Grand Theft Ought to: Think Of A Better Title

I’ve touched upon the subject of (irrational?) excitement on the lead up to a game before. I mention this because it’s happening again. But the emotions I’m experiencing this time are wholly different and if I’m honest, a little worrying.

The game in question is Grand Theft Auto 4. I, like many hundreds of thousands of others, am extremely excited or ‘pumped’ as some would say about the new instalment in the seminal crime-play series. I’m aware of friends who are as excited as me, we’ve even discussed possible ways of getting our grubby hands on copies before general release. Even with all this camaraderie and conversation over this new release, it’s making me feel incredibly lonely and isolated.

I’m literally counting down the hours, ok I’m lying, I just did it on a calculator (153), but the anticipation is at boiling point. The game has gone ‘gold’ and my copy(s) are sitting in a truck or warehouse somewhere. I imagine a big beam of light emanating from the disk and shining brightly into the early evening sky. I can follow this beacon of goodness and greet my copy with open arms and tears of joy. I’m a geek, a nerd, a bit weird and above all else ‘sad’. I know this, but I don’t care. Even though it’s having a detrimental effect on my sleeping and eating patterns, these all consuming thoughts are giving me a sense of purpose and fuzziness. Not unlike that feeling of having a drink in a pub garden and you can smell the aroma on a fledging bbq, the meat is coming…..
And these meaty thoughts are evolving into little stories and scenarios, scenes if you will that I hope to be carrying out in but a few days time. An example..

I’m walking down a suburban street, I spot a man getting out of a sports car. I run up behind, push him aside and hop in. I spend the next few minutes evading police detection and getting to a nice open road. Once I know I’m safe I switch on the radio, some cool tunes begin to fuel my driving, I weave between the light traffic. I see a police car up ahead. I don’t know why but I decide to clip it as I drive past. I also fire a few shots behind with my pistol. They give chase. I keep them at bay for a while until I see the road end and a cliff edge approaching. I slow down so I’m beside the police car. I manage to shoot both occupiers. The driver’s head lands on the wheel making the horn sound, and his foot goes heavy on the accelerator. The car shoots forward and over the cliff, as I approach the edge with a manic grin I see a police helicopter rise up beyond the edge and it begins to open fire. I hit the pedal and manage to take the chopper down with me into a big ball of flames at the waters edge.

I don’t know what these kinds of thoughts say about me but I’m genuinely excited about the prospect of playing these kind of set pieces. Maybe it’s the longing to carry out all these tasks without fear of reprisal or bodily harm and/or death? We’ve all had those dreams of incredible self-embodiment, where you can fly or run really, really fast; you’re invincible. Doing these things we can only ‘dream’ of is partly realised in these games. It’s the ultimate escapism. And the real world setting makes it a little more appealing than say the Mushroom Kingdom.

This case is argued a lot in the media, with the hate mongers quick to say that if people are to enjoy these experiences in a game, then they’re likely to commit them in ‘real life’. I find this statement incredibly insulting. And it puts ‘gamers’ into a bad light. It feels to me like a huge weight has been lifted off the film and music industry and placed squarely on the shoulders of game makers everywhere. Is it because the revenue made by games is now the largest out of all main medias? Is it because it has finally broken the mainstream, or because these crazies have realised the fight against films and music isn’t getting them anywhere so are picking on the new kid?

I don’t want to go into that debate in too much depth at the moment because I feel I’m not educated enough on the subject, but once I have more research and facts in place I’ll be back with vengeance. So back to my original topic. I’m actually dreaming of playing this game. It’s my place of peace and solitude when I shut my eyes. There was a time when this place was Disney Land, Springfield, Lucas Ranch or even hundreds of years in the future. But now it’s a world within a computer game. A world I can enter into any time I like. A world I can visit with friends. I can do anything, steal a car, fly a helicopter, fire a gun… even kill a person if I so wish. Because when I put it that little disk in my console, it’s MY world, and no one can touch me there, and no matter what I do there I can’t actually get arrested, injured or killed. Now THAT’S the dream.