History FranchiseOriginalSin / GrandTheftAuto

%%* Those who dislike the Definitive Editions' graphics do so under the belief that they are too cartoonish. Grove Street Games' reason behind making cartoonish graphics for the CompilationRerelease, however, could be influenced by how ''III'' and ''Vice City'' were already using hand-painted artwork for character textures, rather than photos of real people's faces and clothes, as well as the character models in all three games having hints of cartoonish stylization already. The artists behind these hand-painted textures, however, did try to make them as detailed as possible, and the use of hand-painted textures had been downplayed for ''San Andreas'' in favor of actual photos of faces and clothes, both of which lead to the belief that the original characters were meant to be as photorealistic as the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 could handle.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' introduced online multiplayer to the series. At the time, it was seen as a nice bonus for players who'd done everything there was to do in the single-player story and wanted to get violent with friends in the game's world. No harm, no foul, right? Come ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', and online multiplayer has expanded to encompass half the game, a borderline-MMO experience with in-depth customization, missions on every street corner, high-level raids (in the form of heists), and a steady, rapidly-growing supply of new content... very little of which trickles back to the single-player experience. Many fans of single-player have noted that, while ''GTA IV'' received [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheLostAndDamned two massive]] [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony single-player]] {{Expansion Pack}}s released within eighteen months of the original game, with brand new stories and characters along with new multiplayer modes, weapons, and vehicles, the only new single-player content ''GTA V'' has seen over four years after it came out (barring vehicles, weapons, radio stations, and customization options carried over from multiplayer, and even then [[GameMod modding]] is required to use weapons/vehicles from ''Heists'' onward and stations from ''The Cayo Perico Heist'' onward) has been a handful of side missions included in the UpdatedRerelease on UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne. As such, Rockstar has often been accused of resting on the CashCowFranchise that ''GTA Online'', with its lucrative [[{{Microtransactions}} Shark cards]], had become. The later Updated Rerelease for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation5 and UsefulNotes/XboxSeriesXandS makes this even worse, as the single player experience is mostly the same while all its exclusive content is exclusive to ''Grand Theft Auto Online'', not even updating the single player traffic with cars from ''Online'' updates the same way the 2014 rerelease did.
* In general, as laid out in [[https://games.avclub.com/the-evolution-of-online-gaming-threatens-extinction-for-1839897254 this article]] by Angelica Cataldo for ''Kotaku'', ''GTA Online'' was a harbinger of all of the exploitative monetization practices that would plague gaming during UsefulNotes/{{the Eighth Generation|OfConsoleVideoGames}}. It was the first AAA, $60 retail game to employ {{microtransactions}} in a big way for its online economy, a model previously restricted to free-to-play mobile and browser games, and other developers, taking note of how lucrative this model became for Rockstar Games, adapted it for their own online games. The difference was that, unlike corporate giants like Creator/ElectronicArts and Creator/{{Activision}}, Rockstar had carefully cultivated an image as the scrappy, rebellious, punk-rock underdog in the AAA gaming world even as they, a subsidiary of another corporate giant in Creator/TakeTwoInteractive, became one of the most important and influential developers around, an image that, for a time, bought them leeway from fans. Furthermore, at launch the main attraction of ''V'', as with prior games in the series, was its incredibly robust single-player mode, such that, even though it took months to fix the [[ObviousBeta server issues]] that plagued ''Online'', few people cared because they still had an enormous game to play through that was worth $60 by itself. It was only around the time of the UpdatedRerelease, which added very little single-player content but plenty of online content, that fans started to wonder where Rockstar's attention lay. It is because of the experience of ''Online'' that many fans of Rockstar were ''very'' nervous about ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'', especially given the statements from Take-Two regarding the monetization of future titles, and while that game's single-player story was still up to Rockstar's standard of quality, the multiplayer met a mixed reception. To [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylDTBKgPci4 quote]] James Tyler of Cleanprincegaming:

