I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: I Will Miss GTA V
For over a decade, GTA V was more than a game to me. It was a place to escape. Now, at it's now inevitable wind-down, and with the changes to GTA Online, it's like saying goodbye to an old friend.
Saying goodbye to a safe space
It feels strange to admit how much the end of GTA V is affecting me. When I first got my copy of GTA V, I was in Florida, unwrapping an Xbox on Christmas morning. I was on vacation at Vero Beach, and let’s just say my family got... heated. It was bad. Maybe I’ll dig into that another day, but for now, all I knew was that I needed an escape.
I didn’t realize then that this game would become a safe space, a place to escape and find comfort. It was one of the last clear memories from that trip. Everything after that feels like a blur.
Maybe that’s why I held on to GTA V so tightly. It was familiar and unchanging, even when everything else around me felt chaotic. It became a place I could go when reality felt too heavy.
The night I first played it was also the night I first truly understood what it meant to see someone you love not as a hero. It was the first time I saw a family member in a way that changed how I looked at them forever. I was too young to fully process it, and maybe that’s why I turned to GTA V. It offered an escape from emotions I didn’t know how to handle.
The end of an era
No one’s really talking about how sad it is that GTA V is on its way out. This isn’t just another game update or a new title release.
It’s the end of something that meant a lot to me. GTA V was the backdrop to my adolescence. I spent countless hours in Los Santos, feeling oddly safe in a world full of chaos. It was a place to go when I didn’t want to be anywhere else.
Moving on from Los Santos
With GTA VI coming, things are changing. Online is evolving, support will eventually end, and GTA V will be shelved. It’s weird to think about, like saying goodbye to a place you used to call home. It feels like losing a friend who was always there, ready to provide a familiar escape.
It’s just a game, but it’s also a time capsule. A reminder of who I was and who I became while playing it. Saying goodbye to GTA V feels like closing a chapter of my life, and that’s why it’s hitting me so hard.
I know it’ll still be there, but I’m sure I’ll be engulfed in the next one, if I even have the time in the first place. Overall, I suppose this means it’s time to move forward, to find new safe spaces and create new memories.
GTA V will always be a part of my story, but now it’s time to write the next chapter. It’s time to focus on carrying the memories with me, wherever the next adventure leads… and giving my man Franklin a well deserved break.
"But I gotta move forward in my life. It seems like all I do is let people tell me what to do, and I do it, and nothing changes."
— Franklin Clinton
What video games have been your safe space? Do you still play them?
