The college professor using GTA to teach history says "few developers rival Rockstar in terms of the granular detail that goes into their games"

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A real-life college professor says the GTA 6 dev "is rather rare in their eagerness to comment on the social fabric of American life"

GTA 6
(Image credit: Rockstar Games)

A college professor who uses Rockstar games specifically to teach history says the GTA developer is in its own league when it comes to making detail-oriented games.

University of Tennessee professor Tore Olsson taught the world's first Red Dead Redemption history course in 2021, and in the Spring, he'll welcome students to the first ever GTA history class, titled Grand Theft America: U.S. History Since 1980 through the GTA Video Games.

"Their games – from L.A. Noire through Red Dead through GTA – are all interested in saying something about the unique strangeness of the American experiment. What they say is sometimes thoughtful, sometimes not – but that they're trying is fascinating."

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

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