GTA EFFECT
The Grand Theft Auto ( GTA) franchise has claim over more of my time, pissed away sitting in front of a screen with controller in hand, than any other game ever released. From sneaking over to my neighbour’s house as a young buck to drop that original red-topped disc into the PlayStation 1 so I could run people over and jump stolen-ass cars over the Schelchberg Bridge, to repping my Grove Street set out the side of a low-rider in San Andreas as CJ, living out Eastern European mob vibes as Niko Bellic in GTA IV, and exploring the massive world that was GTA V for hours.
It’s a solid franchise that I’ve literally grown up playing (and haven’t gone on any shooting sprees like the mainstream US media liked to suggest since it first appeared on the scene). While I don’t really play it any more, one thing that I’ve always thought about, long after those hundreds of hours were lost to the Grand Theft universe, was a weird effect that the vehicles had on the environment.
Carjack some sucker for his wheels, and, immediately after hitting that driver’s seat, every single car around you would morph into that exact model. You just stole an unbearably slow Greenwood to get away from a pack of shooters, but you really wanted to find a Blista Compact to go raid the hood? Yeah, good luck, son. All you’re gonna get now is a choice of five blue Greenwoods, a couple of red examples, and way too much beige ugliness. Until you hop out that door and run as far away from it as you possibly can, they’re all you’re going to see. Some players have reported that even after hardcore eight-hour sessions, they might only see a handful of models.
A friend mentioned this effect in a group chat a couple of weeks ago after finding himself swarmed by AW11s and blaming my recent purchase for the fact. The funny thing was, he wasn’t the only one in the group who was experiencing it either. There were a handful of people who sent through photos of examples that they’d seen driving down the road recently. And, while I may have only ever seen a few in the wild up until this point myself, since signing those ownership papers a month or so ago, I’ve seen more than I have in my entire life. This isn’t the first time it’s happened, either, having noted the same thing when a friend ends up with a slightly oddball car that you don’t tend to see on your daily commute. Just like in GTA, you find yourself surrounded by them and cannot get away.
In the game, it’s a simple answer: the problem lies in the loading and unloading of vehicle models. Each vehicle is so detailed that the system can only afford to have a small number of models on tap at any given time and tends to favour those already on the map. But why do we then see a similar phenomenon in real life? I mean, these aren’t the types of cars that you’d miss if they rolled past on the daily commute. Are we actually living in a Matrix-type artificial world that’s bugging out and loading those familiar models to keep the framework running smoothly? Or is it all simply a coincidence?
Whatever causes it to happen, it currently means that the people around me and I get to regularly see boxy ’80s Toyota steel, and I’m happy to deal with that — but, for my own sanity, please, no one buy a damn S-Cargo, Multipla, or PT Cruiser!