** To Rockstar's credit they've finally recognized that much of what's listed above makes quite a few people '''not want to play the game''' and have made adjustments, starting with letting players do anything they want in invite-only sessions. Prior to that any kind of serious money making activities had to be done in public sessions and at the mercy of the mercy of the griefers, unless you managed to [[GoodBadBugs glitch yourself into a solo session]] (and the outcry to that glitch getting patched in 2021 is probably what led Rockstar to lift the restrictions on private lobbies.) In addition several easy and quick money making schemes were added like drug dealing and exporting mixed cargo, and nightclub income was increased 5 times over. It's still a grind if you don't want to shell out real money, but that grind is a lot easier than it used to be.

** To Rockstar's credit they've finally recognized that much of what's listed above makes quite a few people '''not want to play the game''' and have made adjustments, starting with letting players do anything they want in invite-only sessions. Prior to that any kind of serious money making activities had to be done in public sessions and at the mercy of the mercy of the griefers, unless you managed to [[GoodBadBugs glitch yourself into a solo session]] (and the outcry to that glitch getting patched in 2020 is probably what led Rockstar to lift the restrictions on private lobbies.) In addition several easy and quick money making schemes were added like drug dealing and exporting mixed cargo, and nightclub income was increased 5 times over. It's still a grind if you don't want to shell out real money, but that grind is a lot easier than it used to be.

* In ''San Andreas'', CJ could get into romantic relationships with various women, who would unlock a number of special perks and vehicles. At the time, this was seen as a fairly meaningless but fun distraction that didn't really intrude on gameplay, with even the ones that were involved in the storyline not getting in the way too much (Denise is rescued in a story mission to introduce the mechanic, but actually dating her is optional, while [[AxCrazy Catalina]]'s "dates" ''are'' the next few story missions). ''IV'' expanded this into the friendship system, which very quickly became a ScrappyMechanic as Niko would constantly find himself interrupted by phone calls from friends and romantic interests asking him to hang out, with "Hey Niko, it's Roman, let's go bowling!" becoming a MemeticMutation. Rockstar wisely de-emphasized the friendship system in ''IV''[='=]s expansions and in ''V''.

* The latest installments have similarly gotten flak from long-time fans for having activities that are different from the crime sprees the series is associated with, and that they waste space that could have been used elsewhere. The inclusion of darts and bowling in ''GTA IV'' and of yoga in ''GTA V'' were often singled out for such criticism. ''San Andreas'', however, had an arguably greater roster of weird side activities that didn't seem to fit with the main game's focus on GangBangers and street crime, including triathalons (which returned in ''GTA V''), truck driving, dating (which also returned in ''GTA IV''; see below for more on that), schools to learn new fighting styles (which were purely cosmetic, especially in a game with as much of a focus on guns as this), and a system that tracked your character's fat and muscle mass. None of those, however, were ever part of main story missions that you had to play through. Furthermore, they went hand-in-hand with side activities that ''did'' fit the game's criminal theme, such as vigilante missions, burglary, spray tags, car theft, and pick-up street basketball.

* Many will lament the GameplayAndStorySegregation of the HD games, where the carnage the player can cause is extremely at odds with how the characters are presented by the narrative. ''GTA IV''[='=]s Niko Bellic is said to be running away from his past as a killer but has no qualms about killing people for a quick buck, while ''GTA V''[='=]s Franklin Clinton and Michael de Santa are unambiguously reasonable people trying to move away from a life of crime but also get into heists, do crazy stunts for money and achievements, and go on rampages. This originated in ''San Andreas'' with Carl Johnson. All of the series' protagonists up through ''GTA III''[='=]s Claude were blank ciphers with no personality or voice (hell, Claude's ''name'' wasn't even revealed until ''San Andreas''), while ''Vice City''[='=]s Tommy Vercetti was a hardened ex-con and [[CardCarryingVillain Card-Carrying]] VillainProtagonist ready to do anything to advance himself. By contrast, Carl was presented as decent person who had successfully moved away from the gang life prior to the beginning of the game only to be drawn back in by family, friends and circumstances (making later protagonists Franklin and Michael something of {{Decomposite Character}}s of him). Even Michael has something of an excuse, being presented as just barely reformed, [[JustAGangster addicted to the criminal life]], and bored living in StepfordSuburbia. The difference is that Carl has his hands forced into doing his most of the reckless/criminal acts (either to try to get the respect of his brother back, try to protect his family and friends, or having people come after him for his association with other people), he stuck to his characterization for the entire game (barring the sort of [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential open-world mayhem]] that the games make a point of never acknowledging in-story), and the DenserAndWackier story of his installment made his antics much easier to swallow than when the series tried to tell similar stories in the more "realistic" worlds of ''IV'' and ''V'', where the out-of-character moments became impossible to ignore (especially when there were achievements, missions or dialogues referencing them).

