insider gaming's protagonist ranking is up and it's another empty link farm

Clicked through to Insider Gaming's "all GTA lead characters ranked" piece expecting an actual list. It's the same thing they've been doing all month. One paragraph saying they ranked everyone, then a "find out here" link to the real article. No actual rankings in the piece itself. This is like the third or fourth time they've pulled this exact move with GTA content lately.

The release date piece was the same. Platform guide too. Story length one as well. They put up a shell with a headline and a link and call it content. I'm starting to think their whole GTA strategy is just churning out teasers to farm clicks before the game launches.

Since they won't give us the list, I'll do my own. Niko is still the best written character in the series and it's not particularly close. Tommy had the most fun personality, pure charisma the whole way through Vice City. CJ had the best arc of the 3D era. Arthur's technically a Red Dead character so he doesn't count, but he'd be number one if he did.

Trevor's the wildcard. Some days I think he's brilliant, other days he's just exhausting. I think that's kind of the point of him.

The real question is where Lucia and Jason slot in once GTA 6 drops. Lucia's got more going on in the trailers than most GTA leads get in a full game. The ankle monitor, the parole stuff, the tension with Jason. She could easily land top three if Rockstar sticks the landing. Jason's harder to read. He comes off as the more grounded one, which could be great or could make him fade into the background next to Lucia's chaos.

The couple thing is new for the series. We've had duos before, but never two protagonists who were actually together romantically. That changes how the story works and how we compare them to past leads. Rockstar's never had to balance two main characters who are supposed to have chemistry.

I just wish someone would write the actual ranking instead of putting up a landing page with a headline. We'll probably get a proper list from a YouTuber before Insider Gaming fills in their own article. And honestly the YouTuber will probably do it better anyway.

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Source: Insider Gaming · Curated content.