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Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is a video game series that was created in 1997 by David Jones, Dan and Sam Houser, and Zachary Clarke. It was published by Rockstar Games. The series is set in a number of different American cities. It’s gained a lot of critisism due to the violence, car stealing, and womanizing features in the game. It’s a game where the player can, in order to reach it’s goal, street racing, carjack, fight, meet prostitutes, and shoot people. 

 

Our question is then: What impact does Grand Theft Auto have on people’s driving? 

 

 

 

HISTORY OF ROCKSTAR GAMES

This video gives you a look at the making of GTA and a look inside of Rockstar North.

 

     Rockstar North was founded in 1989 by David Jones, Russell Kay, Steve Hammond, and Mike Dailly in Scotland. It was formally known as DMA Design. This stood for nothing in particular and people joked it stood for “Doesn’t Mean Anything”. The company is best known for the creation of Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings. 

 

     In 1988 DMA signed with a UK label called Psygnosis. There they developed Menace and Blood Money. 1990 was a big year with the release of Lemmings, a puzzle game that sold over 20 million copies. In 1993 Psygnosis was bought out by Sony so DMA released Uniracers with Nintendo. They then joined Nintendo to be on their “Dream Team” of developers for N64. DMA then produced Body Harvest while in this agreement but due to numerous delay Nintendo dropped their publishing plans. During the delay Grand Theft Auto was released for PC and PlayStation. 

 

     1997 was the beginning of some big changes. DMA was bought by Gremlin Interactive with David Jones becoming Creative Director. 1999 Gremlin was acquired by Infogrames. There were some complications with the deal but DMA was sold to Rockstar Designs. Many projects were cancelled in mid-development and David Jones left prior to the sale. Rockstar bought DMA renaming the company “Rockstar North” in 2002. Since many video games have been published and Rockstar North is one of the biggest video game companies. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video on the History of Grand Theft

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Grand Theft Auto

 

 Grand Theft Auto (GTA I) was a PC game that was released in 1997. It is one of the first "open world" video games. This game featured a Birds-eye view prospective of your protagonist. The main story line consists of a small character that was given the ability to run around a city and commit various crimes. These crimes included Murders, Assassinations, Bank Robberies, and other various missions. This game gives the player a sense of overwhelming freedom, with the ability to be killed or even arrested. This free world game is based on a point system that encourages the player to kill people, steal cars, and cause general mayhem around the city. This game was the beginning of a large controversy that would span close to 15 years, that is still continuing today. 

 

Grand Theft Auto Gameplay

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Grand Theft Auto 2

 

  Grand Theft Auto II was made in 1999, after a generally well recieved Grand Theft Auto I, This game was initially made for the PC, and also for the Playstation 1 console. The gameplay is nearly the same as Grand Theft Auto I, It is shown as a birds eye view,  where your camera is directly above the players head, and the game is played in a 2D overhead view. The premise of this game is nearly the same as the first, Steal cars and commit crimes to increase your score, allowing you to progress to the next level. Grand Theft Auto II included various other upgrades to the game prior, Including being able to do missions for separate gangs. Side missions are also introduced in this game, giving you the ability to go somewhere on the map and start a mission allowing your character to earn some sort of upgrade. Grand  Theft Auto II changed the way a lot of action games were played because of the introduction of extreme violence.

 

Grand Theft Auto 2 Gameplay 

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Grand Theft Auto lll

     Grand Theft Auto III brought a whole new atmosphere to the world of Grand Theft Auto, With the introduction of three-dimentional graphics. Grand Theft Auto III is a landmark game in the industry, This game's plot includes the protagonist named Claude, who was betrayed by his girlfriend while robbing a bank. Through the story he must work his way up the food chain before he can confront her. This game contains numerous elements from driving games, as well as third person shooters. GTA III is the first game in the series to have a camera placement behind the main character, this allows the video game to be played as a third person shooter. This game takes all the elements of the previous games and combines them to make the third. The character plays along with the main storyline, but also has the option of playing different side missions and events.

     GTA III introduces new weapons, new missions, new side missions, new gangs, and many other numerous new events. Many players that play this game enjoy running around the town and killing various people just as much as the storyline itself. Many gamers find it entertaining just to see how many "star" they can get before the police are able to kill them.

     Many people believe that with the introduction of GTA III, the video game industry way completely revolutionized, as well as peoples beliefs about violence included in them. There are arguments on both sides of the table, some people believing that video games do not induce violence, others that believe that people will go out and murder other people after playing this game just for the pure enjoyment of doing so.

 

Grand Theft Auto III has sold about 15 Million Copies. 

 

Grand Theft Auto III Gameplay

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(Start Clip at 3:00) 

 

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

     Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a spin-off of GTA III, This video game was released 2002. It takes the three-dimensional engine in a different direction. With better graphics, updated missions, and multiple new add-ons, and a whole host of new characters, this video game became on of the highest selling titles of 2002. The actual video game is place in the mid 1980's, set in Vice City (the fictional replecation of Miami), You play as Tommy Vercetti, a mafia member recently released from prison. Tommy seeks out all of the people that are responsible for sending him to prison, while building a massive criminal empire in the process.