* Many will lament the GameplayAndStorySegregation of the HD games, where the carnage the player can cause is extremely at odds with how the characters are presented by the narrative. ''GTA IV''[='=]s Niko Bellic is said to be running away from his past as a killer but has no qualms about killing people for a quick buck, while ''GTA V''[='=]s Franklin Clinton and Michael de Santa are unambiguously reasonable people trying to move away from a life of crime but also get into heists, do crazy stunts for money and achievements, and go on rampages. This originated in ''San Andreas'' with Carl Johnson. All of the series' protagonists up through ''GTA III''[='=]s Claude were blank ciphers with no personality or voice (hell, Claude's ''name'' wasn't even revealed until ''San Andreas''), while ''Vice City''[='=]s Tommy Vercetti was a hardened ex-con and [[CardCarryingVillain Card-Carrying]] VillainProtagonist ready to do anything to advance himself. By contrast, Carl was presented as decent person who had successfully moved away from the gang life prior to the beginning of the game only to be drawn back in by family, friends and circumstances (making later protagonists Franklin and Michael something of {{Decomposite Character}}s of him). Even Michael has something of an excuse, being presented as just barely reformed, [[JustAGangster addicted to the criminal life]], and bored living in StepfordSuburbia. The difference is that Carl has his hands forced into doing his most of the reckless/criminal acts (either to try to get the respect of his brother back, try to protect his family and friends, or having people come after him for his association with other people), he stuck to his characterization for the entire game (barring the sort of [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential open-world mayhem]] that the games make a point of never acknowledging in-story), and the DenserAndWackier of his installment made his antics much easier to swallow than when the series tried to tell similar stories in the more "realistic" worlds of ''IV'' and ''V'', where the out-of-characters moment became impossible to ignore (especially when there were achievements, missions or dialogues referencing them).

* Those who dislike the Definitive Editions' graphics do so under the belief that they are too cartoonish. Grove Street Games' reason behind making cartoonish graphics for the CompilationRerelease, however, could be influenced by how ''III'' and ''Vice City'' were already using hand-painted artwork for character textures, rather than photos of real people's faces and clothes, as well as the character models in all three games having hints of cartoonish stylization already. The artists behind these hand-painted textures, however, did try to make them as detailed as possible, and the use of hand-painted textures had been downplayed for ''San Andreas'' in favor of actual photos of faces and clothes, both of which lead to the belief that the original characters were meant to be as photorealistic as the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 could handle.

