Why Grand Theft Auto VI should not take place in the 1980s

[LucidLocomotive]

In my opinion, GTAVI should not take place in the ‘80s. I wouldn’t mind an extended prologue in the ‘80s, that would be cool actually. But I would rather the game be set in modern-day Vice City. 
 

The reason for this is that it would tie the HD era together into a nice trilogy of satirical representations of the first three decades of the 21st century, each one parodying and simulating the decade it was released in. 
 

GTAIV was released in the 2000s, and imo perfectly encapsulates the feelings, themes, and lifestyle of the 2000s in America. 
 

GTAV was released in the 2010s, and similarly, it functions as a great historical representation of American culture in the 2010s. 
 

GTAVI will be released in the 2020s, and could potential tie this idea together by doing the same for this decade. 
 

We would then have 3 incredibly detailed, satirical simulations of American life across these three decades, in three different major American cities/states. 
 

The reason I hope for Vice City is simply because it’s the last major city that we haven’t seen a representation of in the HD Universe. You could also say that we haven’t seen San Fierro, or Las Venturas, but Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas (whether it’s the San Francisco version seen in Grand Theft Auto, or the state seen in San Andreas) have been the 3 major locations since the first game, later further realized with the 3D Universe, and now partially so in the HD Universe. Los Angeles is probably slightly more culturally significant of an American city than San Francisco, so I’d say for now we’ve had our representation of San Andreas in the HD Universe. 
 

The HD Universe has been all about creating detailed, highly accurate, living, breathing models of real-life American cities that have previously been less accurately depicted in the series. We’ve had a highly accurate parody of New York City and a highly accurate parody of Los Angeles, so, naturally the next step would be a highly accurate parody of Miami and it’s surrounding areas. 
 

Probably my most controversial hope and prayer for GTAVI, is that the city of Vice City itself is actually SMALLER than Liberty City and Los Santos as represented in GTAIV and GTAV, respectively. My reason for this is so that there is consistency in the lore that has been established for the America we’ve seen in HD Universe so far. In real life, Miami is smaller than New York and Los Angeles, so I hope they will at least somewhat accurately depict the size difference for continuity. To compensate for this, they could include other areas and make the overall map larger. 

[Zello]

Not much has changed since 2013. We're doing the same things just shinier

Same things just more extreme and exaggerated or made more obvious.

 

Cell phones not much has changed just better cameras, new emojis, and a couple more apps. Tiktok? that's just another version of Vine. Trump? He's old news now and out of office. Mumble rap was popular in 2013 and continues to be popular today.

 

I want to see the HD era in the past.  In IV the LCPD database had a lot of files on people that went back decades to the 1970's and 80's. I'd like to explore some of those stories. There are many interesting characters in the HD era that have interesting backstories that could be explored and provide great material for a game.

 

Sammy Botino was mentioned in GTA IV and in GTA V in having run the entire east coast in the 80s and 90s. Is that not interesting?

Edited April 20 by Zello

[DexMacLeod]

Pretty sure this is a conversation that's happened multiple times in multiple threads now. I've seen Zello post that same Toyota interior comparison shot at least five times now as if somehow the cars in an 80s set GTA aren't going to end up looking just like the classic cars in GTA V.

[José_Sócrates]

4 hours ago, Zello said:

Not much has changed since 2013. We're doing the same things just shinier

Have you been living under a rock? Politics, technology, pop culture, music, the internet, etc... And now after COVID hit, everything has changed. I mean, I could understand this argument in 2018/2019, when 2013 was still relatively recent (same time period between IV and V and the games still share some similarities), but by now, nearly a whole decade has passed. If GTA VI releases next year, 10 years will have literally passed since the release of GTA V. I know, I know, the 2010s were boring and time seems to have passed too quickly since 2020, but we're in the middle of 2022. Get on with the f*cking times, bro. A statement like that says more about you than it says about the potential of a modern time game. It makes it seem like you're still living in the past.

