Is 'Grand Theft Auto IV' the greatest writing of the century?
Brothers Dan and Sam Houser have high standards for their products
By Eric Gwinn | Tribune reporter
January 25, 2009
Books let us imagine the impossible. Movies let us see the impossible.
Video games let us do the impossible.
By becoming the fastest-selling entertainment product ever in April with $500 million in first-week sales, "Grand Theft Auto IV" has boosted games' cultural relevanceeven "Saturday Night Live" poked fun at the gameand has put the medium closer to what one academic calls "the literature of the 21st Century."
A commercial and critically acclaimed juggernaut, "GTA IV" surpassed 12 million sales worldwide in 2008, on its way to racking up numerous game-of-the-year awards. In a record year for video game sales in the U.S., two versions of the gameone for the Xbox 360 and the other for the PlayStation 3landed in the top 10, according to data from market researcher NPD Group.
The next chapter of the bloody, violent "Grand Theft Auto" series will take place on the kid-friendly Nintendo DS portable video game system, when "Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars" comes out in March.
Gamers play as Niko Bellic, an Eastern European starting a new life in the States to forget his war-torn past. In helping Niko chase the American Dream, gamers learn to hijack cars and wield guns, skills needed to survive the seedy side of Liberty Citythe game's faux New York.
Borrowing from the 12 labors of Hercules, "Grand Theft Auto IV" has gamers complete dozens of missionsfrom driving a family friend across town to hunting down shady charactersthat each unveil a little more of the plot.
And just as opera calls on the different artsfrom singing to stagecraft to musicianship"Grand Theft Auto IV" summons mediaa fake Web with spam and dating sites, a camera phone, TVto create a contemporary world that exists not just on a disc that slips into a video game system.
"We're trying to make this whole experience hit you in loads of ways," says Dan Houser, who led the "GTA IV" writing team. "That's what the games are very powerful at doing: They let you be in this world as opposed to just doing stuff."
Dan's older brother, Sam, founded "GTA" creator Rockstar Games in 1998. Rockstar gained fame in 2001 with "Grand Theft Auto III," whose 3-D characters made the go-and-do-whatever-you-dare a big hit that caught the attention of detractors. They decried the violence in the game and gave Rockstar Gamesa publishing house founded three years earlier by Sam Housera reputation for controversy. The 2004 follow-up, "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" created an even bigger world for gamers to explore and an even bigger stink when hackers figured out how to unveil naughty scenes that were not meant to be seen in the game's PC version.
With all the money, fame and notoriety, you might expect Rockstar Games to be housed in a building shaped like an upraised middle finger. In fact, Rockstar's New York headquarters unpretentiously fill the 4th and 5th floors of a nondescript building on Broadway. Inside the tidy and relaxed lofted space, one female lap dog, Niko, and two cats skitter across the gleaming hardwood floor to greet visitors. Staff and visitors can take a break by playing "GTA IV," "Table Tennis" or "The Warriors" at kiosks, or trying their hand at "Pac-Man" and other arcade games. For all the hard work and lightheartedness, things get a little tense whenever the Housers are prowling the floor: They want every piece of art, animation, plot and dialogue to be top-notch.
Born in the U.K., the Housers have an outsiders' take on America. Working with their writing team, the brothers' commentary about America comes out in "GTA IV," and the parodies and observations have got the critics whistling. Spike TV named it the best game of 2008. The gaming site Kotaku honored the game with its best writing award.
Even the movie industry notices. As Rolling Stone movie critic Peter Travers blogged last June: "In terms of action, thrills, imagination and innovation, 'GTA IV' has it all over the pablum currently passing for ingenuity at the multiplex ... so far this summer, except maybe 'Iron Man.'
"There's plot development, character depth and moral ambiguity, stuff you don't find in 'Speed Racer.' ... 'GTA IV' deserves major props for extending the potential of storytelling."
Take the in-game radio for instance. The DJs' patter and the on-air ads (the right-wing radio station's tag line: "Because the world needs a strong America to tell it what to do!") are part of the 80,000 lines of dialogue written by Dan and his team to create a skewed sense of realism. And musically, while film uses a predetermined soundtrack to set mood and illuminate themes and character, Brown University ethnomusicologist Kiri Miller points out, the use of radio in "GTA IV" lets gamers choose their own soundtracks: speed metal for a high-speed chase, bebop for a nighttime cruise around the city. Choosing a station lets players set their own mood and illuminate their own character, different from 2004's "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," whose radio stations explored a history of hip-hop and funk to draw distinctions between young CJ, the protagonist who returns to clean up his gang-infested neighborhood, and the old CJ.
"In 'GTA IV,' the radio is speaking more to the player and not so much the avatar," says Miller, "and in 'San Andreas,' you could hear the radio really speaking to the avatar, and that, I thought, was an incredible achievement."
Flourishes like that have to be accomplished without taking away from the game.
"We're constantly trying to convince the player that continuing with the story is a worthwhile pursuit," Dan says. "We're constantly trying to balance the need for narrative and the need for action."
And we've only scratched the surface of where games can go, says Chris Swain, assistant professor of interactive media at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
"Look at film in 1908there was no sound, you viewed it through a nickoleodeon, there was a limited filmic language developed. If at the time you had said film would be the literature of 20th Century, you would have been laughed at. Games could be the literature of the 21st Century. But it takes vision."
And deft writing.
"A film writer is like a composer," says Micah Wright, a member of the Writers Guild of America caucus that pushed the guild to present its first award for video game writing in February 2008. "The director can improvise on the work, but in general, you can't change Tchaikovsky without it sounding like something else.
The Housers and Rockstar have their sights set on a bigger game: "Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars" comes out in March for the Nintendo DS, a hot-selling, very popular portable game system that usually hosts cuddlier fare, such as Pokemon and Mario Bros. games. Re-creating a living, breathing Liberty City on a hand-held that has much less horsepower than the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3 will be a challenge, though Rockstar has learned some lessons with "GTA" games for the PlayStation Portable game system.
Dan insists "Chinatown Wars" will live up to Rockstar's credo: "It has to be good."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/arts/chi-0125-gta-newjan25,0,5000350.story
Written just for GAF I'm certain. Have fun.
P.S. Still highlighting for your ease.
