Okay, GTA is filled to the brim with terrifying, disgusting, brutal taboo themes. But the torture mission "By the book" was a little too violent for many. Many already knew about the mission before release and asked Rockstar several times to at least skip the scenes. You are forced to watch - even participate - and have no way of aborting the mission unless you lose on purpose.
But you could also look at the mission from the perspective that we're already making morally questionable decisions in GTA anyway and the mission is just supposed to tell us: "You've been killing people all this time, now you have to watch what you're actually doing". Diabolical! | ©Rockstar
Jack Thompson is an American lawyer who is always critical of violence in video games. Doom, Bully, Counter-Strike and Mortal Kombat have already been on his hit list - just like Grand Theft Auto. To keep it relatively short here: After a murder, then 15-year-old Dustin Lynch said that he had been "obsessed with GTA 3". A similar situation occurred again in the same year.
After another lawsuit in 2005, in which GTA was mentioned, Thompson's license was temporarily revoked. Thompson continued to campaign, almost pathologically, for the removal of Grand Theft Auto, including writing hate mail to mothers of the Rockstar team. This all eventually led to his own mission in GTA 4 (“Final Interview”) and a whole movie with Daniel Radcliffe! | ©Jack Thompson, Rockstar
Not to leave you hanging: The movie is called "The Gamechangers" and is an unauthorized film adaptation of the whole dispute between Rockstar and Jack Thompson. The movie itself is a whole new controversy, because Rockstar filed a complaint against BBC afterwards, which apparently didn't bear fruit.
Although IGN only gave the movie 4.5 out of 10 stars, funnily enough The Telegraph praised Daniel Radcliffe's performance and gave the movie 4 out of 5 stars. What IGN criticized: "The story of GTA is a great story that deserves to be told, but Gamechangers barely scratches the surface." It all feels a bit like a fever dream! | ©BBC
At the release of GTA 4, the organization “Mothers Against Drunk Driving” was getting furious because of the possibility of getting drunk and driving in Grand Theft Auto. The organization's mission is generally a good thing. And Rockstar sees it that way too!
Although they did not respond to the request to raise the age recommendation to "Adults Only", they did say that they felt similarly and pointed out that the game does not glorify drunk driving, but is intended to convey that it is simply not cool:
With clear distortions in your field of vision, it's extremely difficult to drive normally, which the police in the game also notice - and almost always slap a wanted star on you. | ©Rockstar
When we first had the opportunity to use the services of prostitutes in GTA 3, there was a huge outcry from the media in the name of protecting minors. Even worse: the possibility of killing them afterwards and "stealing" your money back. Not only did this lead to a re-evaluation of the age recommendation, but it also helped Grand Theft Auto achieve the fame it enjoys today. The massive media presence led to the game becoming the best-selling game of 2001 and one of the best-selling games on the Playstation 2. | ©Rockstar
With every new installment, there are accusations of sexism. With GTA 5, the discussion reached new heights: Critics accused the game of portraying women only as "strippers, prostitutes, long-suffering wives, humorless girlfriends and silly new-age feminists" and are either there to be saved, yelled at, tolerated or killed, or they babble like fools on their cell phones or while shopping - or, let's not forget, they are reduced to one thing. Rockstar themselves commented on the debate that the portrayal of women has unfortunately been somewhat overlooked, but that the focus on men is appropriate to tell the story.
And while you might think that men are portrayed as at least as stupid in the game, the community is generally happy that we get to see a smart couple of protagonists in GTA 6! | ©Rockstar
With the transition to three-dimensionality, the brutal ways of killing have also taken on a new form: Between GTA 3 and Vice City: Stories, it was possible to decapitate enemies. This was possible with katanas, for example, but was removed fairly quickly. There are some scenes that are definitely a bit brutal, like in Vice City: Stories when Phil blows his arm off with his own Boomshine.
However, as the graphics became increasingly detailed and lifelike, the decision was made to dispense with this kind of brutality in some cases. Only one scene in The Ballad of Gay Tony features a scene where someone loses their head, and mutilation of any kind only occurs in certain missions, such as "Legal Trouble" in GTA 5.
