Abstract
When the video game Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) was released in September 2013, its creators promised a singular portrait of the death of the American Dream. The game is also accompanied by playable male protagonists that are broken in some fundamental way. This chapter explores how the player-controlled characters of the game are oppressed by the game systems and narrative thrusts, thereby subverting the male-player-character agency and power relationship dynamic. In forcing the player to navigate these limitations, GTA V illustrates the continued and weakened dichotomies of gender at play within the gaming text and subverts its narrative to provide a subverted view of traditional gaming gender characterization.
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Moody, K. (2018). The End of the Dream: How Grand Theft Auto V Simulates and Subverts Its Male Player-Character Dynamics. In: Taylor, N., Voorhees, G. (eds) Masculinities in Play. Palgrave Games in Context. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90581-5_4
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