** Trollish weapons and vehicles. As mentioned above, the Flight School update added purchases over a million dollars, but hey, all it came down to were a few aircraft that, due to lack of weapons, made it a nice tool to cruise around the map with at best. It first became a problem when the Heists update allowed players to purchase the [[CoolPlane Hydra fighter jet]]. The Hydra very quickly replaced the [[TankGoodness Rhino tank]] as the [[WeaponOfChoice vehicle of choice]] for griefers, much to the annoyance of everybody else, but it was possible to counter the Hydra and shoot it down with the homing launcher. Later [[WeaponizedCar weaponized vehicles]] such as the Ruiner 2000 (a SerialNumbersFiledOff version of [[Series/KnightRider K.I.T.T.]]), the Vigilante (a SerialNumbersFiledOff version of the [[ComicBook/{{Batman}} Batmobile]]), the Oppressor (a jet-powered motorcycle with wings allowing it to fly some distance), and various attack helicopters became an even bigger pain. The growing number of new missions that required working in free roam, rather than in a separate instance, also afforded griefers the opportunity to [[InternetJerk derail other players' mission progress by attacking them with one of these overpowered weapons]], such that many fans suspected that Rockstar was encouraging griefers in order to push other players towards using the aforementioned microtransactions to get around the grind. The Doomsday Heist update brought the anger to a crescendo with the Orbital Cannon, the ''only'' use for which is to troll other players; it can only be fired from a fixed location inside the player's Facility (so you can't break it out as a superweapon while on a mission), and it inflicts a OneHitKill DeathFromAbove attack that can wipe out entire groups of players and is [[AlwaysAccurateAttack virtually impossible to avoid]] unless you're hiding in your safehouse or playing in passive mode (which blocks all damage from and physical contact with other players, but locks players out from using weapons and participating in free-roam missions). As the icing on the cake, the Doomsday Heist update also introduced the Deluxo, a [[Film/BackToTheFuturePartII flying Delorean lookalike]] that can have machine guns and homing rockets mounted to it.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' introduced online multiplayer to the series. At the time, it was seen as a nice bonus for players who'd done everything there was to do in the single-player story and wanted to get violent with friends in the game's world. No harm, no foul, right? Come ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', and online multiplayer has expanded to encompass half the game, a borderline-MMO experience with in-depth customization, missions on every street corner, high-level raids (in the form of heists), and a steady, rapidly-growing supply of new content... very little of which trickles back to the single-player experience. Many fans of single-player have noted that, while ''GTA IV'' received [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheLostAndDamned two massive]] [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony single-player]] {{Expansion Pack}}s released within eighteen months of the original game, with brand new stories and characters along with new multiplayer modes, weapons, and vehicles, the only new single-player content ''GTA V'' has seen over four years after it came out (barring vehicles, weapons, and customization options carried over from multiplayer) has been a handful of side missions included in the UpdatedRerelease on UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne. As such, Rockstar has often been accused of resting on the CashCowFranchise that ''GTA Online'', with its lucrative [[{{Microtransactions}} Shark cards]], had become.

* The latest installments have similarly gotten flak from long-time fans for having activities that are different, and that they waste space that could have been used elsewhere. The inclusion of darts and bowling in ''GTA IV'' and of yoga in ''GTA V'' were often singled out for such criticism. ''San Andreas'', however, had an arguably greater roster of weird side activities that didn't seem to fit with the main game's focus on GangBangers and street crime, including triathalons (which returned in ''GTA V''), truck driving, dating (which also returned in ''GTA IV''; see below for more on that), schools to learn new fighting styles (which were purely cosmetic, especially in a game with as much of a focus on guns as this), and a system that tracked your character's fat and muscle mass. None of those, however, were ever part of main story missions that you had to play through. Furthermore, they went hand-in-hand with side activities that ''did'' fit the game's criminal theme, such as vigilante missions, burglary, spray tags, car theft, and pick-up street basketball.

* Those who dislike the Definitive Editions' graphics do so under the belief that they are too cartoonish. Grove Street Games' reason behind making cartoonish graphics for the CompilationRerelease, however, could be influenced by how ''III'' and ''Vice City'' were already using hand-painted artwork for character textures, rather than photos of real people's faces and clothes, as well as the character models in all three games having hints of cartoonish stylization already.. The artists behind these hand-painted textures, however, did try to make them as detailed as possible, and the use of hand-painted textures had been downplayed for ''San Andreas'' in favor of actual photos of faces and clothes, both of which lead to the belief that the original characters were meant to be as photorealistic as the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 could handle.

