Grand Theft Auto is a postmodern video game in several ways: 1) It uses parody, such as depicting New York (Liberty City) with the Statue of Liberty holding a Starbucks coffee instead of a torch. 2) It was one of the first games to criticize 21st century media through humor and parody, mocking obsessions with celebrity, money, and status. 3) Players experience a simulation of reality and feel absorbed in the open world, engaging concepts of flow and immersion that are postmodern.

1. Grand theft auto as
postmodern
Fereshta, Ciara and Ellise

3. Facts
• Release date: October 1997
• Latest Release date: 27th January 2014.
• Genres: Action-Adventure, Open World, Crime and Role-Playing.
• Publishers: Rockstar game and Capom.
• Creators: David Jones, Dan Houser, Sam Houser

4. Parody
• One postmodern technique that is seen in GTA is
parody. This is because it is set in New York. New
York is known as 'Liberty City' in GTA. The Statue of
Liberty holds the famous flame however in GTA it is
holding a Starbucks Coffee. This is seen as parody
and pastiche. This could also mean that Starbucks
is taking over the world as GTA is a global game.
• Grand theft auto claimed to be the first
postmodern video game to criticize the 21st century
media through humour and parody, with its
obsession with celebrity with celebrity, money and
status symbols

5. Flow and immersion…
Two concepts which help us to understand video games as
postmodern are flow and immersion. Immersion describes how the
gamer invests imagination in the game and is subsequently absorbed in
the game world. The first concept, flow is described by Csikszentmihalyi
as a state whereby an activity demands incrementally harder, but
increasingly pleasurable and achievable challenges, while providing
regular feedback on degrees of success.
Within the flow, immersion becomes difficult and challenging while
also feeling creative and pleasurable, so the feeling of being ‘ lost’ in
the game world leads to and enhanced state of ‘ happy hyper reality.

6. Simulation
• When gamers play GTA, they experience a simulation of reality – this
is a simulation of reality we see everyday or a type of simulation that
Hollywood presents us with?
• Nowadays, Hollywood produces media texts such as films that
simulate this simulated reality of video games. E.g. The Bourne Trilogy
• Baudrillard came up with the idea of simulation, referring to the
process in which a representation of something comes to replace the
thing which is actually being represented.

7. Bricolage
Bricolage is used in this game, there is a narrative but it is jumbled. You
do not follow a certain story, there are different missions with different
people and it is your choice whether you want to do the missions now
or decide to go and run over all the pedestrians on the ‘sidewalk’. There
is no time limit in completing the game, you have the choice in what
you want to do. This can be seen as postmodern as people have their
own choice, this game has no boundary’s!