Edited April 21 by José_Sócrates

[Zello]

12 minutes ago, José_Sócrates said:

 A statement like that says more about you than it says about the potential of a modern time game. It makes it seem like you're still living in the past.

I do get with the times actually I listen to and enjoy modern music, use the internet, keep up with pop culture here's the thing though I use them everyday and they get old quickly do I really want to listen to the same songs I listen to everyday in the game? No. I just don't want a game set in the 2020s not much has changed

 

Here's an Iphone 5 from 2013

Here's an Iphone 13 that came out a few months ago. Same sh*t just shinier.

 

 

Politics? People are acting like what we're seeing is new? Did people forget about the witchhunt they had for Obama and his birth certificate? The outrage the right had when he got reelected?

Yes it's the onion but people felt that way.

 

COVID do you really want that in a game? Really? I don't.

Edited April 21 by Zello

[José_Sócrates]

24 minutes ago, Zello said:

Here's an Iphone 5 from 2013

As one of the only few people who actually owns and uses an iphone 5 as his main phone in 2022, and who has friends with all these modern phones and sh*t, let me tell you it's not the same thing at all. It's pretty much an obsolete phone, and it almost feels like it would feel using a 2003 phone in 2012. Nice attempt, but I bet you were not expecting this twist.

 

29 minutes ago, Zello said:

Politics? People are acting like what we're seeing is new? Did people forget about the witchhunt they had for Obama and his birth certificate? The outrage the right had when he got reelected?

As for politics,  you simply cannot compare some outrage from 2012 (political outrage has always been a thing) to the division we are experiencing right now that has lead to riots and violent protests. The early 2010s were relatively stable in terms of politics. When Trump came to power (and other political leaders at the time), politics changed, people were (and still are) showing that they were not happy with the establishment. He may be retired and old news, but everything else that came with him is not, and whether you like it or not, his election changed the american political landscape. Political control of the mainstream media narrative with sh*t like fake news is something that has only started resurfacing in a serious level in recent years, there's a reason it was not a theme in IV and V, and the way propaganda is being spread through the internet and social media is something still very new (it was a thing before, but not at the scale it is now). 

 

37 minutes ago, Zello said:

COVID do you really want that in a game? Really? I don't.

The impact COVID had on politics, the economy, and our general lifestyles cannot be ignored and is probably a big reason we can say the current year is completely different from 2013.

 

Also, you're forgetting a new trend that suddenly became very popular and relevant in recent years, and that sh*t is crypto and everything related to it. It would surely be a good thing to mock in a GTA.

[Zello]

43 minutes ago, José_Sócrates said:

As one of the only few people who actually owns and uses an iphone 5 as his main phone in 2022, and who has friends with all these modern phones and sh*t, let me tell you it's not the same thing at all. It's pretty much an obsolete phone, and it almost feels like it would feel using a 2003 phone in 2012. Nice attempt, but I bet you were not expecting this twist.

Who's the one stuck in the past? 

43 minutes ago, José_Sócrates said:

As for politics,  you simply cannot compare some outrage from 2012 (political outrage has always been a thing) to the division we are experiencing right now that has lead to riots and violent protests. The early 2010s were relatively stable in terms of politics. When Trump came to power (and other political leaders at the time), politics changed, people were (and still are) showing that they were not happy with the establishment.

A lot of the same things he was preaching about the right was doing. Did you forget about the tea party movement? They were pretty similar to Trump. Those same Tea Party republicans became MAGA republicans.

43 minutes ago, José_Sócrates said:

The impact COVID had on politics, the economy, and our general lifestyles cannot be ignored and is probably a big reason we can say the current year is completely different from 2013.

 It slowed things down, the 2020s haven't really taken off because of that. Then there are certain areas in the country that have pretended that COVID hasn't existed go down to Florida or Texas.

43 minutes ago, José_Sócrates said:

Also, you're forgetting a new trend that suddenly became very popular and relevant in recent years, and that sh*t is crypto and everything related to it. It would surely be a good thing to mock in a GTA.