* PC gamers will often treat ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' as if it's the franchise's sole example of a PortingDisaster, in no part thanks to how much DRM has been implemented and how poorly it ran on 2008 computers. At the same time however, two [[GameMod Game Mods]] which are now considered essential for playing the 3D Era games on PC tell a different story: [[https://gtaforums.com/topic/669045-silentpatch/ SilentPatch]] and [[https://gtaforums.com/topic/750681-skygfx-ps2-xbox-and-mobile-graphics-for-pc/ SkyGFX]] are available for all three 3D Era games that've been ported to the PC, and ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas San Andreas]]'' needed a lot more things fixed/restored than its predecessors, especially its frame limiter, which needed to be turned on to prevent glitches and ''didn't even let the game run at 25 frames per second!'' It's more like the series took small steps into Porting Disaster territory, rather than one giant leap, and certain things about ''San Andreas''[='=]s visuals on PC could instead be interpreted as a different art direction.

* Tied to the above, cut content. Some claim that R* nowadays cuts all the "cool" stuff of their games while leaving the "boring" ones. ''San Andreas'', for example, could have been even larger, making the aforementioned triathlons and schools questionable if the other option would have been more missions or the ability to rob stores.

* The latest installments have similarly gotten flak from long-time fans for having activities that are SomethingCompletelyDifferent, and that they waste space that could have been used elsewhere. The inclusion of darts and bowling in ''GTA IV'' and of yoga in ''GTA V'' were often singled out for such criticism. ''San Andreas'', however, had an arguably greater roster of weird side activities that didn't seem to fit with the main game's focus on GangBangers and street crime, including triathalons (which returned in ''GTA V''), truck driving, dating (which also returned in ''GTA IV''; see below for more on that), schools to learn new fighting styles (which were purely cosmetic, especially in a game with as much of a focus on guns as this), and a system that tracked your character's fat and muscle mass. None of those, however, were ever part of main story missions that you had to play through. Furthermore, they went hand-in-hand with side activities that ''did'' fit the game's criminal theme, such as vigilante missions, burglary, spray tags, car theft, and pick-up street basketball.

* Many will lament the GameplayAndStorySegregation of the HD games, where the carnage the player can cause is extremely at odds with how the characters are presented by the narrative ([[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV Niko]] running away from his past as a killer but having no qualms about killing people for a quick buck or [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Franklin and Michael]] being unambiguously reasonable people trying to move away from a life of crime when the players can get into heists, do crazy stunts for money/achievments, go on a rampage, etc...). but all of those originated with [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas Carl Johnson]]. Prior to Carl, all the characters either had no personality or were presented as hardened criminals ready to do anything to advance themselves. By contrast, Carl was presented as decent person that had successfully moved away from the gang life prior to the beginning of the game only to be drawn back in by family, friends and circumstances (making later protagonists Franklin and Michael something of {{Decomposite Character}}s of him). The difference is that, not only is Carl having his hands forced into doing his most of the reckless/criminal acts (either to try to get the respect of his brother back, try to protect his family and friends or having people come after him for his association with other people), but bar potential open-world mayhem caused by the player (which are never acknowledged in-story), Carl stuck to his characterization for the entire game, and the more wacky tone of his installment made his antics much easier to swallow than when the serie tried to tell similar stories in the more "realistic" worlds of ''IV'' and ''V'', where the out-of-characters moment became impossible to ignore (especially when there were achievments, missions or dialogues referencign them).

