5. Gangster Setting
The idea of a 'gangster' has really helped stay a timeless concept due to the American pop culture. While I wouldn't say it legitimises a medium at all, both the two most popular mediums found true classics through the genre. They are often, if not the original example, the face for a more violent, sexualised and foul mouthed movement in the medium. The Godfather is the perpetrator in film. It was by no means the first Gangster movie but it was easily the most popular and important. It became the face of the genre and remains a cultural milestone to this day. TV also had this revelation in the 1990s when The Sopranos hit. It was a show the likes that just hadn't been seen on TV in that way before. The HBO show had drugs, sex, malice, violence and some degrees of gore. Again, that was a big cultural milestone for the medium. It opened up doors and is why we are able to have shows like True Blood, the Walking Dead, Dexter, Breaking Baf and Game of Thrones now with all their wonderful excess. It is not hard to see where I am going with this. The Video Game medium's counter part to this was the Grand Theft Auto series. While again, it was not by any means the most gore ridden or bad natured game ever made, it is arguably the one that legitimised it like the gangerster genre often does. By focusing on the genre and the criminal underworld, we got a taste of something we had rarely seen in video games. The medium had its Godfather and Sopranoes counterpoint, and it opened a lot of doors in terms of the legitimacy of the medium as well the content that developers could now include in their games. Once again history repeated itself. The gangster genre had come and totally shook up the established ideals of a medium and most definitely for the better.