Grand Theft Auto V as Homage

Sometimes when we are interacting with a form of media, whether it be literature, a video game, or a film on a night out with friends, we can have a sudden realization about the content. Mostly this is caused by a lack of familiarity with the previews and buzz around the media product, and it can be quite a polarizing experience. Sometimes, we feel let down by the actual subject after all the hype has subsided and we are left to wade through the de-mystified narrative and production values. Other times we will enjoy a great pleasure in discovering the various nuances of a complex plot twist or a mechanically deep video game engine.

Not as good a plot twist as Die Hard 4, the definitive Bruce Willis masterpiece, but still. Not bad.

In my experience playing and then writing the skeleton for a review of Grand Theft Auto V, however, I spent hours of time delving into the media frenzy swirling around it; the articles denouncing its violent mannerisms, the excited reviews from video game fans and developers worldwide, the news reports of its record-breaking sales (literally being the fastest selling thing ever). I felt I had familiarized myself with the game very well before actually playing it, and as a result the psychological profiles and personality traits of the characters I played as were ingrained in me before I had ever actually picked up the controller to inhabit their personas. I knew the game was going to be about a gang of bank robbers that had run aground on their biggest heist and had went their separate ways; I also had concluded ahead of time that there would be a climactic bank heist once again to close out the game. I was prepared, then, for the usual Grand Theft Auto formula: solid gameplay, incredible open-world capabilities, steadily improving graphics and a storyline that followed the usual rise-to-power arc of a criminal and the pitfalls of such a lifestyle. 

Picture a utility belt like this, only instead of various weapons and incredibly specific and useful tools, there was a bag of Cheetos and several bottles of iced tea. That's what I went into GTA V with. I may or may not have been wearing a Batman Halloween costume as well, but that's not super relevant.

Imagine my surprise, then, when halfway through the game I was struck by the realization that it was functioning as an homage to all my favourite crime movies (and I've got a lot of them). Usually, the Grand Theft Auto series is good for a lot of pop culture references and easter eggs (hidden in-jokes buried within the content of a game left for players to find for no other reason than personal enjoyment). However, what it has not been good for is the character development of the main character; most of them feel flat, or otherwise incredibly stereotypical. While GTA V does have that still to some degree, it is balanced by the fact that it has not just dropped pop culture references randomly all over the narrative; the entire narrative is functioning as one giant love letter to heist films.

Before there was the mess that was Ocean's Twelve, and Thirteen, and presumably Ocean's Eleven and a Half at some point: there was this masterful remake, which re-ignited a lot of people's passion for good heist films. Guy Ritchie proceeded to cash in for the next decade.

It's very interesting how this functions throughout the game. Previously, I had a static list of expectations I believe the game would meet based on its history in the video game world. Halfway through, however, I had to shift those expectations from one of a stagnant gangster narrative to one of a playful adaptation of several popular crime movies. A big chunk of the narrative owes a lot to Guy Ritchie films - the fast-paced action scenes combined with the snappy, witty dialogue remind me a lot of the movie "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". The sudden shift of my expectations left me disoriented, but in a good way. I was no longer inhabiting the world of Grand Theft Auto for the fifth or sixth time (if you count expansions). I was inhabiting the world of Grand Theft Auto as seen through the lens of a Hollywood crime film, and although that might seem incredibly similar, it could not have made this game any more different from its predecessors short of making it a seadoo-racing game.

The main cast: a big change from the usual solo-protagonist presentation of the past games.

The biggest change this homage brings is the use of three protagonists instead of the usual one. Much like heist movies will frequently switch perspectives between the various characters who operate inside specific roles in the narrative, GTA V has you inhabit the three main characters at key moments in their own personal narratives. This has two effects: first, the plot can be much more complex than it usually is in the series, as the shift in perspectives allows for the creation of layers of significance in each action. Secondly, it gives the game three distinct "flavours": each character is very different, with Michael the wealthy but despondent success story, Frank the hesitant gangster struggling with his life choices, and Trevor, an absolute psychopath. There are some very uncomfortable moments when you are forced to be these characters, and I am by no means claiming them to be successful characters in comparison to most other narratives; but here, in the vacuum of the GTA series, this is a large step forward.

GTA V is a game with a lot of flaws. It has been rightly criticized as being a misogynistic interpretation of our current society. The dialogue goes through peaks and valleys, at times seeming taut and super-charged with biting cynicism while at others seeming to be written by a rich middle-school child with very little real world experience (or interaction). As an artistic piece, an addition to the gaming literature as it were, GTA V is probably a failure. However, in the scope of its own history, and the public perception and expectation from publishing studio Rockstar, this game does something the series, and most video games recently, have been extremely hesitant to do. It feels no shame about ripping off successful tropes in popular genres, and because it executes them at a level that is at least passable, it becomes better for it.

Perhaps the next step will be writing and execution on par with Uncharted, the only other series that has been shameless in its homage to what inevitably spawned its creation (in this case, Indiana Jones). As it stands now, though, given the commercial success of GTA V, some other big name studios might be at least tempted to try.

Nostalgia and Pokemon: How Much Is Too Much?

For anyone who was a child or young adult in the late 90s, Pokemon should require little to no explanation. For those unfamiliar, Pokemon is the wildly successful Japanese video game that took the rest of the world by storm. It involves capturing small creatures and raising them as partners, then battling them against other people who have raised their own Pokemon. It is much more complex than that, preying on the human love of collection as well as growth, but that is a basic working summary and probably all you'll need to understand this blog post.

Believe it or not, this is a Pokemon. It's not what most of them look like, but it's my favourite example of just how odd they can look.