* Many will lament the GameplayAndStorySegregation of the HD games, where the carnage the player can cause is extremely at odds with how the characters are presented by the narrative ([[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV Niko]] running away from his past as a killer but having no qualms about killing people for a quick buck or [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Franklin and Michael]] being unambiguously reasonable people trying to move away from a life of crime when the players can get into heists, do crazy stunts for money/achievments, go on a rampage, etc...). but all of those originated with [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas Carl Johnson]]. Prior to Carl, all the characters either had no personality or were presented as hardened criminals ready to do anything to advance themselves. By contrast, Carl was presented as decent person that had successfully moved away from the gang life prior to the beginning of the game only to be drawn back in by family, friends and circumstances (making later protagonists Franklin and Michael something of DecompositeCharacters of him). The difference is that, not only is Carl having his hands forced into doing his most of the reckless/criminal acts (either to try to get the respect of his brother back, try to protect his family and friends or having people come after him for his association with other people), but bar potential open-world mayhem caused by the player (which are never acknowledged in-story), Carl stuck to his characterization for the entire game, and the more wacky tone of his installment made his antics much easier to swallow than when the serie tried to tell similar stories in the more "realistic" worlds of ''IV'' and ''V'', where the out-of-characters moment became impossible to ignore (especially when there were achievments, missions or dialogues referencign them).

* Many will lament the GameplayAndStorySegregation of the HD games, where the carnage the player can cause is extremely at odds with how the characters are presented by the narrative ([[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV Niko]] running away from his past as a killer but having no qualms about killing people for a quick buck or [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Franklin and Michael]] being unambiguously reasonable people trying to move away from a life of crime when the players can get into heists, do crazy stunts for money/achievments, go on a rampage, etc...). but all of those originated with [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas Carl Johnson]]. Prior to Carl, all the characters either had no personality or were presented as hardened criminals ready to do anything to advance themselves. By contrast, Carl was presented as decent person that had successfully moved away from the gang life prior to the beginning of the game only to be drawn back in by family, friends and circumstances (making later protagonists Franklin and Michael something of DecompositeCharacters of him). The difference is that, not only is Carl having his hands forced into doing his most of the reckless/criminal acts (either to try to get the respect of his brother back, try to protect his family and friends or having people come after him for his association with other people), but bar potential open-world mayhem caused by the player, Carl stuck to his characterization for the entire game, and the more wacky tone of his installment made his antics much easier to swallow than when the serie tried to tell similar stories in the more "realistic" worlds of ''IV'' and ''V'', where the out-of-characters moment became impossible to ignore.

* Those who dislike the Definitive Editions' graphics do so under the belief that they are too cartoonish. Grove Street Games' reason behind making cartoonish graphics for the CompilationRerelease, however, could be influenced by how ''III'' and ''Vice City'' were already using hand-painted artwork for character textures, rather than photos of real people's faces and clothes. The artists behind these hand-painted textures, however, did try to make them as detailed as possible, and the use of hand-painted textures had been downplayed for ''San Andreas'' in favor of actual photos of faces and clothes, both of which lead to the belief that the original characters were meant to be as photorealistic as the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 could handle.

** Trollish weapons and vehicles. As mentioned above, the Flight School update added purchases over a million dollars, but hey, all it came down to were a few aircraft that, due to lack of weapons, made it a nice tool to cruise around the map with at best. It first became a problem when the Heists update allowed players to purchase the [[CoolPlane Hydra fighter jet]]. The Hydra very quickly replaced the [[TankGoodness Rhino tank]] as the [[WeaponOfChoice vehicle of choice]] for griefers, much to the annoyance of everybody else, but it was possible to counter the Hydra and shoot it down with the homing launcher. Later [[WeaponizedCar weaponized vehicles]] such as the Ruiner 2000 (a SerialNumbersFiledOff version of [[Series/KnightRider K.I.T.T.]]), the Vigilante (a SerialNumbersFiledOff version of the [[ComicBook/{{Batman}} Batmobile]]), the Oppressor (a jet-powered motorcycle with wings allowing it to fly some distance), and various attack helicopters became an even bigger pain. The growing number of new missions that required working in free roam, rather than in a separate instance, also afforded griefers the opportunity to [[{{GIFT}} derail other players' mission progress by attacking them with one of these overpowered weapons]], such that many fans suspected that Rockstar was encouraging griefers in order to push other players towards using the aforementioned microtransactions to get around the grind. The Doomsday Heist update brought the anger to a crescendo with the Orbital Cannon, the ''only'' use for which is to troll other players; it can only be fired from a fixed location inside the player's Facility (so you can't break it out as a superweapon while on a mission), and it inflicts a OneHitKill DeathFromAbove attack that can wipe out entire groups of players and is [[AlwaysAccurateAttack virtually impossible to avoid]] unless you're hiding in your safehouse or playing in passive mode (which blocks all damage from and physical contact with other players, but locks players out from using weapons and participating in free-roam missions). As the icing on the cake, the Doomsday Heist update also introduced the Deluxo, a [[Film/BackToTheFuturePartII flying Delorean lookalike]] that can have machine guns and homing rockets mounted to it.

