# GTA 3 changed video games forever | Dan Houser and Lex Fridman

*Lex Clips* · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jh8Z5ub_9Q

## Summary

In this short clip from a Lex Fridman interview, Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser explains why GTA III is one of the most influential games of all time: it created a convincing open world that wasn't scripted but was a pushable simulation. He describes the appeal of being a "digital tourist" in a world that seems to exist independently of the player, and agrees with Fridman's framing of systemic and sandbox design combining to make a world feel alive. He closes by noting Rockstar was only beginning to scratch the surface of filling such worlds with interwoven content.

## Key points

- Dan Houser calls GTA III probably one of the most influential games of all time.
- The world was not scripted; it was really low-rent AI, a simulation you could prod and push.
- Part of the appeal was that the world existed even if you did nothing — you could just listen to the radio or look at billboards.
- The illusion was that the world was already running when you turned up, as if you hadn't started it.
- Lex Fridman distinguishes systemic design (interlocking rules producing emergent behavior) from sandbox design (the player feeling they can do anything).
- Houser says the combination of a living world and player freedom is what makes a world feel alive.
- By Vice City, rudimentary talking with pedestrians was added.
- At the time, Rockstar was only beginning to scratch the surface of how to fill these worlds with interesting, interwoven content.

## Notes

### Why GTA III was influential
- Dan Houser considers GTA III probably one of the most influential games of all time because it created the feeling of an open world.
- The world was not scripted — it was "really, really, really low-rent AI," a simulation you could prod and push to see what happened.
- The simulation seemed to have a personality: you could push it, and the world would push you back.

### The world exists without you
- A captivating part was that if you did nothing, the world still existed — you could passively listen to the radio, look at billboards, or talk to pedestrians (rudimentary talking arrived by Vice City).
- Houser describes this as being a "digital tourist": you visit worlds that exist almost independently of you.
- The illusion was that the world was already running when you turned up, even though you had started it.

### Systemic vs. sandbox design
- Lex Fridman names two concepts: systemic design — interlocking game rules and systems that interact and produce emergent behavior, creating a living world from the environment's perspective.
- Sandbox design — overlapping but different — is the player's feeling that they can do anything.
- Houser agrees the combination of the two — "this world is alive, and I'm in it" — is very powerful.

### Filling worlds with content
- For Houser, GTA III came at an interesting time personally and professionally.
- Rockstar was beginning to scratch the surface of how to fill these worlds with content, make it interesting, and interweave it so the systems feel alive as you mess with them.

## Transcript

[00:02] - Yeah, I think GTA III is probably one of the most influential games of all time. It created a feeling of an open world. What do you think it takes to create that feeling? There were like these looming skyscrapers. There were the changing traffic lights. There's the feeling like, first of all, you had a feeling you could do anything, and then the world was reacting to it. - Yes - in a way that didn't feel scripted. - Yes, and it wasn't scripted. It was really, really, really low-rent AI. It was a simulation that you could prod and push and see what happened, and I think that was incredibly... It was two things. It was the fact that here was a simulation that you could mess about with and the simulation seemed to

[00:48] have a personality. So you could push and see... And the world would push you back in whatever way that meant. And then the other thing was just this... I think one of the reasons it was so captivating was also the idea of if I did nothing, the world still existed. Or I could act in quite a passive way. I could just listen to the radio, I could... Look at billboards, I could talk to pedestrians, and not in GTA III, but by Vice City, you could begin rudimentary talking. And the world was there and existing, and so it was the idea of almost something that really tried to explore in lots of games, the idea of being a digital tourist. You know, you were in, you were in these worlds, and you went there as a visitor, and they existed

[01:31] almost independent of you. It felt like when you turned up, the world was running. It didn't feel like you'd started it. Of course, you had started it, but that feeling, I think, was one of the things, the illusions that people found very captivating, was, "I'm in a world that both doesn't exist and does exist." - So there are these two concepts that I was reading about, just to put names on them: one is systemic video game design, so systemic games, and the other is sandbox video games. And the systemic is from the environment perspective, which means that there are these interlocking game rules and systems that interact with each other and produce emergent behavior. And that emergent behavior is what creates a feeling like there's a living world.

[02:16] And then the sandbox aspect, which is overlapping but different, is from the user perspective, from the player perspective, the feeling like you can do anything. And when those two things combine, the feeling like you can do anything, and the feeling like there's a world that's full, that is also doing anything it wants, that creates this incredible feeling of, like, "This world is alive. - And I'm in it." - And I'm in it. - And it's the combination of those two things, I think, that is very powerful. And I think with GTA III, you know, for me, it came at a really interesting time in my life personally, and I was very able to engage in it, probably for the first time professionally, actually away to do something. And we were really sort

[03:07] of scratching, began to scratch the surface on how do we fill these worlds with content, and how do we make that content interesting and make the content all interwoven? So, as you start to mess with these systems, they also feel alive and interesting.