10. The Continued Selling of This Franchise as if it's a Lad's Mag
Grand Theft Auto is actually sometimes pretty smart. But I guarantee you people who don't play the game don't know that and they certainly don't assume it to be true. Partly, I imagine, because of toss like the above. Despite the game's pretty damn clever grasp of satire and increasingly sophisticated command of video gaming as a narrative form, GTA IV still marketed itself with crap like the above image - in the grand tradition of the series. GTA V will doubtless sell itself the same way. When GTA IV came out in 2008, gaming - whilst enjoying the early mainstream appeal of the Wii - was still largely seen as the preserve of the young male, with the imagined target audience a sort of sex-obsessed teenage boy yet to lose his virginity. At least that's how we were all treated. Things are thankfully moving on and there are now likely thousands (if not millions) of people who might want to play GTA V if it it present itself like FHM. It's alienating. Not only (I imagine) to many women but also to people like myself who would very much like video games to grow-up-now-please-thank-you-very-much so I can continue to play them without feeling depressed at the world. Is it intended as ironic to have these crass images adorning each loading screen and all the promotional materials? I doubt it, but I don't really care either way. I honestly think Rockstar have outgrown this crap. For instance, Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noire didn't feel the need to sell themselves this way, and did pretty damn well in terms of sales. Let me put it this way: lots of people don't have a problem with the above, and fair enough. However, those people would still buy the game on its own merits if it wasn't presented like this. So, aside from an excuse of "because that's how we've always done it", I don't really get Rockstar's persistence with this stuff.