Grand Theft Auto 6...2025 release

Grand Theft Auto 6…coming in 2025!

Rockstar Games have had huge success for a decade with the GTA franchise of games, and along with luminaries Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar) and Call of Duty Black Ops 6 (Activision) and it has me questioning some of the generational rhetoric that we turn against younger people who play (video) games.

Working in education I am part of a system that recognises a growing inability to read, communicate on and persevere with long form literacy. I am part of a generation identifying young people wanting instant gratification, fast results and immediacy. I am also putting my hand up to say “I might be wrong” and “more targeted research needed”.

We can spend hours, weeks and months following the same storyline in a game. GTA6, COD6, Warzone, Witcher, Zelda…they are multi-verse games that engage. To say that someone who plays games does not have the ability to persevere and needs instant gratification is kidding! I can’t do what they do. I get bored, I need change, but no one lambasts me.

I have just completed 154 episodes, 7 seasons of The West Wing. 8 Seasons of House and impatiently waited on the split season of Yellowstone. I’m not alone. Binging TV is what we do, including young people. Surely that indicates an ability to persevere in long form narrative, patiently waiting on character arcs, plot developments and subplot interventions?

Sure we can watch it all in a few weeks, not waiting for the ratings driven, seasonal drip feed that we became accustomed to as TV and advertising dictated and manipulated us as viewers. What is wrong with having control?

When I find a book series that I love, either in hardcopy or Audible, I binge on that. I'm impatient and want to absorb as much of that as I can. It doesn’t indicate my inability to persevere, it is the complete opposite. What we are actually seeing is a generational change from traditional literacy and communication. If anything, short form communication is simpler and more direct, and we need to bridge those gaps in education and communication, including reading, but the current generation’s ability to stay focused and persevere is not the issue. The issue might just be the mismatch in the world they want and the world we currently have, run by my generation. We need to bridge that gap.

As an English teacher I have spoken previously about using gaming as a device to engage students with narrative. 



“The characters are fully-realized and relatable, and their interactions have nuance. The writing is head and shoulders above the average script. The game systems are impeccably executed and help to further the story. And where most games only have binary good-or-bad ethical rules, this series has always been most comfortable exploring the morally murky areas. The core game of Wild Hunt was a masterclass of storytelling, but the addition of the Blood & Wine DLC took the game’s narrative to the next level”

Isn’t this what we actually want?

My Crime Story workshops bridge the divide by putting the user in control of the workshop. As a Hard-Boiled detective it fits perfectly for the ‘morally murky’ and ‘ethically good-or-bad’ rules that underpin most games. The hardboiled detective and private investigator were born because of the horrors of the world wars in the first half of the 1900’s. Innocence lost, the ‘cosy crime and manor crime’ gave way to an ‘end justifies the means’ style of uncompromising law enforcement who believed that cutting a few corners in the name of noble cause corruption for the betterment of society. His character was flawed, his courage unquestionable. The modern detective or forensic analyst was under far more scrutiny thanks to the electronic media, CCTV, private recording, and the ubiquitous nature of computing surveillance. Procedural fairness and human rights were not at the crossroads with uncovering truth with science and psychology. Crime Scene workshops allow any of these manifestations in explorative play-based learning. Interactions are carried out with our methods to recreate authentic dialogue with real props and scenarios. This next level masterclass comes through the hands-on manipulation of Crime Scene analysis to support deeper writing to provide the layered detail on every pixel and graphics card. Everything you need to create a pitch of your own. Get your game on.