Criminal Ventures/Empires

[Dello]

Throughout the gta series the main character you play would fall into two categories of criminal. One of the categories was a hitman whose only true trade was killing people. The second category was a crime boss who had several venues of income because of the empire building theme that was present.

 

Now statistically gta fans prefer empire building over being a hitman (exclusively that is). Most of their opinions are bent that way because being a hitman is simply to repetitive and doesn't fill the egotistical desire for power. But I don't think that even the gta games where you can build an empire truly fulfills the true potential for building a criminal empire. Think about it; did it really feel diverse when Tommy Vercetti had all of those businesses under control? Did it really feel like Vince Vance had several varying criminal ventures under his control, even though he did the same routine to profit from them? I personally think that both Tommy and Vince had empires in name only because you could only profit off of it through the same repetitive methods (Tommy's being doing missions to make businesses possible to purchase and Vince going into a room, killing everyone inside, and sticking a label on it that would determine how much money it generated)

 

Which is why most, if not all, gta games from here on out should not just incorporate the empire building theme, but also build on it so you can create several criminal ventures and obtain income from each of them through different methods. Here are the crimes I thought up that should be incorporated into the empire-building theme:

 

 

Bookmaking

prostitution

murder for hire

gambling

construction racketeering

fencing stolen goods

forming monopolies

hijacking

chop shops

loansharking

human trafficking

extortion

smuggling

robbery

insurance fraud (burning down building for money)

union racketeering

drug trafficking

 

 

If a gta game were to have this many crimes you could commit to generate income than most likely it would be very hard to feel a sense of repetitiveness and would push the gta franchise one step closer to near perfection. So overall I think it would be awsome if Rockstar would implement more criminal ventures and various ways to generate income from them in a future gta. Also in the near-distant future i'm going to make my own next gta story thread and will try to weave in the crimes I mentioned to see if that's the path towards a descent next gta game.

 

Here is how the crimes that are in the green list would appear in the next GTA (some missions for obtaining businesses not included):

 

Bookmaking: Sense bookmaking is usually a non-violent crime by itself, the ways it would make appearences in gta would be through robbing the headquarters of bookies and extorting money from bookies. Also there could be missions where the main character could work for a wire (a center that supplies gambling related information) by fixing sporting events in their favor.

 

Prostitution: Now obviously the main character wouldn't be standing on street corners waiting to give backalley blowjobs. Instead he would be taking on the roll as a pimp, but not like in gta SA. He could extort prostitutes upfront and extort pimps upfront. Missions could include delivering/hijacking/smuggling trucks filled with women who were imported from other countries to work as prostitutes, blackmailing people, and possibly operating a modeling agency through vioent means (beating the crap out of studio operators to hire girls working for you).

 

Murder for hire: This was Niko's only profitable skill throughout gta4, being a hitman. Murder contracts will be accumulated by progressing through the storyline and gathering contacts who can relay information to you about people who want a "favor" done.

 

Gambling:For this you can rob anyplace where there's gambling going on, buy up property to put a gambling parlor in (the level varies with cash and how far you are into the storyline), gamble your own money, and set up an online gambling business (which will involve missions where you take advantage of debt ridden gamblers).

 

Construction racketeering: This may be an unfamiliar term to most people, but this crime was such a big money maker for crime groups that it had to be included. But its still somewhat complicated so if it were in a gta it would have to include instructions. Anyway here's what construction racketeering is; its when a gang takes control of a union local (a branch of a union) and uses them as leverage to get contractors to bribe them for being allowed to pay workers less money (a percentage of which gets put into the bribe) and labor peace (making sure strikes don't happen). It also involves gaining control over contractors to, for the purpose of rigging the price of construction contracts. Now while this may seem pretty bland, construction racketeering is infact a very violent business. So for missions (which I won't go into great detail) there would be alot of murders (such as killing non-union labor, violently breaking up strikes, assasinating opposing members in union elections, etc..). Also in a next gta game you would start off working as muscle for union officials then eventually would take over a union.

 

Fencing stolen goods: After you steal something you go to someone with connections to the blackmarket, which can vary between the seemingly friendly bartender you talk to every once in a while to a highly connected merchant.

