The GTA has grown to become one of the biggest gaming series in existence. A new game is reason enough to postpone other releases, and it could even create an economic dip as people call in sick to work on November 19. For anyone outside of the gaming sphere, this might sound like an exaggeration. And in a way it is. This has taken proportions that our minds can’t comprehend. How can a single game be this big?
However, I’m not here to talk about the trailers, the extended look or even what I’m expecting to find in GTA VI. Instead, I want to take a trip down memory lane and maybe ground myself a bit more. Because with the release of GTA VI, it will reveal the best about gaming and also the worst. This is not to complain in any way, just a bit of food for thought. And to reflect on some of the thoughts I’ve been having lately.
The same way I didn’t play Pokopia when it came out, I’m also not going to play GTA VI. At least, not at launch. No, I didn’t buy the digital edition because I don’t have a console to play it on. Nor will I buy one for that purpose alone. Although, from what we are seeing right now, it’s a game that I will want to play someday, hopefully on PC. But there’s still a lot of “ifs” around it. I want to play it if the game matches my expectations. I want to play it if I can buy a physical version. I want to play it if I can run it on the hardware I already own.
With all these conditions in mind, I have mixed feelings about wishing for November 19 to be here sooner. So instead, I actually want to go back. Back in time to GTA Vice City. This was the first game in the series that I played. I was way too young to be playing such a game, but since I didn’t understand a word of English, what I could do in the game was very limited. But that never stopped me from spending hours playing it. Since I didn’t understand the language, I couldn’t do any missions, so I focused on exploring the map available to me. Did you know you could drive a bus and receive money for every passenger you picked up at a bus stop? I simply found that out one day while driving around. I found the single place where you can get money from NPCs and never get caught by the police. I tried time and time again to bypass the gate at the pier to steal a boat and try to explore the other islands when I wasn’t allowed.
Today, I think back to some playing sessions I did in some games, and I’m astonished by how I could find so much enjoyment in almost nothing. I wasn’t progressing in the game, learning about the story, or unlocking new things to do. Most of what existed in the game was a skin on a flat surface pretending to be a real store that I couldn’t go into. And that made the world of Vice City vibrant and big enough to spend hours playing and wishing to go back again and again. But this wasn’t an experience exclusive to the GTA games. And now I’m wondering: did I change how I play games, or did the games actually change, and that’s why I don’t play like that anymore?
One thing changed for sure. Everything happens so fast now. Games are to be played from start to finish in one to two weeks, and then move on to the next new game. I bet one week after GTA VI comes out, there will be videos of people already finishing the story, spilling secrets and Easter eggs, even before some finish downloading the game. Gaming used to be a solo activity, and with that came discovering the game at your own pace. It’s not necessarily bad that we now share this common interest with one another online. But it does put some pressure to move along quickly.
If it wasn’t for watching gameplay videos, I wouldn’t have discovered what Subnautica was really about. I saw that game on the Epic Store before, but the screenshots, while beautiful, painted a story of a game that I wasn’t interested in playing. The same thing happened with Stardew Valley. At first glance, it might not be exactly what I enjoy playing and yet I was wrong. So there is a use for gameplay content. It’s a great way to truly showcase how a game is when demos aren’t accessible.
At the same time, watching hours of gameplay, while fun, also takes away from the enjoyment of the game by myself. I’ve seen so much Stardew Valley gameplay that I don’t know if there is anything new for me to find. I can’t explore the map on my own because I was already spoiled for everything that it holds. Everyone already did the math on the most profitable produce and artisan goods to sell. And sometimes, I find myself thinking that the game is actually too small. It should have more content. And this is coming from someone who has played over 100 hours, took 3 in-game years to finish the Community Centre and hasn’t even explored Ginger Island. I have so much more to do that I’m not even close to finishing. So why am I thinking it’s small?
I want to be part of the hype of new games. Watching others play and discovering new games that I probably wouldn’t even have heard of. But at the same time, it does spoil them. There is no more wondering around and stumbling into new things. And there would be an easy fix for this. If I like the game, then I would play it first until I’m satisfied, and then watch other people play it. But by the time I’m finished with the game, everyone else has moved on to something new. So I’m either a day-one player, using all the hours in my day to progress the game to be ahead, or I can’t be part of the community.
Although this problem with things moving too fast isn’t exclusive to gaming. It’s everywhere. Even in the online book communities and knitting communities. It never seems we do things fast enough. And this is something that can be tied to the hustle culture, how algorithms work, and our own relationship with the online world. Because at the end of the day, it’s our choice. If something is moving too fast to be enjoyable even just as a passive viewer, then it’s time to step back. The content isn’t the problem most of the time. How we relate to it is. I was watching a video by Susannah Friesen on some book drama on TikTok. This isn’t usually the type of content I like to engage with. However, some bring to light a discussion in a healthy and productive manner. And in this case, that’s exactly what happened.
The problem doesn’t lie in the content (there are exceptions, of course). What if someone decided to speedrun GTA Vice City in one day? It’s probably not even their first time playing. And if the creator enjoys it, then there’s nothing wrong. But if you’ve never seen the game in your life, you might find it not so enjoyable to play a game like that. Is it bad that the creator chose to speedrun the game instead of playing it more slowly? No. Instead, it’s the responsibility of the viewer to cater the content they consume to what they enjoy (like the bean soup theory). If you don’t enjoy how fast a creator is moving along with a game, then don’t watch the content. I know it’s easier said than done. The FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) starts to kick in. We feel we are missing the moment that everyone seems to be a part of. And when we are ready for it, it’s gone.
But maybe that’s exactly what we need more of. We need to miss out. We need to take back our ways of playing. Not just with games, but with everything. Do the things at the pace we enjoy them, and if the others around us, either online or offline, don’t align with it, then step away. I want to play GTA Vice City again not only for the nostalgia and the hype of the new game, but also to try and bring back that old way of playing. Maybe playing a game from my past will make me play like I used to. I want to start a gaming journal so that I can do my own Stardew Wiki. No more planned strategy to catch the right fish at the right time. No more hunting for the last two fish for my museum in Animal Crossing that an app tells me where to find. I want my play to be organic again. To be filled with exploration. To uncover the secrets myself. To memorise patterns and shapes because I did them so often instead of relying on a table on a web page. Actually, I want to create my own table.
Just like with A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin, I want to create a timeline of the history in those books. Do you know how many people have had the same idea and already acted on it even before I started reading the first book? But I don’t care if this is how I enjoy things. If this betters my experience, then it’s what I should do. Because the journey is always what matters. I hate finishing games because then what? What will I do next? I could start over, but then the exploration and newness are gone. Curiously enough, the same doesn’t happen with books. I never fear finishing them. Interesting, isn’t it? Although what matters is to enjoy ourselves in whatever way we find pleasurable. In my way, it can be to create a gaming journal to track tasks for the next play session, to keep a record of crops and fish, or to simply walk around the map exploring every inch.
I want November 19 to be here soon. I’m so curious to see GTA VI. And the anticipation is only setting me up for disappointment. I already know that. So while I want time to speed up, I’m also trying to slow it down. To take things slowly. To make the most of things. And that might include stopping watching some gaming content. No one can play every single game under the sun. Not when they are popping up like mushrooms, but those I want to experience for myself are the ones I need to be careful about. Because once I’m spoiled, there’s no way to take that back. When gaming was a solitary experience, this was never a problem. So now that it’s more shared than ever, we need to create boundaries. It’s our responsibility and our duty to the things we love. Because only we can love them the way we know how.