     Grand Theft Auto: Vice City brings a large amount of new ideas to the GTA series, with the introduction of flying vehicles, the player feels a much bigger sense of freedom when they are able to hop into a jet and fly around the city. Along with being able to fly, there are numerous other vehicles, including:

• Motorcycles
• Airplanes
• Boats
• Regular Automobiles
• Helecopters

 

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Gameplay 

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(Start Clip at 5:00)

 

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

     Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was another spin-off of Grand Theft Auto III, This game consists of three metroploitan cities,

• Los Santos, Based on modern day Los Angeles
• San Fierro, Based on modern day San Fransisco
• Las Venturas, Based on modern day Las Vegas

 

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has sold nearly 30 million copies worldwide

 

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Gameplay

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(Start at  9:19)

 

 

Grand Theft Auto IV

      Grand Theft Auto IV marks the entrance of GTA into the HD universe. With the introduction of GTA IV in 2008, GTA was now able to compete with most major games graphics wise. This story takes place in Liberty City, a modern representation of New York City. Grand Theft Auto IV follows Nikko Bellic, a veteran of a eastern European war, during the war he was betrayed by some of the people in his unit. After the war, Nikko comes to the USA not only to seek the people that have betrayed him, but also in the pursuit of the American dream. Despite the main point of GTA which is killing people and criminal activity, this was the first GTA that actually has a critically acclaimed story line behind it, it showed human emotion and dreams.      

     Grand Theft Auto IV introduces many new side missions, secret places, and vehicles that the player has access to, making the replayability much higher than the previous Grand Theft Auto games in the lineage. This game also includes the ability to get intoxicated and drive a vehicle, this has created a large amount of controversy with groups like "Mothers Against Drunk Driving"

 

      

Grand Theft Auto IV featured two extra episodes later released after the actual game came out.

 

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and The Damned- In this game you were a member of a bikers gang, in this game you see a lot of the darker side of liberty city, there is a large amount of organized crime and motorcycles in this story line

 

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballet of Gay Tony- In this game you are an assistant to a nightclub owner named Tony "Gay Tony" Prince, and it follows the main character as he struggles through troubles with his friends, family, and his boss. This episode features "Parajumping" which will become a large part in future GTA games to come.

 

Grand Theft Auto IV has sold around 25 Million copies worldwide 

 

Grand Theft Auto IV Gameplay

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(Start at 0:15)

 

Grand Theft Auto V

 

 

Grand Theft Auto V is the upcoming game from Rockstar North set to release sometime in Spring of 2013, Rockstar has stated that this game will focus on the pursuit of "The almightly dollar". Rockstar has not shared very much information with the public because they want to keep most of the content of this game a secret. Grand Theft Auto V is supposed to be the most adventurous title to date, with the largest open world known to video games. Grand Theft Auto V also has promise to be much expanded in the field of side missions and mini games. This game is supposed to feature a full fledge golf course, open ocean floor to explore, and numerous campaign additions

 

Grand Theft Auto V Trailer

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Impact on Industry

Grand Theft Auto was one of the first games to ever push the boundries of violence in Video games. With the introduction of Grand Theft Auto III, society realized that things that were generally considered to be low-life criminal behavier makes for a video game that can sell millions of copies. No longer have companies held back from putting contreversial material into video games. It is believed that the Grand Theft Auto franchise revolutionized the motto of the gaming industry from, "We must be careful what we put in video games because contreversial material will decrease sales", to "Get away with as much stuff as you can, as long as you walk away with a 'M' rated game".

 

During interviews to mark the 10th anniversary of the release of Grand Theft Auto III, producer of the Street Fighter series, Yoshinori Ono, said "It would be no exaggeration to say that GTA III changed the industry, and we can basically separate the time before and after its emergence as distinct eras." In the same article Bethesda studios director, Todd Howard, said "The mark of a truly great game is how many people try to recapture or emulate it and fail. There’s a long line behind this one."

 

Sales Figures

Game	Year date released	Sales	Rank
Grand Theft Auto	1997	2.32 Million	6
Grand Theft Auto 2	1999	3.42 Million	5
Grand Theft Auto lll	2001	17.31 Million	4
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas	2004	27.5 Million	1
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City	2006	20.71 Million	3
Grand Theft Auto lV	2008	25+ Million	2

Controversy 

Placed in the Guiness book of world records as the most controversial video game in history, the Grand Theft Auto franchise sure has stirred up a lot of tension with parents and the media. With over 4,000 articles published about its graphic gameplay, this series sure has earned itself a lot of hype. Former Lawyer Jack Thompson handled the majority of the trials involving GTA induced violence, untill he was disbarred in July of 2008 for innapropriate conduct in the courtroom and charged over $100,000 in fines. Here are a few of the court cases that recieved the most attention:

http://www.katu.com/news/national/4230841.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/17/taketwo_gta_lawsuit/

http://betanews.com/2008/08/04/grand-theft-auto-blamed-after-taxi-driver-murdered-in-thailand/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/25/100m_grand_theft_auto_lawsuit/

Our Survey

     We created a survey in order to discover any correlation between the Grand Theft Auto franchise and unsafe driving. The survey was distributed

to 100 random Century College students in order to get a sample of whether or not we were asking the right questions to answer our own questions. 

 

Hypothesis Question

Does playing Grand Theft Auto regularly lead to unsafe driving habits?

 

Here's what we discovered...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

     In conclusion we found that not too many of the people we asked play the GTA franchise on a regular basis. Though we did find that of the 72 students that drive a vehicle, 92% of them have had a driving violation, and 90% of them have played the GTA franchise. Other that we couldnt make many other connections considering how random and scattered the results were. In order to answer our hypothesis question better we could ask questions that give us a better look at how much experience they have had with GTA, we also should have asked questions relating to the violence and vulgarity of the game in order to see if there is a correlation with aggresion and this game. In order to get a better look at how much of an impact this game really has we would need significantly larger numbers, and a larger number of students that play GTA frequently. We did find a study from an online newspaper that has some solid points to how GTA impacts driving, which reassured us that at least we had the right idea. Here is the article; http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/12/science/la-sci-sn-violent-video-games-lead-to-reckless-driving-study-says-20120912

GTA works cited