South Florida - a place where sea, sand, and sex are always in season. Where the most famous soccer player in the world scores goals for a pink team and a multi-billionaire thinks about how to commercialize space travel.
When Lionel Messi and Jeff Bezos moved to Miami this year, they added some glamor to a city already known for its opulence. But there is also a dark, criminal side. The intersection of these worlds was on display this week with the release of the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer.
Its appearance ended a ten-year silence for Rockstar, the game's creators, and broke YouTube records, garnering 93 million views in 24 hours.
The video was described by basketball star LeBron James at X as "crazy". In less than a day, it became the most viewed video on the platform, excluding music videos. The 90-second teaser confirmed that the game will take place in Vice City, a parallel version of Miami, and immediately sparked debates on the web about how accurate this description was.
It featured many of Miami's cultural attractions - beach runs and yacht parties, luxury cars, and rooftop pools. Neon-lit streets. But there was another side of the city that was shown. A crocodile in a shop, strippers dancing on dollars, and policemen with rifles breaking down the door.
The sight of a woman climbing onto a speeding car seems absurd but blends seamlessly with what appears to be a replica of Miami's Kaseya Center basketball arena and Wynwood murals. It is this precise combination of the unimaginable and the real that blurs the lines between fact and fiction.
According to Chris Livingston, senior editor at PC Gamer, a leading gaming publication, that's exactly what Rockstar, the developers of the GTA series, was aiming for. "These games are based on real American cities and it's those little details that really bring them to life," Livingstone told the BBC.
"A lot of the stuff in the games is based on real things. The developers are from the UK, so it's kind of their take on an exaggerated view of American culture."
The angry old woman holding a hammer in each hand, and the criminal with the tattooed face and purple hair were all images from South Florida's leading newscasts.
Livingston called these moments "great fodder" for Rockstar's developers, and said they allowed them to add incredible detail that reflected the "weird reality of American culture, especially in Florida." But, he said, the growing ridiculousness of reality is also a challenge.
"One thing we think about when we talk about satirizing American culture is how real life has become," Livingston continued. "How long can Rockstar satirize a culture that itself has become so ridiculous?".
Dmitri Williams, a professor at the University of Southern California who studies gaming, influence, and technology, said: "I think there's more than a little turning a blind eye to reality here."
“If you can get away from the headlines, you're starting from a place that people know or have an inkling of, rather than inventing a new world from scratch. This is what Rockstar is good at. They start with the stereotype," he said.
But as good as the game's creators are at reflecting reality, Williams believes they also played a role in shaping it. He emphasized that the GTA series introduces a level of freedom and transgression that captures the hearts of gamers who become a "devoted audience."
"You can go anywhere and do anything from eating a hamburger to shooting a cop or looking for a hooker," he pointed out.
The freedom and violence in previous GTA games made headlines and sparked numerous lawsuits, one of which was filed by former First Lady Hillary Clinton and another that went all the way to the US Supreme Court.
For some people, GTA VI's depiction of crime and mayhem in Florida is too strong and one-sided. However, according to others, the video is not so alarming.
"We live up to our reputation," said Jose Duran, a Miami-based nightlife and culture reporter. "I think the pulse here in South Florida is that people are excited."
"In some ways, it's a point of pride — as strange as it may be to some people — of how crazy Florida can be," he added. Duran said the trailer was released as expected for a game that "is about things you shouldn't do in real life -- stealing cars, killing or beating people up."
"I'm not offended by the video, but I understand why some people take the opposite view," he added.
Duran noted that he will keep his opinion after the official release of the game - in 2025: "It will be different when the game actually comes out and people can start analyzing things."/BGNES