Game features real gang member voice overs
Rockstar Games has revealed that it was so eager to capture the genuine
sounds of the streets for Grand
Theft Auto V that it recruited real-life gang members to contribute
voice-overs for the game. Game producer Lazlow Jones confirmed the news during
an interview with Chicago radio station WGN
(via VideoGamer.com).
"There's black gangs, there's Latino gangs, and we recruited a guy who gets
gang members, like actual gang members, real gang members. I mean, El
Salvadorian gang dudes with amazing tattoos and one of which literally had
gotten out of prison the day before. And we brought these guys in to record the
gang characters because, you know, you don't want a goofy LA actor who went to a
fancy school trying to be a hard gang member. There's nothing worse than that."
Faced with the prospect of delivering dialogue that gang members would never
actually say, Jones said they would often shelve the script for something more
organic and true.
"They look at the lines and they say, 'I wouldn't say that. If I was upset at
another gang, I wouldn't say that'. So…say what you would say. Authenticity, you
know?
"There's a lot of sessions that we would have where we would just throw the
script on the floor and be like, this thing we wrote is irrelevant, let's just
work out something real."
Rockstar recently announced that GTA
V will include 240 licensed music tracks and 15 radio stations. The game
launches worldwide on September 17 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Editorial Comment: This is may not seem like a serious issue but think of it in another context. What would happen if the maker and producer of the game wanted the fight scenes to be more realistic. What would stop them from saying we want to use real gang members to act out the acts of violence? We want to have them show us what it is really like to shoot someone? Where does the line get drawn between reality and fantasy?
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