Grand Theft Auto is infamous for its violence, crudeness, and controversial subject matter — so naturally, it piqued my interest. When I bought GTA V, I’d never played a similar title before. I didn’t know what to expect from the gameplay, but I’d heard the hype, both positive and alarmist. I was most interested in the multiplayer world of GTA Online. My real question was: what lessons are there to be learned in such an immoral, Darwinian game world? Would it influence me to think differently, or provide insight on the human condition, or… something? Here are a few things that I didn’t expect.

1.  Sometimes, crime doesn’t pay

This character looks frightening, but behind that mask is the opposite of a criminal mastermind.

In GTA Online, one of the first objectives is to rob a convenience store. With little money to my name, a weapon, and an extremely tenuous grasp of the game’s controls, I set out to to buy the cheapest mask available — a carryout bag from a burger joint with crude cut-out eyeholes. I then put it on my character’s head and walked to the store. Holding the place up was simple enough (other than the fact that I felt terrible about doing it), but as I waited for the teller to put the money in the bag, a horde of police officers showed up almost immediately. Only a few seconds after I picked up the sack of ill-gotten gains, gunfire was raining into the store. The word WASTED flashed on the screen as my character fell to the ground.

Already, GTA was having the opposite effect on me than many people might fear. If anything, it was showing me that I just wasn’t cut out for a life of crime. This was the harsh reality of robbery — my character perished over what must have been about $1000 in cash. It’s just not worth it! She’d be better off getting an actual job (although that wouldn’t make for a very entertaining game, I admit).

2. …but friendship does

What of the other denizens in this harsh, crime-ridden city? Should I attempt to make contact? I wondered as I wandered Los Santos.

Cautiously observing another player in the wild. Username blurred for privacy.

Soon, people began inviting me to do missions or races with them. GTA encourages social connections with other users within its world, and I was surprised by how the multiplayer was more focused on teamwork than competition. One core feature of the game is the opportunity to do special missions called “heists.” These require coordination and teamwork, usually from four players. Heists provide an extremely good cut, more so than any mission in the game (way more than robbing stores). 

In the first heist I accepted, I had to pilot a helicopter. The only problem was that I had no idea how. The other members of the heist, a crew of total strangers, walked me through the controls step-by-step. It would have felt like a spy movie, if I wasn’t also stress eating potato chips while trying to maneuver the chopper. When I finally rammed into the ground with a not-completely-destroyed helicopter, I felt amazing. I’d done it for the team!

3. Don’t drive distracted

GTA is set squarely in the modern age, and if there’s one thing that differentiates now from way back when, it’s smartphones. So naturally, each playable character in GTA V has their own smartphone which can be pulled up any time.

While driving, for example.

Crashing into a fence.

Please don’t get me wrong here: when I drive my real-life car, my real-life phone is tossed into the backseat because distracted driving is dangerously irresponsible. With that said, GTA is built around being dangerously irresponsible. Death is a slap on the wrist in-game (and car damage is easily magicked away), so sometimes during a long commute over the freeway in some unfortunate NPC’s car, I pulled out my phone to read an e-mail, or pulled up my map…

Big mistake. I have yet to personally experience better proof that distracted driving is a bad idea. Doing so in GTA nearly always resulted in a destroyed fender — or worse. Figuring that out in the game world made me more cautious in the real one.

4. Be nice (yes, really)

Stepping into GTA Online feels like stepping into an urban Hunger Games. It’s necessary to keep moving — “like a shark,” as one guide I read put it — and I experienced this fact firsthand as, after entering the game world one day, I was immediately mowed down by a fellow player’s pink sports car while reading my e-mail.

I didn’t get mad, though. I just laughed it off and told them I had no idea how to play. They laughed, too, then ran me over again. Then they sent me a friend request. I guess… we bonded?

As the game went on, my new friend wasted a few other people, then complained in the chat:

“ugh, bounty again? seriously?”

As it turns out, griefing (the act of intentionally annoying other players in an online game) can have serious consequences for the griefer. Wronged players can call in bounties on their heads, encouraging others to take them out.

Furthermore, after a few days of play, I got an automatic $1000 gift for not being a “bad sport.” Apparently, “bad sports” destroy other players’ vehicles and leave missions halfway through. As punishment, they get banished to a server populated solely by other bad sports. A fitting punishment, in my opinion. Wouldn’t it be great if real life worked that way? It was nice to know that even though the NPCs were little more than set pieces in the crime fantasy, kindness is encouraged to the other real humans in the game.

5. The world is beautiful

Grand Theft Auto V makes me wish I had a better graphics card. Los Santos may be a (sometimes cruel) pastiche of Los Angeles, but there’s one thing it does capture: the scenery. I walked past places that I’d visited in the real-life LA, awed by every detail. From the tide lapping gently at the sands of Vespucci Beach, to the deserts of rural California with howling coyotes, to the famous locations on Vinewood Boulevard.

In Vinewood, next to the Walk of Fame.

I hiked, jet-skied, and climbed mountains, alone with my thoughts in the wilderness. Even on my unremarkable desktop, the environment was breathtaking. It made me want to go outside. That’s a rare thing for a game to accomplish  — well, a good game, anyway.

It’s possible to take Instagram-esque photos, filters and all.

Ultimately, I had a strange and amazing time. My biggest lesson, though, was this: interactive media provides a unique, individual experience. What you take out of an open-world video game, positive or negative — especially one with as many options as GTA — largely depends on the the of person you are when you enter into it.

Photos courtesy of Grand Theft Auto V.