I don't think Rockstar's "responsible" for anything in the sense that they have a duty to videogames to do better with GTA, but I do think it would be a very big deal for the industry if they toned down the noisy, goofy satire they've been doing (which is a very important part of this, GTA as presented isn't exactly fresh anymore), and attempted to craft a campaign, characters, and world that are as well rounded and compelling as all the works they love to reference.
When it comes to the explosive destruction, there's no reason they couldn't still provide the toys for the players interested in that alongside trying to evolve GTA. I'd say the majority of the nonsensical acts players engage in with these games are disconnected from the narrative anyway. That's part of this being a "sandbox." That player created dissonance will NEVER go away. So give us the toys and "rampage" feedback loops, but do something more, something better with how the narrative and writing is presented. I was really surprised at just how much I felt let down by GTAV's narrative, made even worse because there's a fantastic original score pulsing beneath some of the sequences in the game that I'm tempted to say is wasted because the game is always so abrasive that the tone needed to achieve greatness is rarely captured.
I feel like GTA is Eminem in the mid-2000s right now, teetering on becoming "that guy who pushed the envelope with a brash, calculated vision, but is just corny now because he never evolved." GTA development cycles have gotten longer and longer though, so they've curbed a bit of that, on top of having an audience that won't ever call them out for it. I just hope they can recognize that and do something new.
I agree with you, but, serious question, how do you create a good solid narrative in a modern carbon-copy of a real world city where the primary mechanics are shoot, run, and drive?
Like, keep the mayhem, sure, but how do you create 10-20 hours of missions that don't have a lot of shooting people and (on the other hand) aren't just go to GPS marker X and press A to receive cutscene?
They are backed into a corner based on the setting and core mechanics and I would question what they could add to the mechanics that would allow for:
1) Repeatable -
2) Player Improvable -
3) Scalable -
4) Variant -
gameplay. That's the core problem with any game really. Shooting (combat in general) and driving are those things. Platforming can be, but being restricted to real-world locomotion really hurts the scalable and variant aspects of it.
Everything else is just minigames or management sim. The former GTA is bloated with. The latter is out of the core interest base.
Actually this is
exactly what I've been rambling about for seven pages. The part you bolded was just referring to radio adverts, pedestrian chatter, billboards, game world/context sensitive details, etc. I think Rockstar does that well and it serves to create a general theme for the players to understand. Someone brought up how to handle such a complex game and I replied with:
Grand Theft Auto: Dark Mass Souls Effect
Why not? lol
Look, I'm not delusional. It's not impossible. It's just ... difficult.
A game where the story is shaped and morphs as the player alters the world is not that far off, and honestly, I think Rockstar is up to the task.
Imagine if Rockstar combined with Bioware.
Each game every 10 years but still. That'd be a game worth waiting for.
Maybe someone will come up with a dynamic "game director AI" algorithm akin to Valve's AI director for the L4D series and it'll be the standard.
Who knows, but linear storytelling in these games have to be better handled. Otherwise, even if you allow yourself the odd murderous rampage with lead characters that nasty, you'll end up with a nasty feeling in your gut.
That's pretty much the gist of the crazy. It doesn't require the linear storyline to be thrown out the window. It's just a very complex way of handling the way the world reacts to the player. As opposed to "Shoot civilian, evade cops/get shot, instant forgiveness".
If they continue making GTA games into the future, a much more realistic system of systems should be in place to make the player traverse the increasingly realistic worlds with more caution and critical thinking.
I can't turn off the video game developer inside of me that sees this post as an "Ideas Guy" presentation. The Ideas Guy always has lofty ideas about the next step of video games but has no idea how to do it. Mainly that's because it can't be done. Or at least done without branching so far away from what a game is to something else. Or necessitating an enormous budget. Or not even knowing what they are actually asking for, just that the word combination feels cool.
I'm going to assume you don't mean GTA crossed with Bioware because all that is is adding branching narratives (and thin, thin branches at that) to GTA. Which would be cool, but it wouldn't solve the problems that have been elucidated ad nauseum in this thread.
You probably want something closer to GTA mixed with Obsidian (or Troika), which could work. I think it would be a good logical step for the next GTA, but it would not solve any of the tonal and gameplay problems that I outlined above. You'd still need to have a shit ton people shot, a shit ton of places raced to, and a shit ton of press A on GPS location just to fill out the game. Gotta use that open world somehow.
GTA is archaic in it's systemic response systems (someone could point to Shadow of Mordor as a great case for generated mob content) but it doesn't stop the violence. You can kill thousands of orks for the cause, but you can't kill thousands of people and be the good guy. It's absurd. That will never go away.
The other problem is cost. You've probably heard of the rumored cost of GTA5...can you imagine the cost of what you are asking for? The risk associated with that cost? The audience expectation?
They are dreams for a good reason.
But yeah, they are nice dreams.
