One of the big criticisms that I've seen towards this game is that it's claiming that it's a satire when it's really just using misogynistic themes, violent imagery, and horrible characters for no other reason then to be "edgy". Now the usual qualifications for a satire are 1. It uses exaggeration and humor to make a point 2. It's made to commentate on an issue that is driving the writer crazy 3. It points out something wrong with society. Stuff like "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift and South Park fit said qualifications. Keeping that in mind, does this game fit those qualifications or is it like the critics have said?

nope

more like lethal weapon sense of humor

I believe the game is struggling to get it's many points across so I believe you have to try to separate as many as possible.

One of the biggest point GTA is trying to get across in my opinion is that it's fun to do something, and see the result of it!
Isn't that the definition of a game?

It's fun to drive over 15 "people" in GTA in the sidewalk, because of all the physics flying around.
It's fun to shoot with an automatic shotgun into a crowd, because of the physics of it!

But while you are doing this, there is a part of you saying it's wrong.
How can you show this to someone who doesn't play video-games and justify it's "fun"?

Just that point is one of the reasons many "reviewers" shun away from the game, I listen to many different podcasts
and many did not dare to say the game was fun game.



"a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, and society itself, into improvement."

If GTA V is not satire, I don't know what should be considered as satire.

Technically it might be satire, but it's not very good satire. Satire should rebuke in some way. Lots of video games and even some movies and books purport to be satirical in nature, but they are handled in such a way they end up becoming they things they intend to spoof or satirize. Yeah, you can say GTA is a satire, but at the end of the day you are shooting civilians and beating prostitutes because video game. Irony is the song of a bird who loves its own cage.

That's the idea, as it always was for GTA of course. But with V I found a lot of it to be really lazy and trite. I love me some dark humour, but most of GTAV's TV/radio/internet jokes were akin to simply throwing naughty words at your face. That and they constantly keep using the same sort of material, such as ''oh look this person is a vapid celebrity-obsessed freak''. Only every character (beyond important story characters) is basically like that, and it starts to get really boring and just sorta embarrassing.

I would say it's more likely then not that it is satire. I also wonder if its crude sense of humor is a middle finger to what's been going on with twitter and the internet in general lately. People have become very sensitive and quick to anger recently, and I bet that has at least something to do with the flak it has been taking. Of course this is all just pure speculation, who the fuck really knows?

Yeah. And a large part of the problem owes to the fact that whenever the game tries to be satirical with its writing, it just doesn't work. It's the same juvenile attempts at satire the series has used since GTAIII, ranging from the radio station banter to the signs on the street, and it's just not funny. It's like meeting the class clown from high school at the reunion twenty years later and finding he's still relying on the same dumb jokes. What was once novel, amusing, and in some cases shocking has grown old and tired, more amusing to itself than to others.