Do you really wanna rob a bank for crypto? or hack a crypto billionaire and rob his billions in bitcoin and his NFTs? I'll pass.

Edited April 21 by Zello

[Lemoyne outlaw]

2 hours ago, José_Sócrates said:

 I know, I know, the 2010s were boring

i agree with everything you said except this. i loved the 2010s. and they were certainly not boring.

 

as for the rest of this topic i agree. i don't want to see gta 6 in the 80s. it feels so overrated. i feel like modern day is much more interesting. the 80s for me feel like a been there done that situation. we have already seen plenty of 80s stuff. and i really don't think things are that similar to 2013 as much anymore. people have really changed since this covid started. so many people are scared to be near other people. people want to force others to wear masks or get a vaccine. we also have this crazy war in ukraine. so much has changed. at least for me. maybe some of you think that everything feels the same as 2013. but i don't. i feel like there is a lot rockstar can do with this. and it could be much more interesting than the 80s.

[Spider-Vice]

2 hours ago, Zello said:

COVID do you really want that in a game? Really? I don't.

There most certainly will be references to it at least if it's modern day though. It might not be a central part of the story in any way, but I wouldn't be surprised to see mentions of a deadly disease or pandemic on the in-game social media, news sites or radio.

[String]

There's this theory that numbered GTA titles are set in the present day while non numbered titles like Vice City, San Andreas, Stories games can be (but not always are) past settings. By this logic if it is called VI it will be a present setting too, but there's no reason they have to follow this lol and GTA 2 exists. Food for thought I suppose

 

I slightly prefer present day too. I do agree with Zello somewhat; it would be fascinating to see the stories of people like Sammy Bottino and the crazy things that happened in the past. I don't know if the 20s are as apt for a crime game as some of the past decades either (but maybe that doesn't matter GTA V had mega heists in modern day LA). But it will be nice to continue the trend of capturing the present decade especially given how infrequently new GTAs come out. 00s/10s/20s in NY/LA/Miami would be nice to look back on. 

Edited April 21 by AkshayKumar

[LucidLocomotive]

11 hours ago, AkshayKumar said:

There's this theory that numbered GTA titles are set in the present day while non numbered titles like Vice City, San Andreas, Stories games can be (but not always are) past settings. By this logic if it is called VI it will be a present setting too, but there's no reason they have to follow this lol and GTA 2 exists. Food for thought I suppose

 

I slightly prefer present day too. I do agree with Zello somewhat; it would be fascinating to see the stories of people like Sammy Bottino and the crazy things that happened in the past. I don't know if the 20s are as apt for a crime game as some of the past decades either (but maybe that doesn't matter GTA V had mega heists in modern day LA). But it will be nice to continue the trend of capturing the present decade especially given how infrequently new GTAs come out. 00s/10s/20s in NY/LA/Miami would be nice to look back on. 

Wow yeah you’re right I’ve never noticed that. Actually even for GTA2, more evidence points to it taking place in 1999 than 2013. It was just a promotional website AFAIK that said 2013, but the game manual, the game movie, and the in game radio all contradict that, saying it’s 1999

[rjmthe2nd]

Modern day Vice City for me means that it should be the entire state of Florida to make up for what we got in GTA V, there's no excuse for this after seeing what we got in RDR2.

 

If it's 80s I'd be okay with a smaller scale map.

Edited April 21 by rjmthe2nd

[XStreamGamer]

Tell me you're a cynical, out of touch old man without telling me you're a cynical, out of touch old man.

Zello:

On 4/20/2022 at 3:49 PM, Zello said:

Not much has changed since 2013. We're doing the same things just shinier

On 4/20/2022 at 3:49 PM, Zello said:

Cell phones not much has changed

On 4/20/2022 at 3:49 PM, Zello said:

Mumble rap was popular in 2013 and continues to be popular today.