* Lazlow, a TalkShow host featured on [[Radio/GTARadio the games' radio stations]], started out in ''GTA III'' and ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]]'' as the OnlySaneMan (albeit of a [[SmallNameBigEgo larger-than-life]] sort) amidst the chaos around him, serving as an anchor for the games' [[{{Eagleland}} warped satire of Americana]]. Starting in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas San Andreas]]'', however, he began turning into the ButtMonkey of the series, a pervert who is constantly abused by the guests on his show. This characterization grew with subsequent games until, by ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV GTA V]]'', he had become a {{jerkass}} RealityTV host who tries to bang Michael's daughter and [[PapaWolf gets his ass kicked for it]], having gone from a figure who commented on the madness of the ''GTA'' series' CrapsackWorld to one who'd been fully absorbed by it. Without the OnlySaneMan, the satire and social commentary that used to be a hallmark of the ''GTA'' series slowly came unmoored, turning DenserAndWackier with each new installment until most of the minor characters had become [[StrawCharacter one-dimensional caricatures]].
* The [[CollectionSidequest collectibles]] that first appeared in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto2 GTA2]]'' could be argued to be one for the entire WideOpenSandbox genre. There were a number of collectible items scattered around the map that granted players free money, as well as other bonuses if they found enough of them[[note]]Bonus levels if one collected all 50 tokens in each level in ''GTA 2'', and new weapons for every ten hidden packages collected in ''GTA III'', ''Vice City'', and the ''Stories'' games[[/note]]. While the GottaCatchEmAll mentality that this produced wasn't too bad in ''GTA 2'', ''GTA III'', or ''Vice City'', ''San Andreas'' went overboard by inundating players with gang tags, snapshots, horseshoes, and oysters to find. ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV GTA IV]]'' toned things down by having only one type of collectible (the "flying rats", aka pigeons), but ''GTA V'' went overboard again with the letter scraps, the spaceship parts, the submarine parts, and the nuclear waste (the latter two of these being made worse by requiring the use of a submarine that handled poorly, was slow, and initially did not have radio, and the underwater part being dark and murky, making searching for these a boring experience, as opposed to other collectibles who at least had the upside of sightseeing going for them). Worse, thanks to the ''GTA'' series' massive influence over the genre, the use of collectibles to pad out the length of an open-world game through busywork became a trend in many other such titles (games made by Creator/{{Ubisoft}} especially grew infamous for such), driving players to frustration as they scoured the map for that LastLousyPoint.

* In ''San Andreas'', CJ could get into romantic relationships with various women, who would unlock a number of special perks and vehicles. At the time, this was seen as a fairly meaningless but fun distraction that didn't really intrude on gameplay, with even the ones that were involved in the storyline not getting in the way too much (Denise is rescued in a story mission, but actually dating her is optional, while [[AxCrazy Catalina]]'s "dates" ''are'' the next few story missions). ''IV'' expanded this into the friendship system, which very quickly became a ScrappyMechanic as Niko would constantly find himself interrupted by phone calls from friends and romantic interests asking him to hang out, with "Hey Niko, it's Roman, let's go bowling!" becoming a MemeticMutation. Rockstar wisely de-emphasized the friendship system in ''IV''[='=]s expansions and in ''V''.