The scene: Grand Theft Auto V‘s iconic city of Los Santos. People are walking around outside an apartment and are probably planning crimes. Nothing looks extraordinary – except a lone figure. Dressed in suffocating tight leather pants and a bulletproof vest, he looks prepared for anything and everything at once. He also looks like Keanu Reeves. He comes to a nearby man and asks – virtually begging for a cigarette. “I need my fucking … I need my recovery,” he says in a hazy grater. Then he walks away while repeatedly sliding into a T-position while repeating the same sentence over and over. “I have my … I … I … I … I …” This is car theft role play, and these days it’s a little different than you remember.
GTA role play is exactly how it sounds: players run around GTA V‘s massive open world and pretending to be police, criminals and everything in between, living out daily stories of their own things. GTA VThe player’s movie server “No Pixel” made never disappeared, but the rogue highlights of 2019 GTA RP boom feels like a distant memory. On the back of No Pixel 3.0 update (which was launched last Friday) and the general popularity of role-playing on Twitch, GTA RP is back and bigger than ever. To know: In March of 2019, at the peak of the trend, GTA V reaches a peak of 304,053 simultaneous viewers. Last Sunday it was achieves 438,350 simultaneous viewers. Even yesterday, which was not so much of a banner day as Sunday, the highlight of March 2019 still beat with nearly 100,000 viewers.
It’s not hard to see why: First, Twitch’s overall viewers are now much larger than in 2019, which means a not insignificant number of viewers are likely to start GTA RP for the first time. As in 2019, big names have joined the usual cast of police and robbers, with controversial megastar Félix ‘xQc’ Lengyel determining the will of Twitch’s collective id, while Chance ‘Sodapoppin’ Morris across the spectrum his subtly brilliant character from the previous time, Kevin Whipaloo, the man who refuses to commit crime in a city where basically the only thing that commits crime. Streamers who have seen their star rise since then, such as police youth Hasan Piker, also took up the fight after turns in the riotous events of Rust RP (Piker plays a character with a huge Italian accent who “disguises” himself using a hammery Texan accent).
The appeal is more or less the same as last time: streamers present their own chaotic micro-dramas, and you never know when a big name or infamous character might make a cameo in the show of your favorite streamer. This is absolutely 100 percent trash television; problematic stereotypes and caricatures abound, as well as scenes from Jerry Springer-like drama. It’s impossible to look away from, even if you spend the same amount of time laughing and cringing.
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But other than Rust or Minecraft, which is much better at facilitating the voluntary punching of trees in the game as a role-playing game, No Pixel 3.0 features more features than ever before. Crime and its policing are far from the only real options; Now players can also be driving instructors, mechanics, dealer owners, judges and more. Morris’ character, Kevin, runs a burger shop that mostly functioned like a real burger shop, with customers and employees and everything. It may sound boring, but then someone who turns up a magician role-playing game in the parking lot to sell Kevin a ‘drink’ that is actually just a bottle of wheat syrup with high fructose, and the entertainment value of running a restaurant in a city that goes crazy becomes crystal clear.
The largest single example of this dynamic is Burn, a streamer who’s been playing Keanu Reeves’ character for the past few days Cyberpunk 2077, Johnny Silverhand. As Father last time GTA RP has blown up, Burn is the breakout star this season. His pastiche is excellent; he nails Reeves’ sly, yet credible intensity, and even turns mistakes – such as stabbing an ally – into excuses to talk about how he will stop nothing from lowering ‘corpo foam’.
Burn talks all about Reeves’ actions and Cyberpunk himself to 11, and utters phrases such as “it’s cyber-befokIn a perfect Keanu Reeves voice, while not breaking character to laugh at how ridiculous he sounds. In what is now his second most popular track of all time, Burn takes this joke to his (logical?) Conclusion and tells a correctional department official the name of a person who could help him destroy the diabolical Arasaka corporation: Howard. The officer, another player, says he does not know Howard.
“You’ve never met Howard?” Burn replied, like Johnny. “What about … Howard Deez Nuts?”
“Oh woe,” said the officer walking away.
Burn then turns on his Johnny avatar and looks at the camera, as the distinctive Cyberpunk 2077 theme music suddenly swells.
“Yeah,” he says, using an emote to make Johnny seem to remove his sunglasses, “I’m Johnny Silverhand, and you just got cyber-punk.”
This is the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen in my life, and it made me laugh so hard I’m sure my neighbors heard me on two floors.
Burn is not just Johnny Silverhand; he’s Johnny Silverhand from the infamous buggy video game Cyberpunk. That means he also sticks out regularly and barks half-phrases over and over while using an emote to use the T-pose. It’s not exactly an original joke at this point, but what sells it is Burn’s execution and timing. the game’s willingness to play together. After all, no Pixel should exist. It’s unofficial and made by the player, which means it’s also prone to comic comic freakouts.
One of the most popular tracks on Twitch in recent days sees Burn crashing into a truck in a mailbox, and Lengyel, driving in the back, flies into the street.
“What the fuck?” Lengyel shouted.
Burn starts saying “Your cyber fuck, kid,” but cuts himself off and starts T-posing while saying, “You, you, you, you, you.”
“I think we broke him,” Lengyel said.
But without missing a beat, Burn starts walking normally again and moves to get back in the truck. “I’m fine,” he replied in a tone of poison. “Just get in that fucking car.” His character then sits outside the car and drifts into his place. Burn made the joke, but it was the game that gave the pass.
Rust and Minecraft might have staged it, but GTA RP never went anywhere, and now it’s here to remind everyone who the true king of the ridiculous dumb is, somehow good execution art. Truly, we are all cyber-punked, and we are better for it.