GTA history class is a real thing you can study at university next year

A university is launching a history course based around GTA, which will analyse American history through Rockstar’s games.

The world of video games has already overlapped with education in various ways, between Minecraft being used in schools to Ubisoft offering guided tours of Assassin’s Creed locations tailored for students.

While the educational benefits of both these games is pretty obvious, you perhaps wouldn’t level the same association at Rockstar’s GTA series – an open world sandbox where you can steal vehicles, rob banks, and generally launch bloody killing sprees against anyone you fancy.

However, one university in the US is using GTA as a vessel to teach American history, in a course titled Grand Theft America: U.S. History Since 1980 Through The GTA Video Games.

The course, set to launch at the University of Tennessee in spring next year (prior to the launch of GTA 6), is led by history professor Tore Olsson, who has a track record of using video games to teach the subject.

Olsson previously taught a history class using Rockstar’s open world Wild West epic, Red Dead Redemption, and has a book on the subject called Red Dead’s History. However, this new class is, as you’d expect, taking a more contemporary approach.

Speaking to IGN about the course, Olsson said: ‘In my class, I take seriously GTA’s fictional representation of the United States: its characters, its urban and rural landscapes, its storylines. And I use that world as the framing device for a serious history class that examines what’s actually taken place in the United States over the last half-century.

‘The class is much more about American history than the games themselves, but GTA provides the framework that structures our exploration of the past. My hope is that after the class, students will never look at these games, or modern America, the same again.’

The difference between Red Dead Redemption and GTA is the latter’s satirical edge, which makes it a peculiar jumping off point for a history lesson. However, Olsson will be using the series’ brand of satire to ‘teach big historical topics’, citing parallels between the narrative of GTA: San Andreas and the LA riots of April 1992.

However, for anyone simply looking to play GTA in class, or show off your knowledge about the life and times of Tommy Vercetti, this particular course, sadly, doesn’t require you to play the games.

‘As with my previous courses on Red Dead Redemption, I don’t require students to own or play the games during our semester,’ he added.

‘I’d be anxious asking cash-strapped students to buy a pricy console or gaming PC plus the games themselves. And I never examine students on the fictional content of the games; there’ll never be an exam question about Trevor Philips or Niko Bellic.

‘However, that’s not to say that the games will be absent from the class – far from it. I begin each lecture by showing game footage or screenshots on our topic of the day. Sometimes I’ll pull out a controller and briefly play on my laptop and projector – perhaps loading shipping containers in the Port of Los Santos – before proceeding to the core historical content.

‘I expect many students will be familiar with the GTA franchise, though ultimately their knowledge of game lore won’t do much to earn them an A.’

The class was originally supposed to include GTA 6 but due to the game’s delay from autumn 2025 to May 26 next year, Olsson will focus on prior games in the series.

Olsson makes no mention of the fact that, unlike Red Dead Redemption, GTA is primarily made in the UK, so it’s very much an outsider’s view of the US. But we’re going to assume he knows that.

It’s unclear if GTA 6 will carry the same brand of satire as prior titles, given many of Rockstar’s lead writers have left the company in recent years, but we do know it will see the series return to Vice City in the fictional US state of Leonida, based on Florida.

The sequel will revolve around a criminal couple, Jason and Lucia – the latter being the first proper female protagonist for the series.

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