Grand Theft Auto IV. (2008). [PS3 game] New York, NY. Rockstar Games.

Grand Theft Auto IV. (2008). [PS3 game] New York, NY. Rockstar Games.

Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA) immerses the player into the world of Niko Bellic, a survivor of the Bosnian war, who comes to America with the hope of obtaining the American dream. Niko initially enters into a world of crime to protect his brother from loan sharks, and works various missions in order to alleviate his brother’s debts. The game has been extremely controversial over the years because of it gratuitous violence and the protagonist’s ability to have sex with prostitutes. GTA IV is the first of the series to allow the protagonist to make moral choices that effect the outcome of the game. The game also acts as a simulator, such as the Sims, by allowing the player to date women and alter their appearance. The game was highly successfully upon its release and received perfect critiques by many game reviewers. Because of the games controversial nature, it is often cited by the media as a cause of youth crime and as a result has become a significant interest in media scholarship.

Farman, J. (2010). Hypermediating the game interface: The alienation effect in violent videogames and the problem of serious play. Communication Quart

Farman, J. (2010). Hypermediating the game interface: The alienation effect in violent videogames and the problem of serious play. Communication Quarterly, 58 (1), 96-109.

Farman, relying heavily of the terminology of Bolter and Grusin, argues that games have developed hypermediated interfaces over the last decade and as a result have blended real life experience with virtual reality. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA) provides an excellent example of Farman’s point because it provides an interfaceless interface through it’s “mapping of virtual space onto material space (or vice versa)” (p. 98). Rockstar Games generates a sense of realism within the GTA by recreating Southern California as the setting for San Andreas. Furthermore, by including other technological devices like cell-phones and navigation units, GTA creates verisimilitude through hypermediation. Farman suggests the hypermediation of game interfaces alienates the player because it forces the “loss of clear boundaries between the virtual and the material in the digital age” (p. 101). Thus, the verisimilitude of violent acts in games are the true threat to children rather than the depiction of the act itself. GTA through hypermediation either becomes a violent gang simulator for the player a satire on media and violence. These two views derive from the player’s ability to alter the appearance of CJ. For example, if players places CJ in a chicken suit, that greatly contrasts the violent acts in the game, they can detach themselves from the game’s hypermediation and realism.

Farman’s article provides an interesting way of understanding media violence that contrasts the many psychological viewpoints on this bibliography. Farman’s argument could be incorporated into my own argument to demonstrate how the interfaceless interface generates the realism of the immigrant/minorities strained American experience. As stated in Murray’s annotation, Farman and Murray provide support for each other’s arguments and should be read in context with each other. Farman does a great job of depicting GTA as a cultural object that can either promote or hinder social change depending on how the player perceives the game’s interface.

Murray, S. (2005). High art/low life: The art of playing Grand Theft Auto. PAJ: Performing Arts Journal, 27(2), 91-98.

Murray, S. (2005). High art/low life: The art of playing Grand Theft Auto. PAJ: Performing Arts Journal, 27(2), 91-98.

Murray’s essay focuses on the gaming industries’ expansion of technology and their current agency to develop highly sophisticated worlds that grant players limitless freedom. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA) serves as the case in point for Murray’s work because the game makes the quality of its virtual space come alive by recreating Southern California by representing the states’ vernacular, fashion, music, and topography within the game. The art of playing GTA, as argued by Murray, stems from the player’s ability to successfully navigate the world Rockstar Games created. She argues that video games have become highly interactive and that only by becoming familiar with the protagonists’ surroundings can the player complete the game. For example, gamers playing GTA become aware that Ganton, CJ’s home turf, provides a considerable amount of freedom from authorities due to the cities’ dilapidation and population consisting of minorities. On the other hand, once the protagonist ventures into affluent neighborhoods of San Andreas police presence is aggressive.