Well. It's pretty self-explanatory that adding a website to the game that is supposed to sell fashionable children's underwear causes an outcry. But there's a twist: if you open the website in question in GTA 4, a message from the police immediately appears telling you not to think you can get away with it. The star level immediately jumps to 5, and you know that something like this is forbidden even in the GTA universe. Pedophilia is not addressed anywhere else in the game, and this entry is almost like Rockstar is telling us: "Even in the game, this goes too far." Actually a cool thing! | ©Rockstar
Since GTA 3, we've been treated to hilarious radio ads that are often social satire behind a curtain of wit, such as in Grand Theft Auto Vice City, where ads are placed for rich, influential people who "want to get away from the noise and diversity of the city". In some parts we also have ads for Redwood, a cigarette brand that not only sells the product as a lifestyle, but also advertises that it's better for the kids if you have less stress and don't have to beat them because of it. And let's not get started on "pisswasser", the ad from GTA 4 for cheap alcohol. | ©Rockstar
The eternal story of Grand Theft Auto and the age rating in Australia. In Australia, the highest age recommendation is 15+ and it's not hard to see that GTA is definitely not for 15-year-olds. A lot of censorship was added, bloody affairs and prostitution removed and features adjusted. The critical looks were also increasingly due to the controversy of the "Hot Coffee Mod" and the never-ending criticism from Jake Thompson, who is definitely the number one enemy among GTA fans. | ©Rockstar
The "Definitive Edition" is a collection of "remasters" of GTA 3, GTA: San Andreas and GTA: Vice City, which is available on many platforms. The release caused a huge outcry: the original versions of the 3 titles were removed from gaming platforms such as Steam and only the Definitive Edition is available for purchase. This means that if you want to play GTA: San Andreas, you have to buy this version, which will cost you a hefty $60.
And that's not all: The Definitive Edition quickly turned out to be a mobile port, the characters look like clay covered in plastic and the game has fundamentally changed some game elements. Lighting effects no longer look true to GTA, fog has been removed (revealing many low-poly buildings and ruining the overall look) and many new bugs have been introduced.
Although the Definitive Edition is still being developed based on player feedback, most fans will continue to play the original versions. | ©Rockstar, Grove Street Games
As briefly mentioned earlier, unfortunately some crimes have been committed in which Grand Theft Auto was cited as the inspiration. Either the familiar "video games are ruining our children" argument has been used again, or the perpetrators themselves have stated that they are fans of the games. To briefly mention some of these, we have William and Josh Buckner, who first spoke of being inspired by GTA and were defended by the aforementioned Jack Thompson.
Convicted murderer Devin Moore has taken the whole debate to a new level with the statement: "Life is a video game. Everyone has to die sometime" to a new level. Moore was abused by his father as a child, and it was determined that video games had nothing to do with the crime. In general, the police believe that GTA has never been seen as a trigger for violent crime. | ©Rockstar
Last but not least, probably the most famous drama in GTA history: After a modder discovered hidden code within Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that made it possible to play a mini-game in which you get up close and personal with your in-game girlfriend, it not only drew criticism but led to a fundamental revision of the age recommendation for video games. Shortly afterwards, Rockstar withdrew copies of the game that had already been sold and issued a patch for PC versions to remove the overlooked code. The whole story also led to the Family Entertainment Protection Act through Hillary Clinton, which ensures stricter guidelines for such content in video games. | ©Rockstar
We're sure that most of you are already looking forward to the next installment in the series. But do you think you recognized everything in the two trailers, or did you perhaps miss some details? If you want to put yourself to the test as a GTA fan, we've put together a list of small details that you might not have noticed!
Pretty much everyone has played, seen or at least heard of Grand Theft Auto. And so you don't have to think twice to know that the games contain a load of controversial topics that have led to one or two legal disputes, brought countless critics to the mat or cost lawyers their jobs.
Here we present a small overview of the GTA issues that have made international headlines and changed the way video games are viewed in society.