Needless to say, the 1990s were a long time ago. By all rights, the Pokemon craze should have died out, or at the very least have nestled into a nice, niche market that was no longer ridiculously profitable. Sort of like Tamagotchis.

If you ever managed to keep one of these alive for longer than a few hours, you probably have a calling in nursing.

Instead, Pokemon is still going strong, releasing Pokemon X and Pokemon Y on October 12. This is the sixth generation of Pokemon they've made, a generation in this context meaning a set of 150 unique Pokemon in a game. This means there are roughly 900 Pokemon in existence now. 

The Pokemon series has received criticism before for simply rehasing the exact same formula that existed in the first game, and to some extent this is a very valid stance to take. The series will always feature a young protagonist leaving home for the first time to begin a journey to capture as many different Pokemon as they can, and the end goal is always to defeat both an evil though oddly civil organization attempting to take over the world in a vague way using Pokemon, and the Pokemon Champion, eschewing the title to the protagonist.

So why do people continue to buy Pokemon games? For me, having bought every generation and planning to purchase the next one as well, it has to be the nostalgia factor. Pokemon remains one of the few links to my early childhood that is still interesting to me today. Whereas the collection aspect of Pokemon was so intriguing to me when I was a child, and still remains an interest today, now there is the science behind building the best 6 Pokemon team for in game and online battling. The nuances are as varied as they are subtle, and it is a difficult thing to do well. 

I can't read the same books that I read when I was six because I find them too simple. The same goes for the television shows I enjoyed and the games I played in the park with friends. Pokemon offers the unique ability to inhabit the same feeling I had when I was so young, the feeling that there is an entire unfamiliar world for me to explore and countless creatures to find and befriend. I can still remember sitting in the car while my parents went to get groceries in the rain and playing my game contently. I think the memories are so fresh because I'm able to remind myself every few years what it felt like.

Maybe Pokemon is no longer innovative, although the newest series promises to bring the most new concepts since the series began. Maybe Pokemon is no longer the most popular gaming franchise, and maybe it isn't being played by all my friends. The one thing no other game has ever done for me, though, is offer me a gateway directly back into my childhood...and for that, I'm incredibly thankful.

I'll see you soon, old friend.

The Viability of E-Sports: Part 2

It is difficult to overstate the impact that players like Grubby and Day[9] have had on the North American and European e-sports communities. Grubby's arrival in the Warcraft 3 scene was as sudden as it was revolutionary, becoming the one player from anywhere outside of China or South Korea who could consistently challenge the best players in the game. Grubby began what would become one of the most storyed rivalries in Warcraft 3 with South Korean player "Moon" and Chinese legend "sKy", and he was able to win the World Cyber Games Warcraft 3 tournament (essentially the e-sports equivalent of the olympics) three different times for the Netherlands. Grubby's massive popularity in the scene lead to the development of a documentary called "Beyond the Game", which was released in cinemas throughout the Netherlands.

We'll assume that all of the budget went into the actual filming and nothing was left for the poster.

The impact of this documentary has been massive - Europe, and especially countries like the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland, has become an absolute power house in the world of e-sports, with Sweden in particular being nicknamed the "Korea of Europe".

So if Grubby was the impact player in the European scene, Day[9] was the same for North America. The difference between the two is that Day[9], real name Sean Plott, only ever won the World Cyber Games American Qualifier once, and then flopped on the grand stage of the World Cyber Games themselves. His play in Starcraft: Brood War was never comparable to the level Grubby achieved in WC3. Instead, Day[9] made his biggest impact when Starcraft 2 was released and he began an online stream called the Day[9] Daily.

If this makes Day[9] look like a presidential candidate, it's because he's essentially the most important man in North American e-sports. 

The Day[9] Daily is a webcast that airs every Monday through Friday (with select breaks taken around holidays or various other events). It's aim is simple: to improve the play of Starcraft 2 fans around the world. There are segments for beginners as well as for pros, and the most popular one, Funday Monday, is beloved in the e-sports community in general, attracting people who don't play Starcraft 2 frequently to participate each week. 

If this all sounds kind of cutesy, and simplistic, that's because it is. There's some quality of Day[9] that is absolutely infectious, and his charisma has made him an ambassador of e-sports around the world, but predominately in North America. He has accrued partnerships with companies like Red Bull and has been featured in Forbes magazine as one of the 30 Under 30 in 2012.  Thanks to Day[9], big media companies are beginning to realize that e-sports is viable in North America.

And now, finally, in perhaps the longest route I could have taken us to get there, we arrive at the big question: are e-sports a viable means of both entertainment and profit in the world today?

Well, given all the information I've spewed out and you've very kindly sifted through, I think the answer should be that e-sports are not only viable, they are highly sustainable and profitable. If single players like Grubby and Day[9] can expedite the growths of communities as wholes, then I think it stands to reason that growth is relatively easy in this field and people are willing to accept e-sports as serious. Companies like Blizzard Entertainment, Riot, and Valve, all giants of the gaming industry (and Riot only a giant because of it's e-sports game League of Legends) have invested millions into the scene with the profits they've made on their games. Athletes can be signed by companies to contracts that are in six figures (as long as they are high profile enough), and gamers from ages fourteen to forty can have significant impacts on the scene and their own life. 

If you are still wondering about the viability of pro-gaming and e-sports for the athletes who participate them? I'll leave you with this: two months ago, Valve hosted a tournament called The International 3 for a game called DotA 2. Teams of five competed against each other after months of qualifying for a life-changing prize pool: the winning team took home 1.4 million US dollars.

Not bad for a gamer, no?

A sample of the crowd at TI3, and the lucky winners, Swedish team The [A]lliance.