Grand Theft Auto
Rockstar's open-world crime franchise — the games that invented the modern 'do whatever you want in a satirical American city' template and were the canonical moral-panic target of the 2000s.
Origin
The series began in 1997 as a top-down 2D crime game. The breakthrough was Grand Theft Auto III (2001), which brought the franchise into 3D and introduced the formula: a sprawling open-world city, a long criminal-rise story, free-roam mayhem, satirical radio stations, and a wanted-level system shown as escalating stars. GTA: San Andreas (2004), GTA IV (2008), and GTA V (2013) escalated scale, satire, and revenue; GTA V is the most profitable entertainment product in history ($8 billion+ in revenue, more than any film). The franchise has been a moral-panic lightning rod since the late 90s — Hillary Clinton, Jack Thompson, and most major US news outlets attacked it; sales went up every time.
Modern usage
'Wanted level' as a metaphor for compounding consequences — 'every email I send gives me another star on my Slack wanted level.' 'Going GTA on someone' (overreacting violently or chaotically) is occasional slang. The franchise itself is reference shorthand for 'satirical open-world game' and for 'this thing politicians blame for school shootings.'
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