Grand Theft Auto Grieving Thread - Yep, I've been drinkin' again...

[White Devil]

Something I learned about Mafia hierachry from Liberty City Stories and IV: you could only move up the ladder if you're a full blown Italian.

Shit, have you never seen Goodfellas?

 

[Korpon]

Something I learned about Mafia hierachry from Liberty City Stories and IV: you could only move up the ladder if you're a full blown Italian.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=aoTU6a_BKv4
Remember Phil Bell from IV? He's Irish but supposedly has a fairly high position in the Pegorino family.

As White Devil said, you can still attain quite a lot of power and influence in the mob if you're a good enough earner and reliable. I mean look at say, Bugsy Siegel, a Jew who had lots of power in the Jewish mob and the Italian mob and went on to kickstart the original casinos in Las Vegas, or like Goodfellas with Jimmy Burke (Conway in the movie) who was basically in charge of the Irish mob and had power in the Italian. They can't ever be a made man yea, but you're still not gonna fuck with them because they're essentially an unofficial made man with the money they bring in.

 

[X Pac Heat]

As White Devil said, you can still attain quite a lot of power and influence in the mob if you're a good enough earner and reliable. I mean look at say, Bugsy Siegel, a Jew who had lots of power in the Jewish mob and the Italian mob and went on to kickstart the original casinos in Las Vegas, or like Goodfellas with Jimmy Burke (Conway in the movie) who was basically in charge of the Irish mob and had power in the Italian. They can't ever be a made man yea, but you're still not gonna fuck with them because they're essentially an unofficial made man with the money they bring in.

It's been a long time since I read Wiseguy, but didn't Burke get a pass for his involvement with Tommy Desimone simply because he made so much money? Like after Vario gave up Desimone the Gambinos put two and two together but just let it slide?

 

[CWCissey]

Something I learned about Mafia hierachry from Liberty City Stories and IV: you could only move up the ladder if you're a full blown Italian.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=aoTU6a_BKv4
Remember Phil Bell from IV? He's Irish but supposedly has a fairly high position in the Pegorino family.

There was a three hour Scorsese film about this a couple of years ago, with Robert DeNiro playing the titular Irishman.

 

[The Last Stand]

Honestly, I am not into gangster films. That is something I learned through analyzing GTA's characters. Which themselves are influenced from gangster films.

JD O'Toole made the Sindaccos money, but he was an overall chump in the larger picture to the Mafia. I did enjoy all but one of his missions. One I'm talking about is the one where he collects from the girls.

 

[Korpon]

It's been a long time since I read Wiseguy, but didn't Burke get a pass for his involvement with Tommy Desimone simply because he made so much money? Like after Vario gave up Desimone the Gambinos put two and two together but just let it slide?

It's been awhile since I read it as well, but DeSimone was killed for killing two made men, Billy Bats (as seen in the film) and Ronald Jerothe, both of them being close friends with John Gotti (before he was boss). As far as I know, the Gambino's didn't know about Burke's involvement in Billy Bats' death, hence why he never got killed himself (same with Henry Hill, he also helped dispose of Billy). Burke and Hill were down in Florida as well when DeSimone got killed. Paul Vario's son and another guy took DeSimone to the unknown location and it was either a guy named Thomas Agro or Gotti himself that killed DeSimone.

Also Burke, Hill, and DeSimone were associates with the Lucchese family, not the Gambinos. So they definitely would have killed Burke and Hill if they knew they were involved.

 

[Captain Syrup]

Something I learned about Mafia hierarchy from Liberty City Stories and IV: you could only move up the ladder if you're a full blown Italian.

Some of the most notorious gangsters in history were Jewish. "Lucky" Luciano quipped that Meyer Lansky was "wet-nursed by an Italian." You might also remember Henry Hill, the protagonist of Goodfellas, who was part-Irish.

Remember the final boss of LCS? That's a reference to the Five Families breaking away from Cosa Nostra. The colonies resented paying tax to the British; likewise, the syndicate in America stopped paying Tribute. The Sicilians sent emissaries over here to crack some skulls, but they were repelled.

 

[X Pac Heat]

Also Burke, Hill, and DeSimone were associates with the Lucchese family, not the Gambinos. So they definitely would have killed Burke and Hill if they knew they were involved.

The Gambinos were the ones who wanted the hit, though. Burke was making so much money that Vario wouldn't give him up.

 

[Korpon]

The Gambinos were the ones who wanted the hit, though. Burke was making so much money that Vario wouldn't give him up.

Yea true. If anything, Vario was probably happy to get rid of DeSimone, he was a straight psychopath and a loose cannon, even by mob standards.

 

[MirrorNoir]

Something I learned about Mafia hierachry from Liberty City Stories and IV: you could only move up the ladder if you're a full blown Italian.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=aoTU6a_BKv4
Remember Phil Bell from IV? He's Irish but supposedly has a fairly high position in the Pegorino family.

As someone else said, it's explained in Goodfellas. You have to be full blood Italian (and the family tree stuff to prove it) to rise to the top level of the Mafia.

Certain people with mixed heritage (IE one parent Irish) or people who were Jewish or half-WASP could rise to certain levels but that there was a ceiling on how far you could go. It was the reason Liotta and DiNero's characters in Goodfellas tolerated Pesci's character's sociopathy: one day he would ascend to a position in the Mafia which neither Liotta and DiNero could and they'd be set for life being able to do whatever they wanted with him running cover for them.

 

[WULULULULU]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=v6Hkeo-_CHA
“Modern audiences” are the reason why video gaming has suffered in recent years, quality wise.

