Rockstar Games' co-founder and longtime Grand Theft Auto writer Dan Houser says that his games are not quite as good as Charles Dickens books, but they share similarities when it comes to world building.
Speaking to The Guardian, Houser explains that during a press tour for GTA 4, "I was talking to a journalist from Paris Match, a very cultured French guy – and he said, 'Well, the Grand Theft Auto games are just like Dickens.'" While Houser was very pleased with the comparison, he notes, "I thought about it afterwards and, well, they're not as good as Dickens, but they are similar in that he's world-building."
He elaborates, "If you look at Dickens, Zola, Tolstoy or any of those authors, there's that feeling of all the world is here – that's what you're trying to get in open world games. It's a twisted prism, looking at a society that's interesting in one way or another."
Houser mentions other Victorian-era literature, saying that with GTA, "There’s that same sense of slightly spread out storytelling that you get in those big 19th-century novels." He adds: "Those books are also very realist, in a way. They're not leaping backwards and forwards in time. They are quite physical in that sense, and games are very physical."
Houser isn't the only GTA alumni who cares about his 19th-century literature, as GTA 5 Trevor actor Steven Ogg told gamers to go read Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment in one of his many conversations that led fans to believe he hates the GTA series (which Ogg has denied). Fellow GTA 5 alumni Franklin actor Shawn Fonteno maybe isn't as much of a fan, saying "fuck that book."
I do wonder if we'll ever see a Muppets GTA adaption now that the comparison to Dickens has been mentioned…
