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I’m Geek Woman the author of First Person Feminist and frequent contributor to WomenGamers.com Right from the start you know that you are in a man’s world when you play Grand Theft Auto IV. The tutorial character ‘Roman’ tells the character that you will be playing as Niko Bellic, who is a Serbian veteran of the Bosnian War (Wiki) who comes to the United States in search of the “American Dream” that in Liberty City it’s better than back home “…because there are white, black, Puerto Rican, Asians and bored midwestern housewives, like thirty -six flavors of titties.” The rampant campy sexism in Grand Theft Auto IV is certainly intended to be comic satire. If you don’t enjoy a little sexual exploitation with your entertainment, then don’t buy it. The very next character that we encountered who happened to be a female seated at a desk said “The land of opportunity, yeah right” and stubbed out her cigarette.
This time instead of portraying a lavish and glittery 1980′s high life, GTA IV is grittier. It subtly portrays oppressed post 9/11 America, Europe and Great Britain of the early 2000′s as similar to, and only slightly better than cold war USSR. By bringing over Niko from Serbia, they use an analogy that in Liberty City a studio apartment is a mansion. The writers make the most of many ironic points. As well as being funny, the chatter in the background from NPC’s is pessimistic in its tone. Niko says “War is when old men trick young men into killing each other”. You’ll hear things like “They’re only taking away freedoms we don’t use”. said in a redneck voice. These guys are the kings of NPC banter. The subversive tone of its dark humor is perhaps the best part of the game, and what makes it the most feared by the video game opposition like NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg
As art that continues to imitate the life that it sees around it games like Bully and GTA show the world from the perspective of a smart and cynical twenty – something guy. It makes strong social commentary and that is what triggers everyone both in a good way and in a bad way. The righteous who are certain that video games are dangerous to youth even though multimillion dollar government studies have concluded other wise were sure that GTA IV was a curse from unholy hell even before it was released. Fans have strong feelings about the game too, which can be best described with a gesture of the middle finger to anyone who doesn’t enjoy the GTA franchise. Because of the reality level in these games some people are made uncomfortable and others love it for the same reason.
You don’t go out and buy this game for astonishing graphics or stellar fight choreography. It’s a game that is mainly about humor and funny ways to die. The game play is nothing new. You have moderate fighting skills, and an average assortment of weapons to use. The beauty in the game is the open plan sandbox design that allows you to go through and select missions and tasks in any order that you want. It’s a great game that will provide a summer of really fun and explosive diversions for anyone who is old enough for it’s mature content. It’s a top shelf game at the height of its curve and it will out perform sales of every other game that has been previously released. It will ultimately outsell Halo 3 and even break some of Nintendo’s records. It’s well deserved. The political humor is timely and though provoking.
Never the less I found some disappointing problems. First of all since the game touts itself as an open world, you would expect to be able to interact with everything in the game. Not all the buildings shops and objects are inter-actable. I got used to playing Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion where every plant, book and item in the game is interactive, you can pick it up, examine it or eat it. GTA IV is even less interactive than Yakuza 2 where almost all the buildings could be entered and contained pick ups. Up close store fronts degenerate and signs are unreadable. You can’t get inside. I would like to see more loot and weapons sprinkled about. I’m sure that with more hours of game play into it, I will. Once again it is even more fun when enhanced by the many cheat codes that are all ready posted online. Gamepro has them.
Finally the biggest and most important problem that I have with GTA IV is that there is no selectable female character to play as. In a vast game that has a huge map and vast deep locations inside it, including comedy clubs, a female character option should have been included. What the hell is the matter with you Rockstar? There are females in the game everyplace as hookers, but you can’t play as one? Why is that, and aren’t you interested in more game sales? How about adding in this women inclusive module as a download?
Svetlana and Nadja come to Liberty City and open a brothel or even a nightclub. That would be an optional safe house. After that fork in the plot the rest of game could be played on the normal story arh. Can’t you imagine the fun it would be to play as a gal that looks like Diablo Cody instead of dumpy – looking Niko?
Except for Elizabeta who is a prominent drug dealer in the game who is characterized as being on narcotics, paranoid and delusional, women other than prostitutes, aren’t represented much. There’s a rudimentary dating mini game. But on the whole the portrayal of women in this game is heinous and it’s definitely going to get some attention from other feminists who are less liberal than myself.
There are lots of ways to interpret sexism. Sometimes it is offensive to see women being degraded by being used as hookers to raise a health bar in GTA San Andreas. But sometimes sexism can also mean exclusion from the fun. If you are going to lampoon the worst qualities in both sexes, then let the girls play too. Don’t underestimate women’s sense of humor. In the hot Coffee Mod the man still had his clothes on while the woman was shown nude. It’s things like this that give off a vibe that the designers were only expecting guys to play.
In an otherwise awesome and humorous game that still has many surprises to be discovered there are very few flaws. I give Grand Theft Auto IV a shamelessly sexist 8 out of 10.
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