Jacked

The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto

By: David Kushner

Narrated by: Adam Verner

Inside the making of the multibillion-dollar Grand Theft Auto videogame empire....

Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest and most controversial videogame franchises of all time. Since its first release in 1997, GTA has pioneered the use of everything from 3D graphics to the voices of top Hollywood actors and repeatedly transformed the world of gaming. Despite its incredible innovations in the $75 billion game industry, it has also been a lightning rod of debate, spawning accusations of ethnic and sexual discrimination, glamorizing violence, and inciting real-life crimes.

Jacked tells the turbulent and mostly unknown story of GTA’s wildly ambitious creators, Rockstar Games; the invention and evolution of the franchise; and the cultural and political backlash it has provoked.

Written by David Kushner, author of Masters of Doom and a top journalist on gaming, this book is drawn from over 10 years of interviews and research, including first-hand knowledge of Grand Theft Auto’s creators and detractors. It explains how British prep-school brothers Sam and Dan Houser took their dream of fame, fortune, and the glamor of American pop culture and transformed it into a worldwide videogame blockbuster. It also offers inside details on key episodes in the development of the series, including the financial turmoil of Rockstar games, the infamous "Hot Coffee" sex minigame incident, and more.

Whether you love Grand Theft Auto or hate it - or just want to understand the defining entertainment product of a generation - you’ll want to hear Jacked and get the real story behind this boundary-pushing game.

David Kushner is an award-winning journalist and author. A contributing editor of Rolling Stone, he has also written for Wired, The New York Times Magazine, New York, and GQ. He served as the digital-culture commentator for National Public Radio and is an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University.

©2012 David Kushner (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Doesn't Get the Creative Story

While this audiobook provides a brisk, well-narrated history of Rockstar Games' corporate evolution, I wanted to hear a little bit less about the decadent lifestyle and threatening workplace elitism, and more about the creative process of game design and world building. There is some of this, as when we're told of the Scottish engineers driving through the streets of LA with a microphone, recording street conversations to make GTA3 sound authentic, but I wanted a lot more. Sam and Dan Houser are clearly the heart of the story of GTA, but they did not cooperate with this book''s production, and without their perspective, this account is hollow. We don't get enough about Dan's writing process (did his literary studies influence his game scripting?) or the engineering challenges, not to mention there is no commentary or interpretative angle on the various GTA ludonarratives, nor any theorization of the larger significance of these games in the current culture. It's not that kind of book.

I found the Jack Thompson plot to be diverting and not interesting enough to take up as much space as it did. It could have been effectively edited down, and seems like its there to fill up what is an underdeveloped narrative.

That said, this book is somewhat enjoyable, and if you are curious about Rockstar, you will probably enjoy it, at least partially. It provided part of the story, but the great account of Rockstar is yet to be written.

Outlaws Forever

If you could sum up Jacked in three words, what would they be?

Outlaws, Scotts, Wanted

What other book might you compare Jacked to and why?

Masters of Doom. Kushner's first book on the golden age of gaming and programming, tells an almost equally gripping tale about the bad boys of the gaming world, and the controversy that surrounded them. Similar themes, but less focus on the technical aspects.

What does Adam Verner bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Verner is a great narrator, and very subtle in his emphasis. Paper books just suck. I haven't read a physical book in years.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

You take the high road, and I'll take the low road, and I'll get to Los Santos before you...

Any additional comments?

Honestly, I would have liked to have had someone from the UK of Scotland narrate this instead, as most of the central characters hail from that region of the world. Was Patrick Stewart just not available? Still, Verner did a solid job.

Could Have Been Better...

I finished this story all the way through as I really wanted to have a good grasp on RockStar games and the GTA series. However, while the book provided some good history and insight, it always felt like it fell a bit short throughout the listen. The stories seemed more second hand and felt like key and interesting details were missing.

This Book is Wanted at 5 Stars!

Kushner does an excellent job at retelling the tale behind the creation of Rockstar Games! Through the well spoken performance of Adam Verner we get to hear what inspired the creation of GTA on the PlayStation all the way to GTA IV on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Throughout it all listeners also learn of the internal conflict the studio suffered throughout the years alongside it's mainstream influence on the Media sparking an ongoing argument of Violent Video games and it's impact on players. Additionally listeners will hear about legal troubles the studio faces, specifically the studio's main lawyer they faced Jack Thompson.

Definitely listen to this if you grew up playing the GTA franchise and love learning about the behind the scenes of what makes a great game series and it's impact on society.

interesting background but repetetive

the story begins exciting with first initiation of the conttoversial game, but midway just becomes too repetetive especially with the al rhe lawsuit descriptions and the 'arch enemy' of games. Much weaker overall than masters of doom

Rockstar Games And The Idiots Who Ran It

I've always been a big videogame fan, playing games back as far as the early 1980's, and so I'm pretty aware of the Rockstar Games library, but really didn't know much of the company's history. This book is very good as far as telling that story. The problem is though... it's not really THAT interesting a story, and by all accounts the principals in this story are basically jerks. Oh well, it was informative if not enjoyable.

Great book, too bad it contains plagiarism and outdated stereotypes

Id like to start by saying this book is fantastic and 100% worth a credit. Hearing the behind the scenes decisions of the housers and how they grew up and their actual rockstar attitude was in a weird sense heartwarming and personable. Unfortunately, this book contains blatant plagiarism and some VERY annoying outdated stereotypes, even for 2012. Lets start with the plagiarism. To avoid as many spoilers as possible, there is a crime in the book committed by two young man resulting in the death of a truck driver on the highway. The book does an incredible job setting up the scene for the crime so you can visualize it. Turns out however, that an online media platform “salon” had written an article about the same crime 7 years before the books release. I was shocked to find out as i read the article that the book had plagiarized it shamelessly word for word. It’s literally the second result on google, they didnt even try to hide it. Furthermore, the book repetitively refers to “gamers” as “mountain dew addicted nerds” which as we all know is just not true or funny at all, kind of rude if im being honest as a “gamer” myself. On top of this, the book has a lot of forced humor with video game related jokes that just do not hit in the way the author must have intended them to. It becomes a bit agitating after a while. Still, being able to hear stories of the rockstar staff and their emails back and forth was a riot and created a new perspective for me to look at their games. Still worth the listen

A flawed but interesting look into the history of R*

Kushner continues his chronicling of in depth narratives of what the story is behind games biggest franchises. The book reveals a interesting history of the origins of GTA and rockstars rise. It falters in its obsessiveness over Jack Thompson, and the odd redemption arc awarded him. The biggest gap in the book happens with the events between San Andreas And GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption, where before the release of those games the studio is supposedly in a state of peril. Additionally the book fails to accurate show the expansion of Rockstars studios and what is happening at each one. It also largely ignores smaller games released. Overall an interesting read that deserves a sequel profiling Rockstars even larger successes with GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2.

Amazing

Wow what a story, it’s one of the best books I’ve read (listen) I want to buy GTA5 now immediately

Smooth

Definitely an easy listen and explains so much that I never knew. From the birth of the game to the massive steam roller it became at it's prime.