Communication

Communication in Grand Theft Auto refers to communication between the player and non-player characters in the game.

Description

Aside from traditional face-to-face conversations between characters, various forms of communication devices are used throughout the series.

Until the introduction of speaking protagonists, communication between the player and other characters in the game was often one-way, the player having to merely listen to instructions or comments by the other side and responding with actions. The release of Grand Theft Auto III and subsequent games brought about the obsolescence of certain modes of communications.

Public Telephones

Public telephones, also known as payphones or phone booths, are, in both Grand Theft Auto and Grand Theft Auto 2, a crucial mode of communication between the player and various criminals. Ringing in various portions of cities, players are issued orders by said party to perform a string of missions, simply by walking in front of the marked telephone booths. The system was employed more extensively in GTA 2, where individual missions are triggered each time the player walks up to a ringing public phone.

Emphasis on face-to-face meetings with individuals in Grand Theft Auto III resulted in fewer occurrences of public telephones as a means to issue missions to the player. Only a handful of characters in games after GTA 2 are known to use public telephones to address the player, primarily intending to remain unseen and anonymous, including El Burro, King Courtney, and D-Ice (Marty Chonks is seen briefly in Her Lover) from GTA III, Mr. Black from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, The Fixer from Grand Theft Auto IV, Lester Crest from Grand Theft Auto V, and Franklin Clinton from Grand Theft Auto Online.

A public telephone in GTA.

The icon for the public telephone in GTA. The text is displayed to the right of its image.

A public telephone in GTA London 1969 and GTA London 1961, which uses red telephone boxes formerly common in the United Kingdom.

The icon for the public telephone in GTA London 1969 and GTA London 1961. The text is displayed to the right of its image.

A public telephone in GTA 2.

A ringing public telephone fronted by a halo in GTA III. This phone activates El Burro missions.

Pagers

The pager, also known as the beeper, is another communication device that debuted in the first Grand Theft Auto. Used during and after missions, the delivery of message to the player's pager is one of several methods players may be provided with further instructions upon completion of a certain task. For much of its appearances in the series, pager messages are delivered via a scrolling line of text on the device. In addition to messages, pagers are also used as stopwatches to inform the player of the time remaining before a deadline expires.

The pager features prominently in the Grand Theft Auto: London mission packs. This creates a minor prochronism as the first successful consumer pager was released in 1974, with the London games being set in the 1960s. However, the game explains the "pager" is merely a portable device that receives telegrams, an even older communication system, printing out a scrolling tape of text based on incoming Morse code-based messages. A pager-like device appears in Grand Theft Auto 2 but is only used as a countdown timer and tally counter during Kill Frenzies, and does not possess the functionality of a pager.

The pager as a communication device was reintroduced in GTA III for largely the same purpose as GTA, but to a more limited extent, such as updates on newly available weapons at Ammu-Nation, messages to meet new contacts, or information during a mission. The pager in GTA III is also notable for playing a ring tone based on the song "Grand Theft Auto" by Da Shootaz, one of several GTA games that adopted the song in a certain form. Grand Theft Auto Advance also features a pager as a means of communication to the protagonist.

The introduction of a verbal protagonist in Vice City results in the pager being replaced by the mobile phone, a feature carried over to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The pager returns in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (set in 1984, two years before the events of Vice City), as mobile communication was still in its infancy.

The pager in Grand Theft Auto (1997 game).

The portable telegram machine in GTA London 1969 and GTA London 1961.

The Sumo Wordman pager in GTA III.

The pager from the Mobile versions of GTA III.

The pager in GTA Advance. The text is displayed to the right of its image.

The Beeper 220 pager in GTA Vice City Stories.

Mobile Phones

Main article: Mobile Phone

The mobile phone had been in use since GTA as a mean for an unknown party to guide the player on jobs to do. Despite its potential for two-way communication, the mobile phone is initially used only to relay information to the player, with the player responding by completing jobs. In the GTA London games, two-way communication is achieved in the form of walkie-talkies.

