GTA-Grand Theft Art?

This week we discuss if Grand Theft Auto (http://www.rockstargames.com/V/) is considered an art. GTA-V is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Rockstar. This game was released September 2013 for PS3 and XBox 360. This game broke industry sales record earning$800 million on its first day and up to $1 Billion in its first three days. GTA was considered one of seventh generation console gaming’s most significant titles that shipped over 75 million copies, and is considered one of the best selling games ever made. The total cost to develop this game was 272 million that includes marketing, developers, coders and etc. GTAV had a total of 1000 developers and it took about 4 years to build the “white box” city model or the 3D model of the city without textures.

Within GTAV there are various objectives , you can play as three characters, Michael, Franklin, and Trevor. Each character has their own storyline and quests to follow but in the end they will tie together. Aside from the main story line there are mini and side quests to follow or you can even just roam the city and enjoy its perks. From going to various strip clubs, gun spots, car shops and attacking random pedestrians and avoiding cops, there are endless amount of fun to have while playing GTAV.

So is GTAV considered an art? Well Becker’s theory of art plays around the idea of collective activity and division of labor. “Each kind of person who participates in the making of art works, then, has a specific bundle of tasks to do.” (Becker 11). In this case when talking about having 1000 developers and coders, with a specific role to do with a team focusing on character design, another on buildings, car models and storyline. Every employee who created GTAV was delegated a specific role. All in all goes along with Beckers theory. Rockstar was the company who created the game, but we have to look at Rockstar into split categories. The “artists” involved in created GTAV, we have to account for the people who had to model for the character models, different car models, buildings were also coded individually, each individual role was then all gathered together and made into GTAV.

Aside from comparing GTAV to theories in our class, I personally believe that GTAV is considered an art. “Art is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power”. The whole idea of GTAV and its virtual town was based of the idea of Los Angeles and the views of how LA should be. Using the creative skill of a team, the developers were able to portray their love for the city and made it into an environment where gamers could roam and enjoy. If that is not considered art, I do not know what is art.