The Grand Theft Auto video game series, by Rockstar Games, has become the landmark of the video game industry. Since the third installment of the series in 2001, ‘GTA’ has become the most anticipated and talked about video game franchise in the entertainment industry. The series has explored both conceptual and technological boundaries of video games. It has redefined how crime, characters, and popular culture can be incorporated into the design of a video game in a particularly savvy manner.
At the same time, academic study of video games has emerged as its own discipline. After debates about the development of broad theoretical strokes, it has become time to produce, and popularize, detailed analyses of individual game masterpieces. Such readings can make findings of video game studies available to both game developers and gamers, but also – and more importantly – to educators, parents, and journalists interested in developments in popular culture.
In these pages, game scholar and designer Aki Järvinen, Ph.D., will produce such a reading from the perspectives of design, psychology, and culture.
GTA IV: A Journey in Game Design Research
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
