studied (12 marks)
Media Product: Grand Theft Auto
Genre is used across media products to attract a specific target audience in order to make a profit,
while creating a unique selling point by subverting the stereotypical genre. The genre of Grand Theft
Auto is an action and adventure which stereotypically features characters involved in exciting and
usually dangerous activities in which supports Rick Altman’s audience pleasure theory as the
activities been assigned to the characters that you play in GTA creates visceral pleasure, in which you
participate in shootouts, illegal activities and car chases. This could cause players to feel a rush of
excitement and feelings of sickness racing through the roads to evade being caught by the police.
Action and adventure normally entails that it will be fast paced and chaotic game for the full
duration when playing GTA however Rockstar has subverted from the normality of action
gerne in which they have implemented other features to break away from continuous action
as there is exploration and casual driving to do in the game. Furthermore, there are mini
games such as basketball, slot machines, casino games and horse racing. This is supported
by Steve Neales Genre theory as Rockstar have repeated the action and adventure genre
but added differences, so players do not lose interest in playing game therefore, bringing in
more players so Rockstar makes more profit. There Rockstar has implemented intellectual
pleasure as the activities featured in the game require you to use your brain to complete the
mini game or complete the mission to rank in the level system.
One of the conventions of the action and adventure genre in GTA is weapons however, in
GTA guns, knives and fist fights are not the typical weapons in which players have access to
wide library of weapons ranging from bombs, machine guns and weaponised vehicles. This
subverts from the action genre as Rockstar has incorporated weapons that have been used
before in other games outside the grand theft auto series, this can cause some players to
experience visceral pleasure as weapons could make some people scared and nervous,
causing worry or panic where other players could experience aggression or violent
behaviour in which they could feel the urge to burst into a fit of rage if they have been
tormented online or unable to complete their mission the game assigned to them.