Also, there is a really interesting comment on that site. Excerpt: I'm not an entitled white male, nor have I ever played GTA, so I won't comment. But he brings up an interesting point.Once, in high school, I went over to a white male neighbor’s house and watched him playing GTA:SA. It was a weird experience, and I knew that while watching it. It was super uncomfortable to watch this white entitled (I say this because I knew him and he was) kid: playing as black characters deploy ‘nigga’ with reckless abandon, dressing his character up in ‘gang’ attire, going to strip clubs, etc. It was the same kind of discomfort I would feel listening to Tupac with him, or something.
I am an entitled white male; I've played (and beaten) all the GTA's since 3, except "Liberty City Stories". I didn't find SA discomforting at all.
To me, the implied subtext is that his situation is uncomfortable, because either he or his friend is a racist. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't play many games, but I do love the GTA series - for me it's mostly about the driving and the flying, and to a lesser extent, the combat. Love the humour throughout.
Yeah I'm in the same boat as you. What the article and some of these comments seem to be ignoring is that behind the social statement the game makes, there are still plenty of satisfying, well designed, and FUN gameplay elements that keep people coming back to it.