Yoga & Other Activities.

[xWH1T30UTx]

First of all, I am aware that this topic has been covered a lot. It has been discussed already, I know that. I'm a bit late to the party, haha. And I get it, most everyone hates the idea of Yoga and other "pointless" activities a within a GTA game. I just wanted to share my thoughts on the subject, and there are a fair amount of points I'd like to make so I think it was appropriate to make a new topic. Feel free to lock this if you need to.

 

 

So, yoga. Personally, I think it's hilarious. Just think; in what other game can you kill thousands of innocent civilians one minute, and then do yoga the next? Personally, I would've loved to join the people doing yoga in IV. (And then maybe kill them afterwards, but still!) This would make for some pretty interesting Machinimas at least, haha. The same goes for all other activities. GTA has always been about freedom and immersion. Adding activities will only add to that freedom and immersion. Yoga is actually a part of SoCal culture, as far as I'm aware. If there's one thing Rockstar can do very well, it's social commentary and nail culture right on the head. Recreational activities play just as much into this as anything else.

 

Some people have argued that, "Well, you can do it in real life. Why the f*ck would you wanna do it in GTA?!" To be fair, you could do nearly everything in real life that you've done in GTA. You could go on a murderous rampage throughout the streets, but let's face it. Why would you want to? Games are about escapism. Doing things that you wouldn't do in real life. Obviously, GTA is not a real life simulator. But to me, activities are on par with things like haircuts, tattoos and custom cars. Things you can do in real life. But they only add to the game, not take away from it. Sometimes people actually want a break from killing thousands of enemies.

 

Another point is that obviously, yoga will most likely be beneficial to the player in some way. Others have said that it could boost your health, which is a good enough reason for me. Maybe they'll even add some sort of perverted aspect to it. (Staring at girls in Yoga pants, anyone?) Oh, Rockstar. Haha. The thing is, Rockstar knows what they are doing. They won't add things to the game that are completely pointless. It may even surprise us at how beneficial it could be to the player. But even if it's not beneficial in that aspect, it'll at least be a button-mashing minigame that you can play or just ignore. (I'm assuming.)

 

And to the people who seem to think that the activities are "replacing" other things, I think it's fair to say, that's pretty ridiculous. Rockstar doesn't tend to replace things within their games. Add, remove, and improve things, yes. But to go as far as saying that yoga replaced purchase-able properties in the game is ignorant; those two things are in completely different categories. I'm sure there are perfectly good reasons for adding and removing what they have.

 

All of that being said, the thing is, there will surely be more stuff to do in V than we've seen so far. Honestly, when I found out that Yoga was revealed in the GI Magazine, I was not enraged like some people. My first thought was that Rockstar were pulling another one of their clever little tricks, revealing fairly mundane stuff. They might be trying to tone down the hype just a bit about all the things we'll be able to do. Why would they do this? Just to piss you off. Just kidding. But I'm thinking that since they revealed something like this, they just wanted to save some of the bigger stuff for the game launch. They're not really hiding anything per say, but they are definitely saving A LOT of stuff here. Revealing smaller things will only make the bigger things seem, well, bigger. Again, this is just what I thought when I read the article.

 

The last point I'd like to make is that without these "real life" activities, the game might feel a bit lifeless. Not to mention, it would lose some of the freedom that we've come to love. Who's to say that GTA would be different from any other crime game if it was just a crime game? (Dunno if that made sense.) I think what we all want most is variety. People who want to blow sh*t up can blow sh*t up. People who want to do yoga can now do yoga. People who want to do both, like myself, can now do both. And that's the best thing about GTA, in my opinion. If we didn't have the small, "pointless" things, I feel that GTA wouldn't quite be the same.

 

So, what do you guys think? Are you excited for the addition of yoga, golf, and all of the other activities? Do you think Rockstar will surprise us with how fun the activities are? What activities would you like to see in the game? I'd like to see some rock climbing, with all of the mountainous areas that we've got. Ready, go!

 

*Looking at this post, I realized I wrote a huge block of text about Yoga, pretty much. Why'd I do this? Because attractive people are having fun without me, that's why. Sorry for the long post.*

[Jalaldinhoo]

32 Line for yoga and activities

 

you sir deserve a

 

 

still i don’t like yoga being in GTA V

 

great topic btw

[Miss Darko]

I feel the same way, actually. I think people mainly hate the idea of the yoga minigame because they feel that R* wasted their time on stuff like that instead of purchasable properties. But it wouldn't have just been yoga. If you remove that from the equation, you don't get the properties back as a result. It's just one of many, many things that will help make up what GTA V is.

 

I've said this many times: I feel like the reason why Houser brought it up specifically in the GI article in the first place was to make a point about how far-reaching the game's activities are, how many things you do and the crazy amounts of extremes. It was never even said that it was one of the minigames, for one thing. He was just listing things you could do, so for all we know yoga isn't a minigame at all and it is just a way you can interact with your family members as Michael or something. Thus, it would have had almost no effect whatsoever on the game's inclusion of other features. I only considered it a good thing that they have put so much to do in GTA V.

 

Personally I expect it to be more like the internet or TV in GTA IV: a little thing you can do that will provide some entertainment (because you know that it's gonna be a goldmine for satire) and be a little bit interactive maybe. Just a little thing you can do that most people might not sit and bother with but it's there to help preserve the illusion of this being a real world.

 

Speaking of GTA IV's internet, I think that actually fits very much in the same category in terms of "pointlessness" here. I only recently started surfing the web in GTA IV's fictional internet and I realized just how damn fleshed out it is, and what a goldmine for comedy it is. Then I realize, while I'm sitting there reading a hilarious fake website and grinning like an idiot, that I'm on a computer in an internet cafe somewhere in a fictional version of New York where I'm also able to get in car chases, initiate shoot outs, and cause explosive mayhem. Suddenly, GTA IV's world feels that much more tangible. I think that stuff like this (not yoga by itself, but it and the many activities that will be similar to it) will help do the same in GTA V.

Edited November 24, 2012 by Mr. Darko

[xWH1T30UTx]

Just a little thing you can do that most people might not sit and bother with but it's there to help preserve the illusion of this being a real world.

This is what I definitely love about the way the activities in V are looking. It's fair to say that a lot of people won't bother with most of this stuff, but there's something amazing about just knowing that you can.