Engadget - 'GTA V' brings transphobia to the next console generation

[EvilBoris]

The business names in GTA felt a bit forced and dated in the later games. This further proves it.
Trying too hard to be edgy/funny and clearly taking some huge wrong turns.
It's Same kind of funny as family guy.

I'd be surprised if these are left in, I feel like the world is far more aware of these things now and it's known that it's not acceptable.

 

[Swift_Gamer]

Well, GTA V is one of the most played games EVER so I think nobody cares. Makes me wonder about criticism on videogames. Is it just a vocal minority that is too fragile for jokes? Or is the majority of the population ignorant?

I don't know anymore.

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I hope you're banned forever, go back to the 4chan whence you came.
On topic, I agree, this should totally be edited out.

 

[Nature's finest mango]

It's not that the pro(or an)tagonists are transphobic.
The argument being made is that the game is transphobic - in a way where transpeople are added as throwaway side-characters used for a cheap joke.

Grand Theft Auto V Is Just As Transphobic As You'd Expect

<b>The video game's awful depiction of women is notorious, but that doesn't make the latest installment's transphobic jokes any less unsettling.</b> Trigger warning.

www.buzzfeed.com

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I beat the game for the first (and only) time 18 months ago... and missed all this.
That's why the OP had me puzzled. Now I understand.

 

[Musubi]

Article is right. Whatever GTA 6 ends up being is going to have to have a much different tone or else it's going to get hammered. Even back in the GTA 3 days the GTA style of satire was eyeroll worthy at best. Considering some games like Yakuza 3 have done work to remove transphobic content I'd like to see GTA follow suit but.....I have my doubts.

 

[SweetBellic]

I love GTA for its worlds, gameplay, and characters. It's my favorite gaming IP... but this is all largely despite its embarrassingly edgy puns and "satire." I appreciate the demands of trying to keep the radio, internet, television ads/programs, and other in-game media interesting by leaning into humor and parody--the scripts for these games are thousands of pages--but that's still no excuse for lazily including humor that punches down on groups as insanely marginalized as the trans community. Let's hope GTA VI can retain some semblance of satire without the corny puns (that frankly make the world less immersive) and general mean-spiritedness of its predecessors. I think RDR2 has been a huge step in the right direction for tone for Rockstar, with interesting in-game newspaper articles and documents that don't lean as much on humor, much less "humor" that punches down. Hopefully that's a sign that Lazlow and any other comedy writers at Rockstar will continue reigning it in and getting with the times for GTA VI.

 

[Deleted member 1003]

I love GTA for its worlds, gameplay, and characters. It's my favorite gaming IP... but this is all largely despite its embarrassingly edgy puns and "satire." I appreciate the demands of trying to keep the radio, internet, television ads/programs, and other in-game media interesting by leaning into humor and parody--the scripts for these games are thousands of pages--but that's still no excuse for lazily including humor that punches down on groups as insanely marginalized as the trans community. Let's hope GTA VI can retain some semblance of satire without the corny puns (that frankly make the world less immersive) and general mean-spiritedness of its predecessors. I think RDR2 has been a huge step in the right direction for tone for Rockstar, with interesting in-game newspaper articles and documents that don't lean as much on humor, much less "humor" that punches down. Hopefully that's a sign that Lazlow and any other comedy writers at Rockstar will continue reigning it in and getting with the times for GTA VI.

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I completely agree with everything you said. My younger laughed uproariously with the humor of Vice City and San Andreas. I was also less mature and dumb.

I've grown and changed, time for GTA to do the same.

 

[Scherzo]

It's the issue of lazy satire in general. I think it's the difference between telling off color jokes with friends (which, to be clear, you should always take care you're on the same page and not push back when people call you out) and those friends suddenly making media consumed by millions. You have to be held to higher scrutiny

 

[Dead Man Typing]

Hopefully this makes enough noise this time to get Rockstar to remove the worst aspects in the new versions and ideally patch the existing ones.

 

[Asklepios]

I remember Ms.Petit's review blowing up on gamespot back in the day. Had mad respect for her, calling out rockstar when everyone was showering it with 10s. Sadly seems like nothing much has changed.

 

[Infcabbage]

Hopefully this makes enough noise this time to get Rockstar to remove the worst aspects in the new versions and ideally patch the existing ones.

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I doubt they could be bothered to revert manpower away from developing more exploitative features from GTA Online.

 

[TechnicPuppet]

I could imagine some devs could pull of satire with trans characters but you need to have them be well rounded and realistic real people who are making the joke or point, not being the victim of it.

Nothing I've ever seen from however many teams make GTA have shown me they could do this.