Politics in Video Games: Warning (Explicit Material)

Video Games today have become a key note in the world of visual culture.  More and more people are joining in on video game playing as their quality from year to year continues to get better.  Graphics, gameplay, online interactions, and stories continue to enhance as technology finds more ways to upgrade itself.  One game in particular that seems to catch a lot of flak every year a new one releases is from the Grand Theft Auto series from Rockstar and Take Two Interactive.  Grand Theft Auto games have always been considered controversial in the way that they let the player experience violence in a video game.  Not only are the games graphic and extremely violent, they also contain lots of drug and alcohol references, sexuality, foul language, and much more.  But, that is a topic for a different blog.  Today I want to discuss the upside of Grand Theft Auto.  GTA (Grand Theft Auto) will always be negatively criticized by the public and that usually outweighs the positive criticism of what took years for a company to make.  Video games are a work of art that many people don't understand how to appreciate.  Let me just state some statistics about GTA V.  It cost 226 million dollars to make, which is more than every movie ever made, except for Pirates of the Carribean 3 (I don't know why that cost so much because it wasn't that great of a movie in my opinion).  This is more than any video game ever made as well, Star Wars the Old Republic was rumored to be 200 million, and with another Rockstar game coming in at 3rd, Red Dead Redemption, costing 100 million.  This may seem expensive to put this much time, effort, and money into video games but trust me it paid off.  On the first day of Grand Theft Auto's release, it raked in 800 million dollars.  On that day alone it made more money than the biggest box office hits of the summer.  I think Ironman 3 was the closest at a little over 300 million.  Grand Theft Auto IV sold 310 million worth on it's first debut.  It is stated that GTA V sold over 1 billion dollars worth in three days.  This is the fastest any entertainment industry has reached that milestone.  Anyhow, I'm here to discuss a part of the game that was displayed on it's website before it ever released.  http://www.rockstargames.com/V/  The game did its best to represent a world similar to the ones we live in with great emphasis on satire.  One topic in particular was that of politics.  Below are two videos of slander campaigns from two fictional candidates of the GTA V world/state of San Andreas in the city of Los Santos (California and Los Angeles).  These videos are an obvious exaggeration of political campaigns and add a humorous touch to the game itself.  I honestly probably kept up with these politics more-so than I do real world politics.  Please don't judge.  Jock Cranley and Sue Murry are the candidates slandering one another below.  My first analysis will be of the clothes each candidate is represented in.  This is something we have talked about plenty in class.  Each candidate is well dressed with a simplistic stylistic haircut that automatically gives that sense of 'politician.'  They also both have a sense of 'dirty' or 'manipulative' to them in the way their smiles are exaggerated.  It makes them appear mischievous. Secondly, after watching both videos I can get  a sense of who would be represented as a republican (Jock) vs democrat (Sue).  Now to a video breakdown of each.  I'll start with Jock Cranley, a "retired stuntman and actor."  I believe this is an obvious shot at Arnold Schwarzenegger running for governor and how he actually got elected.  He calls himself "...a highly qualified candidate for governor.,"  although he has no background in politics whatsoever. Hence my belief that he is representative of what Arnold did.  People who know that they are famous and well known run thinking they can get a majority vote off of that alone.  Later in the video he slanders Sue Murry and displays her as a devil with horns which is why I decided to write about this in particular (not only because I love the game and play it regularly.)  In class we discussed the use of photo manipulation in politics to lower the standings of political candidates.  This one is a satire based off of the many images released of Obama depicted as a devil.  Now to Sue, who might be a representation of Hilary Clinton, it's hard to say.  However, her video starts off with an instant slander of Jock Cranley depicted in an image wearing a dunce cap with crossed eyes calling him 'tiny brained.'  This reminded me of the day we spent in class looking over images of Obama and George W. Bush represented as monkeys.  It shows the primitive and un-intelligent nature that she believes Jock Cranley has.  She also criticizes his past by calling him out directly on his former actions.  He has no background in politics and is a former drug addict and a subject of multiple concussions.  He believed that his stunt man career helped him develop decision making abilities and the knowledge of city planning.... how, I'm not sure.  Sue then goes on to list her plans, saying we will only have to pay up to 72% of our money on taxes through her.  This being a shot on how politicians say that they wills ave us money on taxes by passing this or that or by following their plan, but usually ends up costing us way more than we expected.  These two videos have no influence on the actual game, nor do they change the storyline at all.  They are simply additional elements that help develop that game as a well rounded satire of the lives we live in.  Throughout the game are many instances of slander and campaigning over the radio while you drive or on billboards throughout the landscape.  They'll even appear on T.V. commercials, IF I decide to sit down in a video game and watch T.V, WHILE, I sit down in real life and play video games on another T.V.   Keep in mind these were also part of advertising their video game.  These were on the main webpage and in now way tell anything about the gameplay or story of the game.  They are simply expressions of great satire in a video game context that everyone can relate to.   More to come, thank you for your extended period of time.