GTA 6 is less than a month away, and some corners of the internet are already furious. Their complaint? The game stars a woman. Now, one creator has hit back with a sarcastic video that perfectly sums up how silly the outrage sounds.
The clip opens with a simple caption: “Apparently GTA 6 is ‘feminist slop’ now.” From there, she plays the role of an angry gamer who can’t believe what Rockstar has done.
Playing the outraged gamer
In the video, she rants about being “forced” to play as a woman. She complains that she has waited years and years for the game. Now, she claims, the “liberal agenda” has ruined it.
The jokes get more absurd as she goes. For example, she admits she can’t even talk to a woman, let alone play as one. She then argues that a woman in GTA is simply unrealistic. Finally, she delivers the killer line: “Women don’t even drive cars.”
Of course, the whole thing is satire. By taking the complaints to their logical extreme, she shows how ridiculous they sound. As a result, the video has struck a chord with players who are tired of the backlash.
Why GTA 6 is facing this backlash
The criticism centres on Lucia, one of the game’s two main characters. She shares the spotlight with her partner, Jason, as the pair take on Vice City together. However, Lucia is the first female protagonist in a mainline GTA game since the series went 3D.
For most fans, that’s an exciting change. The trailers have presented Lucia as tough, confident and fully capable of holding her own. Still, a vocal group online has labelled the game “woke” or “feminist slop” because of her.
The complaints don’t hold up
Here’s the funny part. Players will spend plenty of time as Jason too, so nobody is forced to ditch a male lead. Furthermore, GTA has always mixed things up. GTA 5 had three protagonists, and players switched between them freely.
The idea that a woman is “unrealistic” in GTA also falls apart quickly. After all, this is a series where you can survive a fall from a skyscraper and steal a fighter jet. Compared to that, a woman robbing a store hardly stretches belief.
Part of a bigger pattern
Sadly, this kind of backlash is nothing new in gaming. Many games with female leads have faced similar criticism before launch. Often, the noise fades once people actually play the game.
GTA 6 could follow the same path. The game launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and it’s expected to be one of the biggest releases ever. Once players hit Vice City, most will probably care more about the heists than about who’s holding the gun.
Until then, videos like this one offer a welcome dose of humour. Sometimes, the best response to outrage is simply to repeat it back.