The mobile phone would not reappear in the series again until GTA Vice City, where it appears as a large, bulky device. Phone calls on mobile phones are commonly triggered during and outside missions, providing players with developments in the storyline, as well as comical conversations between the characters.

As games and the in-game timeline progress, the mobile phone is shown to decrease in size as the years pass, with the device assuming a contemporary design in subsequent games. By Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, the phone is more compact and slimmer, with a flip-down transmitter apparently depicted in the GTA San Andreas rendition of the device, and the GTA LCS rendition depicted as a clamshell phone. By Grand Theft Auto IV, mobile phone usage has been expanded. For the first time in the series, the player can initiate phone calls and send text messages to other characters.

The mobile phone in GTA. The text is displayed to the right of its image.

The walkie-talkie in GTA London, which relays message the same way as in GTA.

The mobile phone in GTA Vice City. Its design may have been based on the Motorola DynaTAC.

The mobile phone in GTA San Andreas.

The mobile phone as a pickup in GTA Liberty City Stories.

The mobile phone interface in GTA IV is rendered as a sprite in the lower-right of the screen; the sprite is mapped onto the front of the phone model itself, as seen here.

The mobile phone in GTA IV.

The mobile phone in The Lost and Damned.

The mobile phone in The Ballad of Gay Tony.

The mobile phone in GTA Online.

The mobile phone (Celltowa Cellphone) in the mission "Prologue".

Franklin's Badger.

Michael's iFruit 9iX.

Trevor's Facade.

Internet

An e-mail by Milica Bellic addressed to Niko Bellic on mail.eyefind.info in GTA IV.

The use of the Internet, which by the late 1990s had become a commonplace part of American culture, debuted in GTA 2 with a blog set in a GTA universe, followed by number of spoof websites for GTA III. GTA IV is the first game in the series to fabricate its own Internet, with around 100 websites available for access within the game itself. Its purpose as a communication device in GTA IV is confined to a limited number of interactive websites and its e-mail service.

Niko Bellic has an Eyefind e-mail account, which the player can use to read and reply to the various emails sent by other characters. The player can sometimes dictate the tone of Niko's reply, with a green button prompting a "positive" response and a red button prompting a more "negative" response. Most emails signify progression in the game's storyline (e.g., emails praising the player for completing a mission), build on a character's background (e.g., emails from Niko's mother), or promote in-game features (e.g., Brucie Kibbutz emailing Niko about vipluxuryringtones.com). The player also periodically receives spam emails, which they cannot reply to.

A handful of websites are also used to receive and send information for missions in various ways. love-meet.net is used in "Out of the Closet" to arrange a blind date with a man, while goldberglignerandshyster.com is used in "Final Interview" to send a resume, and autoeroticar.com is used in "I'll Take Her" to obtain the phone number of a target for kidnapping. The resume and contact features of the latter two sites are not functional outside of the respective missions.

Three girlfriends are available for the player to find via the Internet. Two are available at love-meet.net, while one posts a link to a blog containing her contact information on craplist.net.

The Internet also returns in Grand Theft Auto V, where it can now be used to check bank accounts and purchase vehicles and stocks.

PDA

Receiving an e-mail via the PDA in the Nintendo DS version of GTA Chinatown Wars version.

The PDA is introduced in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars as an alternative to the mobile phone. As opposed to verbal communication, the player may use the device to communicate via e-mail with in-game characters and order weapons on the Internet, setting GPS waypoints, changing radio stations and trade information in drug dealing. During gameplay in the Nintendo DS version, the PDA shows the information that would have been shown on the HUD in previous games. The PDA has a different layout depending on the platform the game is being played on; on the Nintendo DS version, the PDA is accessed via the touch screen, whereas the PSP version features a "pause menu" layout where the player can check their emails. The PDA runs BadgerOS software, and the PSP version of the PDA is similar to the PlayStation 3/PSP XrossMediaBar (XMB) menu.