Sex in GTA

There is a procedural rhetoric in GTA which offers some strange ideas about relationships and sex. Having sex with a prostitute in the game increases the health bar. So after you've taken a fair amount of bullets (or you’re even bleeding out), it makes perfect sense to visit a sex worker. There’s no economic sense in visiting one if you’re not in need of medical attention. Other ways of replenishing health in the game include eating food and visiting a hospital. However, eating too much of the mainly-unhealthy fast food will make you fat. This will undo tedious gym work and negatively affect the stats. You won’t be able to run as fast or for as long and will be less effective in hand to hand combat. Visiting a hospital also has its problems. You are often far away from them, you’re usually much closer to burger joints or sex workers (if it’s night time). Also, though it’s more expensive, sex works better at healing a player than the work of any surgeon or nurse. After sex, health is restored to 125%. This extra 25% can exclusively be achieved through sex. So through the games processes and rules, the player learns that sex is very valuable. In GTA San Andreas, girlfriends were also introduced. You meet a girl and pick her up from her house to take her on dates. Once you have taken her on enough dates you get to sleep with her. The dates are annoying and you have to work to keep her entertained depending on what interests her. In the poor, black neighbourhood your girlfriend is controversially into going on drive byes. Another girlfriend gets a thrill out of nearly dying. These dates are either extremely boring (taking her to dinner or hitting ‘X’ in time to dance) or risky (shooting random gang members or being chased by the cops). However, after you drop her home you are encouraged to keep going when the ‘progress with girlfriend’ bar increases. When you get this to full you get to have what the game values most, sex. Sex with your girlfriend (who the game forces your player to get to know) has exactly the same effect as sleeping with a prostitute. It is therefore sex that matters and not the relationships themselves. If you get progress even higher, your girlfriend will give you a gift. By this time, you have probably played through enough missions to move to another area of the map. You've got what you needed out of the relationship, sex and a perk or item. In the new area, you will come across a new potential girlfriend. You have learnt the process and know the rewards of dating her so you are encouraged. The other girlfriends are shallow and immediately judge you. If you’re not strong enough for them (or fat enough in one case) you are immediately rejected. You can date multiple girls and get health restoring sex and other perks. What is most disturbing is that if you go back to your old girlfriend, she is still there and still believes you are together. If you haven’t visited one in a while, a progress bar will decline and possibly encourage you to go back.
The game therefore prioritises sex and material goods over the benefits of sustaining one long term relationship. The dates are boring; the female characters are two dimensional in their personalities. In the view of the game, you should aim to get as much sex as possible (with many emotionally connected girls simultaneously) because that’s what you work towards, what you pay for. It gets priority.

Word Count: 606
Lloyd Thomason (2691650)
This week I contributed to 'Critics, the trolls for videogames'