Is GTA: World realistic to you? Is complete realism necessary in building a believable world?

[Mistery14]

Now, before I get comments like: "Well actually, cat ears" or "Seeing gangbangers do X isn't realistic!", I want to address that this is not what this discussion thread aims for primarily.

 

Sure, these things contribute to realism or lack thereof depending on who you ask, but this is entirely dependent on individual players. Players aside, where do we draw the line between what's realistic as a concept and what isn't, in a world like GTA: W?

 

To give a little more context, GTA V is full of satirical commercials on the radio, presents concepts that are pretty far fetched and we have over-exaggerated companies like Life invader, Merryweather security, Gruppe Sechs, and hell, even vehicle companies experimenting with their own vehicles. They're exaggerated concepts, but are they unrealistic to the point where you no longer feel like they're supposed to be part of that world?

 

Surely not, we as players are capable of immersing ourselves in such a world, even with all of these aforementioned factors that are not true to real life. - Because they somewhat make sense in that world, don't they?

 

But should it be any different for GTA World? GTA World is obviously distancing itself from GTA V in terms of realism, it's become two separate things, but to what extent? You could argue that GTA World is already within the realm of fiction, but, should we limit ourselves to already existing real-life concepts and ideas or, should we allow people to come up with more "far-fetched" ideas with their companies, businesses and otherwise, for roleplay purposes? I feel like there are a lot of missed opportunities when it comes to not only RP, but world building as a whole, companies and businesses alike, concepts that are not solely and strictly dependent on whether or not it exists in real life.

 

What do you think? Should GTA World remain "grounded" to real-life as much as it possibly can, or should it go with the flow of things and allow more fictional (but not completely immersion breaking) ideas?

Edited May 4, 2022 by Mistery14

[1juice]

An online roleplay server could never be TRULY realistic

[Mistery14]

14 minutes ago, 1juice said:

An online roleplay server could never be TRULY realistic

 

That's what I think as well. If I had to answer my own question I'd say that the server should be more open to ideas that aren't completely true to real life, nothing like some alien invasion or a full on war, this would be way too out of line and wouldn't exactly fit the theme.

 

But something like, say a shady research company that puts a little too much focus on making more profit and too little effort on their employee's safety standards without immediately being closed down because of "Realism". Something that's still somewhat believable, yet would be hard to see in real-life. (Depending on the country of course, but this is supposedly America).

 

Something that brings more RP to as a whole, things that could be talked about on the news, things that people could speculate about, things that could be eventually but not immediately investigated by law enforcement, leading to some sort of scandal or something. Or hell, maybe it turns out that the government knew, but turned a blind eye and don't investigate because there was some sort of advantage to not doing so? Things like that are very interesting IMO.

Edited May 4, 2022 by Mistery14

[Law]

The continuity/lore team of GTAW have recently released a feedback form on the main GTAW discord server which asks questions and welcomes feedback on what you’d like to see in terms of realism and so on.
 

As well as discussing it here, I recommend submitting your opinion on the form if you haven’t already.

 

https://forms.gle/k78B9m4dreGG3ph9A

[Shaderz]

Have you ever watched a film or show, and thought to yourself, "that was a waste of time, but it was fun?"

 

It's the same here. This game is meant to transport us to a world that isn't ours, and exists as a way out from the stresses and hardships of everyday life. The moment your enjoyment is taken away to the detriment of too much realism is when the ship starts to sink.

 

The lines between escapism and realism are blurry, so it's impossible to draw them. Escapism is built itself on realism, and realism relies on escapism to keep us reeled in, so both need to coexist. It's about finding the right balance.

 

 

Edited May 4, 2022 by Shaderz

[Cosmin]

No. Just a simple example: A cop might never fire a bullet in his entire career. If this would happen here, it would just be boring.

[Mistery14]

42 minutes ago, Law said:

The continuity/lore team of GTAW have recently released a feedback form on the main GTAW discord server which asks questions and welcomes feedback on what you’d like to see in terms of realism and so on.
 

As well as discussing it here, I recommend submitting your opinion on the form if you haven’t already.

 

https://forms.gle/k78B9m4dreGG3ph9A

 

Thanks a lot! I'll definitely fill it out whenever I can. 

 

39 minutes ago, Shaderz said:

Have you ever watched a film or show, and thought to yourself, "that was a waste of time, but it was fun?"

 

It's the same here. This game is meant to transport us to a world that isn't ours, and exists as a way out from the stresses and hardships of everyday life. The moment your enjoyment is taken away to the detriment of too much realism is when the ship starts to sink.

 

The lines between escapism and realism are blurry, so it's impossible to draw them. Escapism is built itself on realism, and realism relies on escapism to keep us reeled in, so both need to coexist. It's about finding the right balance.

 

 

 

 

You've described it really well, I don't think escapism and realism should be neglected as well. 

 

I just think that there are things with the lore and our own environment in this world that we could take advantage of to build upon the world building even more. I see Los Santos as sort of a dystopian setting if you will. It's a broad statement, but basically the way I see Los Santos is a population of people with a distorted sense of security, if you look at it from a certain perspective, an outsider might be terrified of LS, while the people who have been in LS for a long time would see those same terrifying things as normal, daily occurrences that are just part of life for them. 

 

This alone could imply that for example, that funeral companies would be much more prevalent than they are, or that simply some companies would take the opportunity to capitalize on LS's way of life, like weapon manufacturers promoting their own guns by encouraging fear mongering about the crime rate for people to buy their guns, if you get what I mean, essentially encouraging people. Pharmaceutical companies promoting their own painkillers brands because they see that people get injured a little too often, stuff like that. 

 

And that's the point, it's a little exaggerated, but it's not entirely far fetched of a concept to exist in the lore of such a world like GTA W.

Edited May 4, 2022 by Mistery14

[Nora]

It is particularly fun living in the chaotic world of GTA, but I guess it depends on your mindset and motivations before even playing. 

 

Though, regardless of what people think, the whole state can't be changed that much in my opinion, because it's trying to maintain that balance. If that state is common, it'd be realistic for the companies to adapt like you mentioned. So, I won't really call it fictional or immersion-breaking! 

[eTaylor]

You know, we could go back to the zany days of GTA RP that we endeared so much when we were kids without giving up on realism. I wish we’d just ease the gas on “real world” realism and just enjoy the GTA universe’s take on life. All this hyper-realism has done is divide the community even further. It’s more weaponized than anything, and who really cares about it anyway? I used to remember there being a very fine balance back in the day that kept things fun, somewhere we just took it too far. 

[El Bandito]

I mean hey we now have the TV programs from GTA V in GTAW, so in my view we're already on the path to injecting some typical GTA zaniness into the universe. Not to mention that the real world has already drastically diverged from whatever weird universe GTAW is set in, as two world changing events are declared to be non-canon(Russo-Ukrainian war and Covid-19). So if we're trying to emulate real life 100% then it appears like we're already failing and we should live & let live.

 

Being a character within the actual GTA universe sounds awesome, however that being said with everything there naturally needs to be limits and a moderate degree of realism. We should aim to create characters or content along the lines of like Niko, Michael and Franklin not Trevor(at least not for mass murder etc). 

Edited May 5, 2022 by El Bandito