The Gamechangers is a BBC docudrama, first broadcast on BBC Two on September 15, 2015.
Description[]
The programme stars Daniel Radcliffe as Sam Houser and takes place in 2002. The programme tells the story of a three year period of intense controversy in the history of the development of the Grand Theft Auto series. It also tells the story of how British game designers pushed boundaries into uncharted territory, of how those fighting against GTA became consumed with a battle that overtook their lives, and how the subsequent fallout threatened to bring down high-ranking employees on both sides. The programme is based on court documents and interviews with many of those involved in the events behind the story.
Plot[]
The story is set in 2002, after the successful release of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Sam Houser is looking for ideas to produce the next Grand Theft Auto game; Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Sam is looking to reach the boundaries and include what an adult gamer would want from a game; violence, cars and sex. Sam and the rest of Rockstar's developers visit the streets of Los Angeles for inspiration for the violence aspect of the game, brainstorming with the atmosphere, the people, and the guns.
The entire project is halted, after a black teenager gamer (who played Grand Theft Auto: Vice City excessively) is arrested, and kills several police officers. Rockstar are claimed to be the cause of the shooting, after they state the video games they produce are mentally affecting teenagers to be violent and commit real-life crimes. Sam denies the allegations, stating that the game is purely fictional, and is rated 18 (for adults), in which, he claims it is the parents' fault for letting the teenagers play the game in the first place.
After the news of the shooting becomes viral, one civilian lawyer, Jack Thompson, spots the news on his laptop, and immediately becomes interested to support any allegations against Rockstar. He becomes determined to convince parents and teenagers that violent video games are bad, and are responsible for violent crimes in the real world, which puts strain onto Rockstar Games.
The case is quickly taken to court, where Rockstar are put under the aforementioned allegation. After reviewing the points Jack Thompson makes, and several points Sam Houser makes against the allegation, the court's judge quickly dismisses the case as successful on Rockstar's behalf, claiming that the video game in no way afflicted with the criminal's murders to the several police officers, and cannot be proven otherwise.
After the successful court case, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas becomes well under development, with the initial game's integral structure and engine already undergo. Sam Houser begins to consider the "sex" part of GTA San Andreas. He claims that he wants the player to be able to simulate real life with the game, and if films and books can contain sexual content, there's no reason the exclude a video game from the feature. The team start to produce the mini-game, commonly known as "hot coffee", where the player can have "full-on sex" and/or "blow-jobs". After months of debates, and several points made from Dan Houser, the idea of Hot Coffee was scrapped, since the ratings would be heavily affected with the use of sexual content in such a way.
Finally, the game is released, and the first copy of GTA San Andreas is given to a reviewer. The game is reviewed, and is certified for sales on the market. Once the game was released, it quickly became popular, with thousands of sales instantly. The game hit the main news, and the exciting news gave Rockstar a large amount of credit. However, the controversy of Grand Theft Auto was quickly brought back, after a player found the remaining "hidden" files for Hot Coffee. The files in the game were accessed to reveal the entire minigame, and were inserted into the game by the player, and the mini-game was put on YouTube. The YouTube video became expeditiously popular and ESRB quickly change their minds about the rating of the game, changing it from "Mature" to "Adult". However, prior to the change, Rockstar denies all allegations of the mini-game, and Sam Houser claims the mini-game was scrapped in development, but the files remained in the game. He is questioned further, and is asked why the files still remained in the code, Sam Houser states that is "isn't easy to simply remove the files, as it can unexpectedly have side effects on other parts of the game". All games are stopped from being supplied from stores as the allegations return to court once again.
When the allegation was taken to court, it was found out that Jack Thompson had made 32 false allegations and claims against Rockstar in determination to destroy Rockstar Games. Because of this, the allegations were once again thrown out of court and Thompson was disbarred.
Rockstar Games' Reaction[]
Rockstar Games did not endorse the programme, with Take-Two Interactive filing a lawsuit against the BBC for copyright infringement. However, they were unsuccessful in their attempt to halt production of the programme.
On 16 September, the day after the programme was broadcast, Rockstar Games' official Twitter account referred to the programme as "random, made up bollocks". [1]
Cast[]
Played by Daniel Radcliffe, Sam Houser is the president of Rockstar Games. He is one of the main people behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise, being director and producer since Grand Theft Auto III.
Brother of Sam Houser. Played by Ian Keir Attard.
Played by Bill Paxton, Jack is a former American attorney and campaigner against obscenity and violence in the media.
Played by Joe Dempsie, Jamie is the co-founder of Rockstar Games and is responsible for visiting all the different Rockstar entities around the world making sure everything was up to scratch.
- Hillary Clinton's Personal Assistant
Hillary Clinton's Personal Assistant is an unnamed character who speaks with Jack Thompson about getting Grand Theft Auto banned – more specifically Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – after a hacker discovered the Hot Coffee Mod. She is played by Lex King.
- Doug Lowenstein
Doug Lowenstein was the founder and president of the Entertainment Software Association. He is responsible for dealing with Rockstar Games after the Hot Coffee Modification controversy. He is played by Nick Boraine.
- Judge Moore
Played by D. David Morin.
- Tom Masters
Played by James Alexander.
- Jen Kolbe
Played by Shannon Esra.
- Judge Dava Tunis
Played by Nicole Sherwin.
- Patricia Thompson
Played by Fiona Ramsay.
- Arnold Strickland
Played by Garth Breytenbach.
- MTV Presenter
Played by Zak Rowlands.
- Steve Strickland
Played by Thorsten Wedekind.
- US News Anchor
Played by Kim Syster.
Trailer[]
Video[]
Errors[]
Several anachronistic Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto V content pictures (including pictures of the GTA V Fusilade and various other HD Universe vehicles) can be seen in the background, despite the programme being set between 2002 and 2006, two years before the HD Universe was developed. YouTube videos of the Hot Coffee are also used anachronistically to represent the controversy when the revelations surfaced, even though the Hot Coffee controversy surfaced during 2004 and YouTube was not founded until the following year.
See Also[]
- Jacked - A book written by David Kushner that also details some of the background of the Grand Theft Auto series.
- GTA 2: The Movie - Another movie centralizing a plot based around GTA.