The channel is shit but let's face it, audiences have been cattle for the microtransactions/buggy releases and grinding that games have become. If only people smartened up and called it out, we wouldn't be in this farce. Look at GTA V, hoping for a singleplayer expansion, all we got was shark cards and abyssmal grinding.

 

[The Last Stand]

The channel is shit but let's face it, audiences have been cattle for the microtransactions/buggy releases and grinding that games have become. If only people smartened up and called it out, we wouldn't be in this farce. Look at GTA V, hoping for a singleplayer expansion, all we got was shark cards and abyssmal grinding.

For all the fandom that surrounds Star Wars, I have to give them credit for their intensive, non-stop backlash towards EA with Battlefront II's monetization. They spoke out, EA tried damage control, they were relentless in calling out that bullshit. And EA quickly responded.

I wish the GTA community, hell the entire gaming community, would be receptive as Star Wars were to such shady practices. We certainly have the power to do it. But no willpower.

 

[Yamamura]

It's pretty amazing how ingrained in pop culture San Andreas is. Especially in the hood

It actually kinda makes me wonder if GTA 5 will have that same cultural impact on the zoomer generation. Not comparing the two in terms of quality, but I just wonder if they'll look back on it with fond memories similar to how millennials have shared collective memories of San Andreas and can reminisce with each other.

 

[Mongo0o]

It actually kinda makes me wonder if GTA 5 will have that same cultural impact on the zoomer generation. Not comparing the two in terms of quality, but I just wonder if they'll look back on it with fond memories similar to how millennials have shared collective memories of San Andreas and can reminisce with each other.

Every GTA has a cultural impact. SA, IV and V are the defining games of their generation, with the latter being the biggest game of all time that. Right now there's a contention for V. but most of that boils down to complaints with online. Go talk to anyone under 25 who's played games. I guarantee they've had fond memories of V in some way.

 

[cummytummies]

It actually kinda makes me wonder if GTA 5 will have that same cultural impact on the zoomer generation. Not comparing the two in terms of quality, but I just wonder if they'll look back on it with fond memories similar to how millennials have shared collective memories of San Andreas and can reminisce with each other.

I doubt it, because all of them play GTAO.

The cultural impact of 3, SA and VC was largely because you were immersed in that world. Listening to the radio, hearing the mock advertisements and period music over and over, reading the signs on the side of the road, the caricature business fronts, being yelled at by pedestrians, replaying missions with cutscenes etc. When you're in a lobby with all your friends screaming over the mic, teleporting from one deathmatch to another, spawning jet fighters to dogfight with, the world becomes much more of a passive background for your general multiplayer fuck-aroundery.

 

[WULULULULU]

For all the fandom that surrounds Star Wars, I have to give them credit for their intensive, non-stop backlash towards EA with Battlefront II's monetization. They spoke out, EA tried damage control, they were relentless in calling out that bullshit. And EA quickly responded.

I wish the GTA community, hell the entire gaming community, would be receptive as Star Wars were to such shady practices. We certainly have the power to do it. But no willpower.

You tell that to the current state of the World of Warships community. Same shit, different community.

I honestly give up any hope of Rockstar changing, not in the current shithole we live in.

 

[cummytummies]

For all the fandom that surrounds Star Wars, I have to give them credit for their intensive, non-stop backlash towards EA with Battlefront II's monetization. They spoke out, EA tried damage control, they were relentless in calling out that bullshit. And EA quickly responded.

I wish the GTA community, hell the entire gaming community, would be receptive as Star Wars were to such shady practices. We certainly have the power to do it. But no willpower.

I didn't follow it that closely, but I always got the impression it was the gaming community, especially people who played the original Battlefront and people fed up with EA and microtransactions in general, who machinated the protest against nu-Battlefront. The Star Wars fans were slopping it up like they do with anything that has light sabers and AT-ATs.

Battlefront came out at a time that made it an easy target, the last straw that gamers annoyed by the microtransaction and P2W shenanigans could rally around.

GTA5 on the other hand had a fully fleshed-out single player campaign roughly on par with the previous entries to the series. Yeah it's a shame we never got any single player content post-launch, but trying to build a protest movement around "Hey remember that GTA from 3 years that was pretty good? Well, it still doesn't have an expansion!" is a lot harder than "Battlefront released today with no singleplayer campaign" or "Battlefront II released today with P2W lootboxes". People that didn't care about GTAO or didn't want to buy Shark Cards had moved on already. I'm a huge fan of the series and I haven't booted up GTA5 since 2013.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Every GTA has a cultural impact.

V's only impact on culture has been Slink Johnson saying "nigga" and the wasted noise which will be more associated with TikTok and general memes before it's all said and done.

Edit: To be fair though, the kind of charm San Andreas has is completely lost when you go for overly cinematic presentation IMO.

 

[Captain Syrup]

I'm a huge fan of the series and I haven't booted up GTA5 since 2013.

Market saturation peaked with 4. That game and L.A. Noire were viewed as disappointments.

Investors looked at a spreadsheet and decided we want jetpacks and a not-so-serious story.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

I still remember the bad reviews that GTA V received after they stated that during the different versions that Franklin chose regarding whether to kill Trevor or Michael or letting them all work together to defeat their respective enemies, that there was no one to root for and there was nothing else left to do after you’ve done all the fun activities that the game had to offer.

Keep in mind, this was when they had the PS3/XBOX 360 versions still available before they made it onto the PS4. If anything, I’d be surprised if anyone remembers the “Hood Safari” mission being the most “meme”-like mission that most young GTA fans remember.

The “yee-yee ass haircut” and “Nigga~” moments that Lamar had will only be remembered as what @ProblematicUser420 said as something made for TikTok, and nothing more.

Even GTA: San Andreas memes made after almost 20 years are still more organic and enjoyable because the game itself has already stood the test of time.