20 hours ago, Zello said:

COVID do you really want that in a game? Really? I don't.

19 hours ago, Zello said:

Do you really wanna rob a bank for crypto? or hack a crypto billionaire and rob his billions in bitcoin and his NFTs? I'll pass.

 

My man is plain scared of facing the realities of modern day lol. Even just looking at the current landscape of tech compared to 2013, there's a lot that had it's first legs back then but have finally found its groove and crowd today. Doesn't mean it was popular or what was in back then.

 

2013 expensive tethered VR devkits vs the current wireless VR kits made for mobile + AR tech.

2014 "Hoverboards" vs current e-bikes/longboards and onewheels.

2012/13 Net Neutrality wars vs Current VPN renaissance.

2010s "Fuel Efficient" and hybrid cars from guzzler companies VS current all electric Ford, Mustang (an SUV, even) and Jeeps

 

For me the dead giveaway was saying "Mumble Rap" is still popular. 1 reason people always looked foolish for calling everything on the radio mumble rap is because it shows you really just don't have an ear for rap music. "Mumble Rap" is just a way to dismiss popular Trap/Southern, and Trap is not all Rap. Migos are prime 2010's "mumble rap". Roddy Ricch, Billie Eillish, Nas X, Pop Smoke, Doja, Meg, Cardi are not "mumble rap". There's subgenres like Drill (which evolved from Trap), Grime (added to GTAO with iFruit Radio) and K-Rap that popped off heavy since 2013. The current landscape and culture of Rap is waaaaaay different and broad these days; the east coast VS west coast of old has evolved into Internet vs Industry / Old School vs New culture war (Boosie vs Nas X, for example) these days thanks to the Soundcloud come up of the 2010s.

 

Not to get too focused on rap, but bro has no clue what he's talking about lol. Takes like this will just keep GTA stale and outdated rather than topical.

 

Something like an NFT robbery is exactly what GTA needs. Too much perfect parody fodder in that industry. Biker sales in online are already laundered in crypto, too.

Edited April 21 by XStreamGamer

[Zello]

35 minutes ago, XStreamGamer said:

Tell me you're a cynical, out of touch old man without telling me you're a cynical, out of touch old man.

Zello:

 

My man is plain scared of facing the realities of modern day lol. Even just looking at the current landscape of tech compared to 2013, there's a lot that had it's first legs back then but have finally found its groove and crowd today. Doesn't mean it was popular or what was in back then.

 

2013 expensive tethered VR devkits vs the current wireless VR kits made for mobile + AR tech.

2014 "Hoverboards" vs current e-bikes/longboards and onewheels.

2012/13 Net Neutrality wars vs Current VPN renaissance.

2010s "Fuel Efficient" and hybrid cars from guzzler companies VS current all electric Ford, Mustang (an SUV, even) and Jeeps

 

For me the dead giveaway was saying "Mumble Rap" is still popular. 1 reason people always looked foolish for calling everything on the radio mumble rap is because it shows you really just don't have an ear for rap music. "Mumble Rap" is just a way to dismiss popular Trap/Southern, and Trap is not all Rap. Migos are prime 2010's "mumble rap". Roddy Ricch, Billie Eillish, Nas X, Pop Smoke, Doja, Meg, Cardi are not "mumble rap". There's subgenres like Drill (which evolved from Trap), Grime (added to GTAO with iFruit Radio) and K-Rap that popped off heavy since 2013. The current landscape and culture of Rap is waaaaaay different and broad these days; the east coast VS west coast of old has evolved into Internet vs Industry / Old School vs New culture war (Boosie vs Nas X, for example) these days thanks to the Soundcloud come up of the 2010s.

 

Not to get too focused on rap, but bro has no clue what he's talking about lol. Takes like this will just keep GTA stale and outdated rather than topical.

 

Something like an NFT robbery is exactly what GTA needs. Too much perfect parody fodder in that industry. Biker sales in online are already laundered in crypto, too.

