But when reports emerged that the next installment of the video game franchise – in which hardened criminals wreak havoc with car chases, gunfights and lots of cursing – would co-star a female character, a wave of negativity on social media and YouTube soon followed. “Fat feminists have gone too far now,” said one YouTuber. “I can guarantee you that if it’s a woke piece of shit, there’s no way it’s going to outsell GTA 5,” said another. According to a report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, the sequel to 2013’s Grand Theft Auto 5 will feature a Latina as one of the game’s main characters. He will be one half of a pair of characters inspired by the real-life crime duo Bonnie and Clyde. The report also said that development studio Rockstar Games is tweaking the humor of the next game. Previous GTA games have drawn criticism for jokes that some have described as sexist, racist and transphobic. Rockstar is apparently committed to not hitting on marginalized communities as much as in previous installments. “People like me were very excited [for the new release]…. But unfortunately, as is the way of the gaming community, some people were much more negative,” says Eleni Thomas, a writer for the gaming and pop culture website Dexerto. “There’s been a lot of sexism as a result of that — things like people posting, you know, potential first mission ideas … for the female lead to do the dishes.” The report of the upcoming Grand Theft Auto, as well as the backlash to it among some gamers and Internet commentators, is yet another example of the polarized debate between fans eager for a new take on a long-running franchise and others resisting more unblocked replays of their favorite games.
Women drive more often today
According to Schreier’s report, the new game is at least two years away from release. Rockstar and its publishing company, Take Two Interactive, previously confirmed that the new game is in the works, but have not given any other details. The Bloomberg story cited more than 20 unnamed current and former Rockstar employees. the notoriously media-shy company made no official comment. Day 69:58 Grand Theft Auto 6 and the first female protagonist shake things up For the first time, the Grand Theft Auto series will have a fully voiced female protagonist. This is exciting news for some, but a vocal group of fans have expressed their disinterest in playing as a woman. These responses made gaming journalist Eleni Thoma wonder if Rockstar will stand behind its star or if they will give in to the pressure from these fans. The report marks a potentially significant change, Thomas said, considering the series didn’t have a playable female character until at least 2001’s Grand Theft Auto 3. Since then, game series with female and non-white protagonists have grown in popularity, such as The Last of Us and Horizon. But as great as these games are, arguably none of them have the cultural cachet of Grand Theft Auto, a series that has grossed billions of dollars since its debut in 1997. Even now, GTA 5, which was released almost 10 years ago, it still makes the monthly bestseller charts. Billboards for Grand Theft Auto 5 are displayed at a hotel in Los Angeles in September 2013. The series has a cultural collection unmatched by most video games. (Nick Ut/The Associated Press) “Grand Theft Auto is an older franchise and I think, in some ways … it kind of represents what gaming culture was,” Thomas said. “It was, at the time, more male-dominated, more male-dominated … the industry, the community and the players themselves.”
Saints Row stumbles
Just this week, another game series attempted a revamp, with mixed results. Saints Row is the fifth in a series that debuted in 2006 as a competitor to the GTA games. Critics initially labeled it a “clone” of GTA, given its similar mission structure and tone. Later sequels diversified with more emphasis on comedy and sci-fi twists. The first trailers revealed that the new installment – the first in nine years – would be a hard reboot, breaking away from the previous numbered sequels. Promotional artwork for Saints Row 2022. The reboot of the long-running GTA-like games features a new cast, leaving behind the old crew of fan favorites. (Deep Silver Volition) Gone are the cool guys and hot girls of previous games holding a giant purple sex toy like a baseball bat. They have been replaced by a quartet of modern millennials who spend their free time playing board games and singing karaoke. The new cast is distinctly non-white, and players can customize the appearance and voice of The Boss, whom they control throughout the game, including options for male, female, and gender-neutral features (as well as prosthetic limbs). Much like the Grand Theft Auto references, some fans did not take well to the changes. Critical reviews didn’t show much love for the game, either. Saints Row right now holds an average of 63-69%. on review aggregator site Metacritic. “The characters aren’t… on the top 10 list of reasons why the Saints Row reboot doesn’t work for me,” said Jordan Middler, who called the game “a painfully general open-world malaise” in his review for Video Games Chronicle.
“Senseless culture war”
Middler worries, however, that the buzz surrounding the game’s new cast may drown out discussion of its real weaknesses. “When games are revealed these days, a small segment of the public feels any kind of change could be seen as ammunition in this ongoing, pointless culture war, that the game could somehow ‘wake up’ or something.” , he said. he said. A promotional screenshot for Saints Row 4, which was released in 2013. The series ramped up the light-hearted humor and off-the-wall scenarios before the 2022 reboot set a slightly more grounded tone. (Deep Silver Volition) New games of Saints Row, Grand Theft Auto and other games are simply a reflection of the fact that the people who make them are aware of some cultural changes, says Merritt K., managing editor at the gaming site Fanbyte. “The conversations and the conversations around, you know, social dynamics, around race, sexuality, gender — all of those things have changed … a lot in mainstream spaces in the last decade,” he said. “These conversations have become much more mainstream.” In a columnMerritt wrote that the fervor of debate prior to Saints Row’s release was divided into two camps: people who hoped the game would fail and those who argued that its financial success would mean a victory for progressive politics and representation. “People sometimes look at video games like Saints Row and think, oh, this is a barometer for the culture war and is my side winning or is the other side winning,” Merritt told Day 6 . “Video games, obviously, like all media, can tell important stories and make people feel seen and can facilitate human connection. But, you know, buying a game is not fighting a culture war, and it’s not it is necessarily politics I pretend.” Ultimately, the negative critical response to Saints Row may put more weight on the next Grand Theft Auto game to knock it out of the park. “I think that’s the biggest thing that Rockstar needs to do… just make sure that [the new heroine] he’s not just a one-dimensional character,” Thomas said. “Prove the naysayers wrong by creating a character that even people who have some hesitations eventually fall in love with. I think that’s the best way to respond.”