 

Forming monopolies: After you take over a chain of businesses in a ceratin area then the dividends (the money those individual businesses bring in) would double for each business in that monopoly you control.

 

Hijacking: You shoot up a truck, kill the guard next to the driver, and take the truck from the driver to a garage or factory (preferably a factory). You then fence the goods you got from the truck. Also these trucks can range from trucks carrying everyday goods, to armored trucks carrying valuables, to heavily guarded trucks carrying smuggled illicit goods.

 

Chop shops:The sole purpose of stealing a car is to profit off of the car itself or just its parts. In this case you profit off the parts by stealing a car and bringing it to a garage to get disassembled and sold off part by part.

 

Loansharking:This is when you give money to people (investors and degenerates) and they eventually pay you back 2-3 times as much money back. As you progress through the storyline the customers you can give money to will becmoe more affluent and more profitable to squeeze. To get money from your customers you will often beat the crap out of them till you eventually get a cash payment, a business, or that customer's services (which I won't go into).

 

Human trafficking:You deliver smuggled aliens, who range from mobsters with no intention of getting citizenship to women who were tricked into working as prostitutes.

 

Extortion:My favorite crime. Extortion is when you threaten individuals or groups through violence until theyagree to pay you a weekly allowance. And the best part is everyone is a target, both legitimate and illigitimate people/businesses.

 

Smuggling:You deliver illicit items (prostitutes,drugs,weapons,etc..) to customers, who will become more and more affluent as you progress through the storyline.

 

Robbery:You hold out a gun to someone (or a group) and quickly a robbery sequence activates where the victim hands you their money (or in the case of robbing a highstakes poker game, someone might try to defened themselves).

 

Drug Trafficking:You either collect "taxes" from drug dealers or you buy drugs from a supplier and you eventually climb the echelon ladder until your buying drugs from an overseas contact.

 

*Just to let you guys know, in a next gta where all of these crimes were included you wouldn't have to specialize in them all, but if that's what floats your boat then by all means try them all out.

 

 

Edited November 4, 2009 by Dello

[major underscore]

 

doesn't fill the egotistical desire for power

It's the criminal equivalent of either being an employee or an employer. In games such as GTA IV, where Niko is clearly an employee of various mission givers, the protagonist goes around hat in hand and does pretty much anything for $5000. At least to me that's pretty stupid and cheap - if you're going to risk your life at least do it for something that lasts. This became very apparent in IV, as Niko could only buy some toys (guns, clothes, ringtones, etc.) for the money he made. Pointless, I would say.

 

I wouldn't agree that wanting to build an empire has anything to do with some "egotistical desire for power" though, but is merely a way of wanting the actions of the protagonist to matter. $5000 is a pretty weak motivation in my opinion.

 

What I would like to see in NeXt is empire building integrated into the storyline, and by this I mean empire building that comes naturally as the protagonist makes progress through the storyline. For example, in GTA IV Niko does at one time attack and take over a strip club to help his friend Dwayne. What I would've liked to see there was Niko becoming a partner in that business, making money and getting missions that are related to that club. Such integrated empire building could very well be combined with the kind of avenger storyline we see in IV.

 

The key though is that empire building should provide good gameplay and at the same time be well integrated in the storyline. In GTA: VC for instance, I don't think that the empire building aspect worked so well with the rest of the storyline. In this sense GTA: SA had a better empire building concept, as CJ could pick up businesses throughout the game (although it wasn't very well implemented, as the player would've had to travel all over the huge map to collect income).

 

To me it's not so much about adding new kinds of criminal empire activities (such as the ones you listed, which is a good list btw), but making sure that each mission provides good gameplay.

[Asoyfy37]

We all love killing people, right? So I thought about doing jobs for the army / goverment. They giving you a group of prisoners that should be executed, and you need to kill them (the more head - shots, the more money you get). That would be fun, and not too realistic (I dont want the game to be realistic). What can be more fun then get paid for head - shots or simply killing people? The answer is nothing. I mean, we all want to find a place with many people and then kill them, so why not have such a place. They (the goverment) call you, saying that it is time for "a job", you go do the execution. Or maby you go the execution place without them calling, the same point here. That would be just great.

[Dello]

I upgraded the thread by summarizing the crimes I was talking about.