Introduction
Once in a while an important game is released by any major studio. One of those games that can change our view of what games are supposed to be and their role in our life (Frasca, www.gamestudies.org). The Grand Theft Auto series has been labeled one of Liberty City’s best jobs since its release. In this essay I do not intend to make a technical evaluation of the videogame but instead make a critical semiotic of consumption reading of this videogame. My thesis here is that videogames and this game in particular, serve brand marketing by advertising different businesses and brands within the game. All of this is possible because of our narrative about the role of the individual inside the consumer society. Let me explain briefly what I mean by this. Since after World War II, consumer-based attitude has become the motor of our economic development. This requires an individual devotion to consuming goods and services that are offered by different companies in the market. Branding is the “name”, the “most recognizable feature” of a specific company or corporation in the market. Companies create branding in order to associate their products with it. This way branding helps the company to keep a considerable “piece” of the market and reduce competition (Oswald, 3). But branding is entirely relied on our narrative, vision, of the individual’s role in the society as a “consuming machine” that identifies with the products the individual consumes (Marcuse 16). This is done because is believed that happiness and “good life” can be achieved only by means of consuming (Marcuse 17). Here is where our videogame fits in. There have been several researches and books written about the effect of the traditional media over the individual. Lots of pages have been written on how newspaper, radio and television influences on the life of every one of us. But video gaming is a new kind of media also (Miller, www.gamestudies.org). it is a new way of communicating with the audience and influencing on their decision over products while they are entertaining themselves playing the game.
Main body
I was riding my BMX bicycle this morning but it was not very comfortable in a big city like Los Santos / Los Angeles and its beach side. It was a very pleasing ride seeing all of the beauty “mother nature” has given to this part of the city. The ocean, the beach… it is wonderful. When I play the game it seems to me like being physically there. So the next idea is why don’t I get there? What a wonderful place to visit. Those fancy restaurants and bars seem nice places to visit when going there. And this is only the initial part of the game. In only a few seconds you have a glimpse of the natural beauty of the place that is being narrated and all of the consuming based service industry, the bars and restaurants, related to that area. One notices that there is a detailed graphic representation of the bars and restaurants. You can notice even the signboards with the names of the businesses and the menus they offer. Why in the world should they be visible in a videogame which, at least officially, does not have as its purpose the advertising of these businesses? As Oswald shows us in her study over “Semiotics and Brand Management”, even in videogame industry the advertising of other businesses has became a central part of the game itself (5). We must not be surprised that those businesses have paid a fee for the “service” offered by the videogame company that represents the images of these businesses in the game. But this is only the small “piece of cake”. Anyway the businesses that are advertised at this part of the game, bars and restaurants and bicycle brands, do comprise only a small portion of consumer’s money.
While I was riding my BMX bicycle I felt not very good about myself. Being in a place like this, with a lot of beautiful and sexy girls (or with boys with very nice fitness bodies) and riding a bicycle was not a good image. So I stopped riding the bicycle and accidentally “fell off the bike and was trying to get back on when I found myself pulling a driver out of his SUV and driving away, with the radio blaring “I Know You Got Soul” (the Bobby Byrd song, not Eric B. & Rakim). Maybe I have more road rage than I thought—it seemed like the easiest thing in the world to toss this guy onto the pavement and get behind the wheel” (Miller, www.gamestudies.org). Notice the brand of the car. It is not just a car; it is THIS, or THAT, car. You won’t find any “just car” in Grant Theft Auto: San Andreas. Indeed, this applies to all of the Grand Theft Auto releases. All of the cars are brand name cars and the brand name is noticeable. And “curiously” they are all big brand names, like, Dodge, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes Benz, Ford, Lexus, etc. and you will find the best, and the most expensive, production lines of these companies. Not just a Mercedes Benz, but an S-Class or a C-Class of that company, which are among the most expensive and high-class cars that Mercedes Benz has. The fact that you can easily pull a driver out of one of these luxurious cars it’s very important. This gives the player the feeling that is easy to get one of these products; you just have to try it. Of course there are researchers, like Miller mentioned above, that think this feature enhances criminality among adolescents (Miller, www.gamestudies.org). This is not the topic of this essay. What I want to focus is the consumption pattern inside the game. The popular belief about certain categories of branding is that this particular brand is good, it is high quality (the Mercedes Benz S500 found in Grand theft Auto: San Andreas, for example) but it is not easy to get one. It is like they are created for elite businessman’s that can afford to buy them. The “main street folks” has little chance of “riding” this brand, let alone have one. This is the popular belief (Oswald, 6). Have you wondered why then is it so easy to pull the driver out of the luxurious car and “jump in to ride it” as it was the simplest thing in the world? Oswald, in her study about brand marketing and management mentioned above, shows the importance of the connection between products and internal desires of an individual (1). And in order to have this connection at its best one must not think of that product as out of his, or her, reach. Different studies have shown that many people that believe that certain brands are not reachable by them, because of the expenses, in fact are (Oswald, 8). It is only the psychological barrier, the belief they cannot, that prevents them from trying to get one car like that, for example. And the game industry now has reached to many different social categories of the population not just adolescents (Miller, www.gamestudies.org). Even if we take only adolescents, it is in a company’s interest to have them have fund driving their car in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas because this will reinforce their desire to have a good car in the future, a car like the one they have been “riding” playing the game. For this reason even the internal design of the cars is shown accurately. Another factor of consumption to mention is the presence of games of chance (horse racing and slot machines) in the game. Something that reminds you of leisure time past in casinos.
Conclusion
To briefly conclude this short essay, I want to emphasize that the consumption pattern found in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is only one of the patterns of the game. Many authors point to the “freedom” that this game embeds. Other point the urban-ghetto theme, hip-hip and black music, or to the political satire, etc. anyway, all of these are connected with the consumption pattern. Maybe is is not the central focus of the architects of the game, but still it plays an important role in brand marketing. The brand message, or better let say the business message, is delivered to the player of the game. And of course, every message in communication has its feedback.
References
Marcuse, Herbert. One Dimensional Man. London: Routledge, 1964 (translation).
Miller, Kiri. “The Accidental Carjack: Ethnography, Gameworld Tourism, and Grand Theft Auto”. 2008. Web.
Oswald, Laura R. “Marketing Semiotics and Strategic Brand Management”. Advances in Consumer Research, volume 33, 2007.