I’m 26

Rap is my favorite genre of music. I can listen to this all day.

Edited April 21 by Zello

[Gentlebreeze]

Trump and Kodak smoked a black n mild together.

[Zello]

45 minutes ago, XStreamGamer said:

Something like an NFT robbery is exactly what GTA needs. Too much perfect parody fodder in that industry. Biker sales in online are already laundered in crypto, too.

That sounds horrible. I’d rather run a trap house drink some lean and then shoot at the ops not hack some dude for his crypto and NFTs.

Edited April 21 by Zello

[Space Cowboy]

I would love to see a GTA set in the past, but I know that setting up GTAO 2 or whatever it will be called would be kinda hard given that they need to introduce new weapons and vehicles over time. But for a singleplayer game it would be dream come true. I think a past setting would be a lot more interesting for exploration. A modern day rendition of some city/location might be interesting, but an 80s (or a different time period) one would always seem more appealing to me because it isn't the time we live in now. I can imagine some people are already getting tired of modern day, GTAO's over-reliance on hacking, modern technology etc. so much that a game that focuses on old-school crime would feel very refreshing. Sure, it would miss new music and cars, but I think it would greatly make up for that with atmosphere, unique rendition of a location that is a lot less similar to what it is in real life now etc.

[Zello]

58 minutes ago, XStreamGamer said:

2013 expensive tethered VR devkits vs the current wireless VR kits made for mobile + AR tech.

2014 "Hoverboards" vs current e-bikes/longboards and onewheels.

2012/13 Net Neutrality wars vs Current VPN renaissance.

GTA is a crime game we aren’t hackers. You want that go play Watch Dogs. What the hell does that have to do with crime? 

Do you really wanna rob banks with a couple clicks? That sounds boring.

1 hour ago, XStreamGamer said:

2010s "Fuel Efficient" and hybrid cars from guzzler companies VS current all electric Ford, Mustang (an SUV, even) and Jeeps

it’s a video game. I don’t care about environmentally friendly cars in a game as it’s a virtual world.

[LucidLocomotive]

1 hour ago, 0909090 said:

I would love to see a GTA set in the past, but I know that setting up GTAO 2 or whatever it will be called would be kinda hard given that they need to introduce new weapons and vehicles over time. But for a singleplayer game it would be dream come true. I think a past setting would be a lot more interesting for exploration. A modern day rendition of some city/location might be interesting, but an 80s (or a different time period) one would always seem more appealing to me because it isn't the time we live in now. I can imagine some people are already getting tired of modern day, GTAO's over-reliance on hacking, modern technology etc. so much that a game that focuses on old-school crime would feel very refreshing. Sure, it would miss new music and cars, but I think it would greatly make up for that with atmosphere, unique rendition of a location that is a lot less similar to what it is in real life now etc.

I don’t mind them going back to the past in a future title. I just specifically want VI modern day so that we can have a complete trilogy of the 3 main cities in modern day. 

[IzzyBlues]

I can't speak for iPhones, but my Samsung Galaxy S20+ feels the same as my Samsung Galaxy S2 that I had 10 years ago. It's just bigger with a few new bells and whistles that go unused for me.

Edited April 22 by IzzyBlues

[Racecarlock]

I don't get why people want to see covid in the game so much. Like, really? You want the streets to be devoid of pedestrians to interact with? Ok, fine, it would be realistic, but that's why you ignore realism sometimes.

[Zello]

2 hours ago, IzzyBlues said:

I can't speak for iPhones, but my Samsung Galaxy S20+ feels the same as my Samsung Galaxy S2 that I had 10 years ago. It's just bigger with a few new bells and whistles that go unused for me.

Exactly there hasn't been a major difference in smartphones aside from a couple of apps that run on modern phones only. Sure they have more memory, longer battery life, run a bit faster, better cameras. Stuff that in a GTA game doesn't really matter.

