in Ireland during the peace process. It is also, inevitably, informed by the fact that he is a straight white man. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all. But I think that, as business decisions to appeal to what is seen as the core audience of straight male readers, mainstream gaming sites often deliberately avoid showcasing viewpoints that might upset or alienate those readers.

I know that Danny is genuinely speaking from his own perspective in the video, that he means what he says, and I respect that completely. But I also think that in mainstream gaming media features, you see an awful lot of framing this aspect of a game or that aspect of a game (in this case, the first-person feature of the new GTA V) as cool or innovative or effective or meaningful in some profound way, and rarely do you see the piece that brings that same level of thoughtfulness to bear on discussing why this aspect or that aspect of a game is troubling. I think doing so is discouraged. Talking about how it’s cool that the new first-person perspective of GTA made you feel guilty and really changed your relationship with the game? Great! We’re celebrating games! We can all feel good about being people who play games. The audience is happy.
But if, at some point in the video, Danny had said, “You know, maybe there are some legitimate reasons why some people are concerned about the violence in GTA, let’s talk about that, too,” then some readers (who don’t understand that critiquing some aspect of something you enjoy is not the same as calling you a bad person for enjoying it) would feel alienated and upset; they might have called Danny an “SJW” or said that he was “biased” or that he had an “agenda,” even though saying the first-person feature is cool is no less political or biased than saying that it’s troubling. It’s just a different position on the issue.
(Responses to critiques of sociopolitical issues in games, in my experience, often look a little something like this response to one of my recent posts.)


Based on the output that I see, it stands to reason that the culture at mainstream gaming sites encourages the positive, celebratory framing over the challenging, uncomfortable critique. And I get it. I love celebrating games and reading celebrations of games. I love games so deeply, and I want to express that love and share it with others, read about it and talk about it and just savor it. Gaming sites must celebrate games, in much the same way that sites devoted to film must celebrate film. I love the feeling of validation, the sense that other people out there understand what makes a game special, that they are lifting games up, showcasing things that give the medium value and meaning.

But part of what acknowledging that a medium has meaning requires is also being willing and indeed eager to thoughtfully consider and sometimes challenge those meanings. (Sites devoted to film–the good ones, anyway–do this all the time.) Readers who object to this practice need to develop a thicker skin and understand that a critique of a game they like is not a condemnation of video games or of their love of that particular game or of games in general. Indeed, this willingness to critique is, like the desire to celebrate, also borne out of a belief in and a love for the medium.
Some may feel that it’s perfectly valid for mainstream games media, as a profit-driven industry, to showcase those opinions that consumers of mainstream games media like hearing and to avoid offering critiques that may challenge or upset their core readers. I think that mainstream sites have both a responsibility and an opportunity to improve the quality of the discussion around games by offering, when warranted, enthusiastic critiques in addition to enthusiastic celebrations of games.

To get specific about the opinion Danny expresses in the video: When someone like me, or like Danny, or anyone else, says that the first-person perspective in GTA V really changes how we feel about our actions, that it makes us uncomfortable, or remorseful, that it makes us question what we’re doing and play the game differently, of course I don’t think that we are wrong to feel that, that the experience is invalid or the opinion is invalid. However, I do think that this is something we are bringing to the game rather than something the game itself is actively encouraging.
Because images of violence in films and games are so widely sensationalized, because such images so commonly glorify violence and present it as entertainment, presenting images of violence in a way that critiques violence has to be done thoughtfully and carefully. A film that uses violence in a critique of violence will probably in some sense be deeply unpleasant to watch. It might leave you feeling shaken or hollow or horrified. You can’t come out of a film simultaneously having the “Whoa, that was awesome! The action scenes were incredible!” feeling and also feeling like you just witnessed a powerful, sobering, thought-provoking critique of, say, American military power, or police brutality. Similarly, if GTA was actually interested in making players feel guilty, if it were a serious critique of violence rather than a glorification of it, it would not be “fun” to play. But millions of people love it because it is fun. A small percentage of us may find ourselves horrified by the violence we commit in first-person in GTA, but let’s be honest: the overwhelming majority of people out there playing GTA in first person are not finding themselves putting the controller down, feeling a little sick inside because of what they’ve just done, and getting deeply reflective about whether or not it’s really all that cool to be enjoying the virtual act of murdering innocents.

For a great many players, the first-person perspective just makes committing these virtual acts more visceral, more intense, more awesome. So to me, suggesting that GTA is working as some sort of critique of violence just rings a little hollow. Rockstar isn’t interested in seriously critiquing and challenging the perspectives of its players. It is interested in creating the most fun and successful entertainment product possible, and a meaningful, serious critique of violence in GTA would not go over well with many players. And I think that, speaking in broad terms, gaming media is too happy to play along, and is similarly uninterested in presenting critiques and viewpoints that might challenge readers or make them uncomfortable.
In referencing the pulling of GTA V from some shelves in Australia, Danny says, “For me, censoring a game because of actions that you can choose to do is to take a painfully simplistic look at this situation."
First of all, I would argue that this isn’t censorship, but I don’t want to get hung up on that here. I guess what I would say to this is that, from my perspective, examining this issue and not saying "Maybe it’s understandable that some members of the population aren’t exactly thrilled that a game lets players enjoy murdering people like them, and while I may feel remorse when I do it, the reality is that millions of GTA players don’t think critically about their actions at all” is, in its own way, a bit simplistic. Danny talks about how the game explores “the true nature of personal responsibility.” It’s hard for me, as a transgender woman, to think that this is something that the game has any interest whatsoever in doing when I can go on Youtube and watch videos of people having a great time murdering transgender people in the game. In fact, from my perspective, the notion that GTA is in any way concerned with “the true nature of personal responsibility” is frighteningly laughable. I wish it weren’t, but it is.

To answer your other question: should you play GTA V? Sure, yes. In many ways it’s a truly exceptional game. The cultural specificity of it is astounding. The world is incredible. There is so much beauty to be found in it, driving around, flying around, diving under the ocean’s surface. And it can be incredibly fun. Just think critically about it as you play it. You’ll get a lot more out of it that way, anyway.
Games aren’t simple anymore. They make meanings in complex and multifaceted ways. The ways in which we talk about them need to acknowledge this.
It’s a matter of perspective.
It’s a matter of ethics, too.
Notes
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Don’t want to cut to the chase but Carolyn’s closing words are important advice not just for GTA or video games but for...
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