Rockstar Games and American History

Promotional Materials and the Construction of Authenticity

Esther Wright

• Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9783111521428
• eBook ISBN: 9783110716696
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: World History

For two decades, Rockstar Games have been making games that interrogate and represent the idea of America, past and present. Commercially successful, fan-beloved, and a frequent source of media attention, Rockstar's franchises are positioned as not only game-changing, ground-breaking interventions in the games industry, but also as critical, cultural histories on America and its excesses.

But what does Rockstar's version of American history look like, and how is it communicated through critically acclaimed titles like Red Dead Redemption (2010) and L.A. Noire (2011)? By combining analysis of Rockstar's games and a range of official communications and promotional materials, this book offers critical discussion of Rockstar as a company, their video games, and ultimately, their attempts at creating new narratives about U.S. history and culture. It explores the ways in which Rockstar's brand identity and their titles coalesce to create a new kind of video game history, how promotional materials work to claim the "authenticity" of these products, and assert the authority of game developers to perform the role of historian.

By working at the intersection of historical game studies, U.S. history, and film and media studies, this book explores what happens when contemporary demands for historical authenticity are brought to bear on the way we envisage the past – and whose past it is deemed to be. Ultimately, this book implores those who research historical video games to consider the oft-forgotten sources at the margins of these games as importance spaces where historical meaning is made and negotiated.

Watch our book talk with the author Esther Wright here: https://youtu.be/AaC_9XsX-CQ

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction: The American History of Rockstar Games
• Chapter 1 Rockstar’s West(s)
• Chapter 2 “The True West” and “Real Crime Stories”: Constructing a Discourse of Historical Authenticity
• Chapter 3 “Rockstar Recommends”: Constructing a Discourse of Cinematic Authenticity
• Chapter 4 Playing Outlaw, Playing Detective: The Limits of Historical Gameplay
• Chapter 5 Women in Rockstar’s American History
• Chapter 6 Other(ed) Histories
• Epilogue: “Rockstar Games Presents” … American History?
• Index