How One Game Transformed An Industry

Ten years ago, an entertainment milestone was hit. Although it seems like only yesterday, Grand Theft Auto III's tenth birthday is this weekend, so we decided to look at the history of one of the most important technical landmarks of the last decade.

At this point in time, you'd be hard pressed to come across a member of the public who hasn't heard of Grand Theft Auto. As well known for its groundbreaking innovation as its embroilment in controversy, the franchise is as critically lauded as it is publicly denounced.

Described as "sick, deluded and beneath contempt" by the Police Federation, banned in Australia and the catacylst behind Joe Baca implementing the Protect Children from Video Game Sex and Violence Act of 2002, the franchise has made many enemies in its 14 year life cycle.

Within the industry, its a different story. Tim Ingham, the online editor of industry trade magazine MCV belives that the series contains "hours upon hours of the most immersive and interactive entertainment ever seen" and he's not far off. As most of you no doubt already know, the real strength of Grand Theft Auto lies in its open ended game design and it is this design philosophy which provides the real meat of the franchise.

Ask anyone who is familiar with any of the GTA titles how they spend the majority of their time in-game, and chances are, they'll have spent innumerable hours exploring the rich and detailed worlds Rockstar have painstakingly put together.

It wasn't always this open ended, however. Although the latter games have gotten bigger and bigger with every installment, it was once a more contained environment. The Sandbox structure was still there, it just wasn't as grand in scale as latter editions. Back in 1997, the blueprint was constructed on a considerably smaller scale.

The release of the original Grand Theft Auto on the PC ushered in a new era in video games. Sure, it wasn't the best looking title on the market, it had some of the worst loading times yet seen and it wasn't even the father of controversy (check out Mystique's output in the early 80s), at the same time, it had what so many other mindlessly gratuitous games lacked, charm.

Whether we're talking about the endlessly creative radio stations, the veritable originality of the missions or even the sound effect the Elvis impersonators made when you ran them over, it was leaps and bounds ahead of the competition on almost every level and the fact that it didn't leave the UK Top 20 videogame charts for two years says it all.

The next two games, while not exactly setting the world on fire, did a good job changing the process up just enough to keep consumers interested. The expansion, London, took the original concept and gave it a visual and audio makeover; introducing London as the playable environment, complete with maps based on reality. The first true sequel, GTA II, took the tried and tested formula and added an aggregation of gangs, vehicles and opposition - in the forms of the FBI and SWAT teams. Although it wasn't as well received as its predecessors, it was still a worthy addition to the series.

It was at this point that there was a sudden change in inertia within the Rockstar infastructure, as although Grand Theft Auto had been their baby since day one, their development duties on the PS2 were focused on similar but ultimately inferior titles such as Smuggler's Run and Midnight Club, followed by the frightfully broken Oni.

Although any trace of Grand Theft Auto had mysteriously vanished, the games released within this period had unmistakable similarities to their forefather. Smuggling? Check. Guns? Check. Breaking the law? Check. It's no secret that companies have a tendency to tread the water, so to speak, before dipping in.

What we mean by this is that with every new generation of hardware comes new development obstacles. Everything down from the processor of the console to the platform of the development kits plays a contributing factor. In this scenario, the biggest hurdle of all, the transition from 2D to 3D needed to be made, and rather than release a GTA title before they'd mastered the hardware, instead Rockstar chose to take the new IP route and experiment with material not already in public circulation, to mixed results.

Recently speaking about Grand Theft Auto III, Rockstar founder and GTA co-creator Dan Houser explained that "the key idea of the game was that it wasn't about violence; it was about freedom." He continues, "We thought that was something that games did very well, the idea that you're turning a viewer into an active participant. So give them the freedom of choice over what they do."

It is this sentiment which has proceeded each installment of every Grand Theft Auto, but none moreso than GTA III, because whilst previous games had given you the opportunity to explore this virtual Sandbox, the third title in the series gave you the opportunity to live in it. Aside from obvious next generation benefits such as extraordinarily detailed environments (for the time) and believable A.I, even simple things like the around the clock radio stations helped immerse the player in Rockstar's living, breathing microcosm.

The protagonist of the game, Claude, was one of the first to actively endorse the 'blank palette' characteristic which in recent times has become a staple of the industry. Whilst its storyline isn't the strongest, as for the most part, it is a tale of revenge and retribution, there are enough colourful characters to keep it intriguing, particularly Catalina, the main antagonist.

Like most Grand Theft Auto's, the admittedly revolutionary non-linear story progression takes a backseat to the open world environments and freedom of choice gameplay mechanics. When gamers these days think of freedom of choice, they think of games where their characters make predetermined, often dialog driven choices which fit into a specific path in which the player is given an ending which ties in with the decisions they've made.

As a writer for Game Informer points out, "the environments of Liberty City are stunning in scope and detail, dwarfing anything I've ever seen, and your choices are endless." In this scenario, your choices are not delivered via any pre-existing context, but rather the choice is left up to the player. Do you want to beat a prostitute to death with a baseball bat in broad daylight, wait for the cavalry to arrive and then blow up a police car with a rocket launcher? It's possible. Anything is possible, and this is where the endless levels of choice both begin and end.

There is no doubt the game's emphasis on choice is a contributing factor to exactly why so many dubious court cases started popping up all over the place after 2001, but we're sure it didn't help that the game's widespread success crossed over to the mainstream.

What opponents of the game consistently fail to realise, however, is that the whole crux of freedom of choice is that it puts the player at the forefront. Ultimately, the decisions they make are their own to make, therefore the game can't be held responsible for their own decisions. It doesn't train you to kill, contrary to what some lawyers would have you believe, it gives you the opportunity to do so if you're that way inclined.

One of the more well-known news articles relating to GTA III as a 'murder simulator' is the case of the families of Aaron Hamel and Kimberly Bede, who were tragically gunned down by two teens who attempted to claim Grand Theft Auto inspired their actions. On October 20th 2003, they filed a $246 million lawsuit against publishers Take-Two. Naturally, the court case was dismissed, particularly after Take-Two insisted that the "ideas and concepts as well as the 'purported psychological effects' on the Buckners are protected by the First Amendment's free-speech clause."

This is important because, up until this point, games that took a more realistically violent approach were persecuted against. Grand Theft Auto III came under just as much, if not more, scrutiny, yet Take-Two managed to not only overcome all opposition, but also to release not only the highest rated PS2 game but also the biggest selling title of 2001. It metamorphosed the industry from the basement dwelling, socially inept, teen stereotype that had been plaguing it for the last two decades, and kickstarted the more adult-friendly approach of the last decade.

It's easy to forget about just how much of an impact Grand Theft Auto III made when it was released in 2001. At this point, the Sandbox genre, as it is popularly known as today, didn't exist in the framework it exists in today. The likes of Saint's Row, Crackdown, InFamous, Prototype and every other open ended Sandbox title owe their existence to this title. Practically every game since has borrowed one thing or another from it, and as a result, there has been a transformation of sorts, both with regards to the environmental structure of the games themselves, as well as the public perception of the industry as a whole. With over 14.5 million units sold as of March 26th 2008, and a hell of a lot more still to come when its 10th Anniversary edition is released to the iOS and Android platforms, its influence it unlikely to be forgotten any time in the near future.