GTA V Afterthoughts

So I finally finished Grand Theft Auto V. And when I say finished, I mean FINISHED. I'm sitting at 100% game completion and have a level 67 GTA Online character. Actually, I take that back. I'm not quite done, still need to pick some more trophies here and there. BUT, I feel that I can give a comprehensive overview of what I thought about it. So what did I think about it?

I finally understand the hype.

A little background on the relation between me and GTA Vee. I initially picked it up for 360 about a month after it released. I played with it with a some friends online enduring through the many, many faults of GTAO. I played through a handful of the story, but once I got to Trevor, I just lost interest. I wasn't connecting with any of the characters, and the game was strangely frustrating in some points. I eventually just dropped it, only picking it up for recording sessions of GTA Online Aftermath.

A month ago, I picked it up again on the Playstation 4. The addition of persistent first person camera option made the game instantly fresh, and in some rights, way easier to control. Rockstar games have always felt pretty floaty, with the exception of Max Payne 3, but playing in first person alleviates a good chunk of the annoying. At least for shooting. It's not perfect. But, I started playing it again, and really started enjoying it. All of it.

Maybe I should actually talk about the game, for the 4 of you who don't know what it is. Grand Theft Auto V is the latest entry in the open world, sandbox series Grand Theft Auto. This latest iteration features three main protagonists, Franklin, Michael, and Trevor that can be switched between at almost any point, unless the plot dictates otherwise.

The gameplay consists of driving places, flying places, shooting people, and... Well, that's about it. But it's the quality of it all. Driving feels pretty solid. Being a person who's not big into driving games, the driving is entertaining. Especially in first person, which is about as difficult as driving from the backseat. But fun!

The story follows the three protagonists through their plights of crime. The plot is actually pretty complex, but in short, there was a heist that went tits up in 2004 with Michael, Trevor, and another one. Ten years later, Michael and Franklin become acquaintances, and Trevor joins along after thinking Michael's been dead for ten years. As they try to figure everything out and clean off their records for good, the three commit all sorts of crimes together encountering a plethora of interesting characters and conflict.

And I comment that the main characters are unlikable, terrible people. And they are. Franklin is always getting into things he doesn't want to, then just gives up on it. There doesn't really seem to be an arc of development. He just keeps getting into bigger and bigger shit, saying he always wants to get outta the hood, and he does so by committing more illegal crimes. And he's just kinda boring. Michael and his family are all assholes with short fuses and awful tempers. Trevor is arguably the most likable because his moral compass weirdly particular. He's okay with stomping people's faces in, but being called a "motherfucker" is over the line. What separates him from the rest is you get the sense that he's enjoying himself, rather than doing everything out of obligation. And, well, throughout the game, each character certainly gets their moments, and by the end, I found myself enjoying them all.

So what changed? Why did I enjoy it so much this time as opposed to last time? I'm honestly not too sure. Maybe I just wasn't in the mindset to enjoy it before, maybe I had other games I wanted to get to, but this time? This past week, playing GTA V is all I wanted to do. It was strangely compelling. The story had me hooked, but I wasn't necessarily blazing through that either. Doing some side missions were fun, even the collectibles, though annoying, were satisfying to get. Why?

I'd have to pin it to the world being so fun. There's no other way I could see it. I really enjoyed just driving around and doing whatever. When I wasn't compelled by plot, I was compelled by something else, a tangible goal, or just having fun. And the constant first person adds another layer of entertainment. Fun fact, there's a trophy for spending 15 hours in first person that I got without knowing that it was a thing. First person is fun and challenging!

As for GTA Online... I don't really have much to say about it. I feel like that could be its own video. And, well, hopefully it will be. I'll describe it shortly here: it's structured poorly to incentivize lower leveled players to purchase things with real money, as higher leveled players stomp them into the dirt. Missions are boring, tired, formulaic, and frustrating. There's no story, which shouldn't come as a  surprise, but there is progression. The world is annoyingly limited, in the terms of "private match" selections, but after all of that, there is fun to be had. It's certainly easier when you're higher leveled and/or don't have to worry about money, but you kinda gotta work for it and push through the annoying slog. This is all if you have friends. I don't really see prolonged enjoyment by oneself.

So that's all I had to say about GTA V. Or at least that's what I think I have, no doubt I'm forgetting stuff, but hey, what can I do. Do I recommend the game? Well, yeah. But understand two things. 1. I did have troubles really getting into the story at first and becoming attached to these unlikeable characters. 2. GTA Online is incredibly restricted and is not what you want it to be. But for all its flaws, there was plenty of enjoyment had with it.

Internet Elitism

i'm sick and fucking tired of people on the internet. mostly people i don't know, mostly in areas i shouldn't be looking for any sense of a discussion, anything with structure, purpose. youtube comments, social media reposts, large internet forums... the internet has created this culture where people like to appear better than other people. i don't know if it's self-esteem, or cause it looks cool, or because they're immature, or what, but god damn it's annoying.

and yeah, okay. let's all listen to the guy talking down to people on the internet by talking on the internet and trying to look better than other people. yeah. i see the paradox here. but the difference is, i'm willing to talk about it sensibly. i'd argue about this, about the nature of this. this isn't a knee-jerk reaction about how people like things i don't. i like to think i'm better than that, which isn't saying much.

but that really is the root of it, right? people like things that others don't, and that makes people upset. example, bioshock infinite. no, you don't have to love it, or even like it. but to say that it's the WORST game ever with a terrible story that makes no sense and boring mechanics(which i've seen been done) ? like, sure it's fine to have your own opinion and everything but you have to know that using absolutes as hyperboles makes you come off as a small angry person about things that are not important. but really, this is not really anything new, humans have been doing shit like this forever. the thing about being online is that people are anonymous, people don't have to take any flack for being a shitty person who says shitty things on the internet. you share the popular opinion or you get shit on. or, you share the "i hate the popular opinion" opinion, in which flocks of people who didn't think that x was as good as people say it is agree that logically it is the worst thing since different x.

go right now to any popular music song on youtube and look at the comments. how many root comments can you see that aren't just terrible, terrible things? go to popular rap or pop music. how many times do you see people comment about how "it's not real music" and/or how "music from y years ago was so much better?" how many people are in the age range targeted by this music? how many people say music from before their date of birth was better?

kids are getting on the internet, there's no stopping that. kids are gonna wanna look cool to impress other people, people they don't know, people older than them. really no getting around that either. but jesus fucking christ, somebody needs to tell them that the people they're trying to impress don't care. kids are validating their opinions in internet points: how many ups they're getting from random people.

and i'll admit. i tend to do it too. video of mine gets a larger amount of views? i feel great. comment somewhere gets upvoted/favorited/liked? it's a bit of an ego boost. but at least i can come to terms with at the end of the day, i still have integrity. i'm aware of some of the things that i do. i don't stoop to posting cliche things that people will agree with. i don't pander to people. i try to do what i want, what i like.

so what can we do about all of this? where's the solution? how do we fix it? i don't really know. maybe try to see things how i do. maybe make it known that it's all stupid and people shouldn't try so hard to look cool to anonymous people on the internet. avoid knee-jerk statements, doing things to incite anger, and instead, do things that you actually feel are necessary, things that are meaningful. or express your own opinion on it if it's different than mine in a way that's more than just shouting. get people talking, get people thinking.

will this happen? of course not, this is the internet.