 

Compared to this leap where you went from this

To this

to this

 

The leap from 2013 hasn't been big we're doing the same things as 2013 phones but more shinier and a few more bells and whistles. All these people crying about phones but you hardly if ever use them in GTA much anyway Story related phone calls, hanging out with friends/dates and in IV cheat codes. In V they went back to the old way of smashing buttons to activate cheats so that's not necessary anymore. The internet? what was it used for in V not much V actually had fewer websites than IV and IV is an older game. Buying cars? they can get around that by adding dealerships and why would you wanna buy cars anyway? This is GTA we steal em.

 

Edited April 22 by Zello

[LucidLocomotive]

3 hours ago, Racecarlock said:

I don't get why people want to see covid in the game so much. Like, really? You want the streets to be devoid of pedestrians to interact with? Ok, fine, it would be realistic, but that's why you ignore realism sometimes.

miami in 2022 has tons of pedestrians, what are you talking about? Nobody said they wanted it to be set in 2020, we said modern day, so that would be like 2025 or whatever. COVID will still exist then but the streets wouldn't be void of pedestrians or anything. Especially not in Florida. 

[Racecarlock]

2 hours ago, LucidLocomotive said:

miami in 2022 has tons of pedestrians, what are you talking about? Nobody said they wanted it to be set in 2020, we said modern day, so that would be like 2025 or whatever. COVID will still exist then but the streets wouldn't be void of pedestrians or anything. Especially not in Florida. 

Well, I guess that's fine. But, you do know games take 3-5 years to make, right? So if one was set in 2025, it would come out in 2030 or so. And that's just going by GTA V's production time.

[LucidLocomotive]

3 minutes ago, Racecarlock said:

Well, I guess that's fine. But, you do know games take 3-5 years to make, right? So if one was set in 2025, it would come out in 2030 or so. And that's just going by GTA V's production time.

Well I mean GTA IV and V both take place in the year they released

[Spider-Vice]

Regardless of when GTA VI is set I'm pretty sure they wouldn't make the game a ghost town just because COVID is a thing  As I mentioned earlier, if it's referenced it most likely won't even be in the story itself but the in-game websites and radio.

[Edward RDRIII]

On 4/20/2022 at 4:44 PM, LucidLocomotive said:

Probably my most controversial hope and prayer for GTAVI, is that the city of Vice City itself is actually SMALLER than Liberty City and Los Santos as represented in GTAIV and GTAV, respectively. My reason for this is so that there is consistency in the lore that has been established for the America we’ve seen in HD Universe so far. In real life, Miami is smaller than New York and Los Angeles, so I hope they will at least somewhat accurately depict the size difference for continuity. To compensate for this, they could include other areas and make the overall map larger. 

Besides this part, I agree with the rest above.

[Edward RDRIII]

3 hours ago, Spider-Vice said:

Regardless of when GTA VI is set I'm pretty sure they wouldn't make the game a ghost town just because COVID is a thing  As I mentioned earlier, if it's referenced it most likely won't even be in the story itself but the in-game websites and radio.

Exactly, people just look for any reason to argue that a past setting is better, especially considering that by 2024 Covid-19 probably will be dealt with or mostly dealt with already.

[DexMacLeod]

13 hours ago, Zello said:

All these people crying about phones but you hardly if ever use them in GTA much anyway Story related phone calls, hanging out with friends/dates and in IV cheat codes.

 

lol, you're the one that keeps bringing them up as a reason why the game shouldn't be modern. With photographic evidence, no less. 

 

Honestly, at least 90% of the things people bring up as reasons for this time period or that time period are things that would have little to no bearing on the actual gameplay or even the story.

[LucidLocomotive]

7 hours ago, Edward RDRIII said:

Besides this part, I agree with the rest above.

The map could be all of southern Florida plus the Florida keys and parts of Cuba, and could be larger than RDR2, GTA IV, and GTA V combined. It just would be weird for the actual city of Miami to be larger than Los Angeles when it’s not in real life. They could include Orlando too and have more city than both games still