Right now Rockstar is basking in Red Dead Redemption 2's critical acclaim, but you know that behind-the-scenes discussions must already be underway for its other gifted child, Grand Theft Auto. The question is, will Rockstar turn its satirical gaze onto the bluster and bravado of Donald Trump? In a recent interview, studio co-founder Dan Houser explained why the madness and speed of the current political climate would make it tough material for GTA 6.
"It's really unclear what we would even do with it, let alone how upset people would get with whatever we did," Houser told GQ.
"Both intense liberal progression and intense conservatism are both very militant, and very angry. It is scary but it's also strange, and yet both of them seem occasionally to veer towards the absurd. It's hard to satirize for those reasons. Some of the stuff you see is straightforwardly beyond satire. It would be out of date within two minutes, everything is changing so fast."
Rockstar doesn't shy away from confronting the politics of the past in Red Dead Redemption 2, with issues like racism and women's rights both playing important roles in the story.
"This is a time when the women's movement had begun in its infancy. Women were beginning to challenge their very constrained place in society, and that gave us some interesting characters," said Houser.
"We're not trying to tap into ‘He's a black man so he should speak this way, and she's an Indian woman so she should speak that way.' We're trying to feel what they're like as people. Maybe that's my own idiocy, naivety, or delusion about what people are fighting about now; I know that there are some people who believe that the only fiction you should do is basically your own autobiography, but I think that's really limiting and you can't tell stories. I hope that we've found a sensitive way of discussing those issues."
He adds that aiming for 100% historical accuracy would make for a "deeply unpleasant experience," explaining that "it may be a work of historical fiction, but it's not a work of history."
From what to do with your horse, how to hide yourself from the law and more, you're going to need these Red Dead Redemption 2 tips.
