Do you mind the sheer political incorrectness in Grand Theft Auto 4? If not, why?

[YUPPIE]

I'm surprised basically no one cares in hindsight, but Grand Theft Auto 4 is probably one of the most politically incorrect games I have played in my life, to where I don't know how it didn't garner controversy for it. It was controversial for the same generic violent concerns GTA gets, but not so much for what I'm talking about now. It's so incomparable to GTA5, which only really has a few very comical and acceptable racial jokes ("what's good my N-Word", etc)

1) GTA 4 is absurdly homophobic. Being gay in-universe is treated as an embarrassing thing, and "faggot" is thrown around 24/7 by the villains as an insult (notably in the expac "Ballad of Gay Tony" to the titular character) and even Niko once called one of his closest friends - Bernie - out for it with that term in his native tongue. One of your friends Brucie is also implied to be a closet homosexual but vehemently denies this when accused with macho bravado and boasting he loves women, and he's teased for it. He acts like it's a horrible thing to be in denial like that.

The most notable thing though is being homosexual in-universe is considered political suicide somehow, and the main antagonist Dimitri tries to extort Bernie (who is political influential) with this knowledge and you have to help him. As if, if he was gay came out, his career would be ruined.

2) The game throws racist and anti-Semitic terms around like literally no tomorrow. Most of the major villains in the story will constantly insult Niko for his Serbian and immigrant status; in the first DLC, both of the main antagonists constantly insult Johnny for being Jewish, calling him things like "Jew bastard" and other horrendous shit. The main antagonist, Billy Grey, at one point also insults a Chinese gangster by calling him horrible ethnic slurs, "commie", and saying he directly loves to watch the Chinese die on TV. And finally, in the second DLC expac, one of the main villains Rocco on the top of being homophobic in every interaction, calls you every racist hispanic slur and nicknames you "Taco" as an insult.

Nowadays such things would never fly (let alone with openly being able to have "faggot" spoken), as we see with how toned down Saints Row was, but do you mind? I mean, we all replay GTA 4 once in a while I'm sure. For me, it took longer than most. Playing this game in 2023 felt really awkward.

[Calfredd]

Oh hey more fake outrage from the fear monger Tsugunai, how shocking. /s

[StillMcfuu]

Is this a serious thread? The game was made 20 years ago and reflects edgy humor from the time.

[Ghost of Cow]

I would enjoy the, "Is this a yuppie thread?" game more if it wasn't always so obvious.

[YUPPIE]

Is this a serious thread? The game was made 20 years ago and reflects edgy humor from the time.

Grand Theft Auto 4 isn't a particularly humorous game. And while it's sometimes played for laughs with Brucie's mannerisms, it's not a lot of the time. Also, the game is not 20 years old.

The problem I have is sometimes, for older works, a creator might face backlash nowadays with accusations of homophobia or transphobia but nothing's come out of that for Dan Houser with GTA 4. And the game is even still popular to this day.

[Ereb]

I remember Yuppie one time saying he picked his avatar picture because it scared him so obv it would be scary to everybody in the forums.

[kevinfinnerty]

you are a faggot for posting this.... how awkward does that make you feel, faggot?

[Mysterymask]

Already devolving and I'm sure anything I say is not going to change his mind or stop him from making another stupid "I'm a guy cowering in a corner scared of the computer screen thread" so I'll just say this

This was a product of its time. Were the things said wrong? Sure were but that was the time. We have evolved since then things change. FF7 says retard quite a lot, has a VERY bad black caricature in Barret, and has a VERY awkward nowadays drag scene. Doesn't make the game any less of a classic because we all know that was the time. Looney Tunes did black face A LOT, Disney did a lot of crappy things back in the day, etc etc etc

the thing is deleting or "cancelling" them does nothing but pretend they never happened which in many ways is worse.

[RobertoCarlos]

As opposed to the other GTA games that didn't have any type of satire?

[Edge-]

Closing this down, this is not a good way to start a thread.