Murray’s study provides insight into my own argument concerning Rockstar Game’s depiction of social strain in GTA. She argues the game, as depicted in its regulation of police presence, portrays the world as unequal and conflicted. Furthermore, her article provides support for both Barrett and Farman’s arguments. Like Barrett, Murray focuses on GTA’s negative African American stereotypes and suggests that the hip-hop communities’ accommodation of values evident in Scarface have provided the foundation for Rockstar Games appropriation of black culture. Murray’s article adds to Furman’s discussion of the interfaceless interface by giving it a sociological bent and I would strongly suggests that both Furman and Murray’s articles should be read together and absorbed in context with each other.

Barrett, P. (2006). White thumbs, black bodies: Race, violence, and neoliberal fantasies in Grand Theft Auto. The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and C

Barrett, P. (2006). White thumbs, black bodies: Race, violence, and neoliberal fantasies in Grand Theft Auto. The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 28, 95-119.

Paul Barrett’s article provides a thought-provoking analysis of Rockstar Games’ representation of the inner city African American experience in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA). Barrett suggests the game presents black bodies as a disposable commodity and reinforces negative racial stereotypes by attempting to define the essence “blackness.” Rockstar Games relies on hip-hop culture as the foundation for their appropriation of black society in GTA and embraces the danger, aggression, and violence in albums like 50 Cents’ Get Rich or Die Trying. Barrett concludes, “the implication [of theses games and albums] is that blackness is a style, something that can be taken on and off” (p. 100). Therefore, white players construct black culture as they see fit when playing GTA and black individuals playing the game must accept a dangerous neoliberal representations of their own culture.

Barrett’s article is very strong and provides a lot of evidence for my own argument. He delineates the social conflict evident in GTA and argues that the game implies that African Americans should accumulate wealth by any means necessary. The game—Barrett argues—“suggests that the problems that African Americans experience is due to individual failure” (p. 114). Thus, GTA portrays African American’s as inherently strained by society and endorses violence as an acceptable means for coping with a troubled life. The article works perfectly in context with the theoretical foundation laid out by Merton and Agnew and provides support for their (and my own) arguments. Although Barrett uses CJ of San Andreas as the focal point of his argument, the essay is extremely applicable to the imagery of immigration and social strain throughout Niko Bellic’s journey in GTA IV.

Samuels, R. (2010). Grand theft automodernity: Globalizing individualism and cultural nihilism from Eminem to The Matrix. New media, cultural studies,

Samuels, R. (2010). Grand theft automodernity: Globalizing individualism and cultural nihilism from Eminem to The Matrix. New media, cultural studies, and critical theory after postmodernism: Automodernity from Zizek to Lacalau. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Robert Samuels’ essay examines Grand Theft Auto (GTA) from a psychoanalytical perspective. He argues that GTA has become a pop cultural icon because it provides “a space for individual freedom and a sense of liberation from social determinism and political correctness” (p. 123). Using the theories of Freud and Lacan as his foundation, Samuels suggests that violent games like GTA allow the user to simultaneously affirm and deny violent tendencies through a cathartic release. The user ironically distances him/herself from violent acts in games through the process of displacement. Likewise, the game’s creator, Rockstar Games, demands that the audience not criticize its content and relies on Freudian understandings of humor to convey the game’s controversial message. Samuels suggests that videos games, like GTA, generate a chimerical universe for their protagonists that decreases the complexity of social relationships by relying on cultural stereotypes and clichés as their foundations.

Albeit Samuel’s essay is interesting and thought provoking it is far from the strongest on the bibliography. He continually relies on the same block quotations (literally reproducing quotes previously discussed to make another argument) and authors to prove his points. Furthermore, the work relies heavily on psychoanalytic theory which is useful in literary and rhetorical studies but not encouraged as a reliable theory in the social sciences. Therefore, Samuels’ article slightly deviates from the sociological direction I desire to take within my current research. However, Samuels briefly includes an explication of the psychological foundations of capitalism which could be useful in my discussion of social strain. He states “the very important economic task of translating the social construction of demands into the realm of individual desires is accomplished by producing an obsessional (sic) and narcissistic subject through the circulation of cultural fantasies and ironic splitting” (p. 130-131).