Dan Houser

Like 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 have a personality.

So you could push 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 3, but by Vice City, you could begin rudimentary talking.

And the world...

was there and existing.

And so it was the idea of like 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 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.