Grand Theft Auto

choi

Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, Grand Theft Auto Franchise Playfully Flicks Mud at Its Birthplace: Scotland. New York Times, Sept 30, 2013.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/3 ... place-scotland.html
Grand Theft Auto was created in 1995 by four friends — David Jones, Russell Kay, Steve Hammond and Mike Dailly — in a two-room office above a small shop in Dundee that sold baby clothes.

Note:
(a) grand theft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_theft
(or grand larceny)

In Massachusetts, it will be petty theft/larceny is the money involved is less than $250. The difference is misdemeanor and felony.

(b) "Yet the roots of the game can be traced directly back to Dundee, a former shipbuilding city in Scotland, better known as the humble home of jam and jute, a vegetable fiber used to make rope and burlap."
(i) Dundee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dundee
(expanded rapidly in the 19th century largely due to the jute industry; said to be built on the 'three Js': jam, jute, and journalism; "The name 'Dundee' is made up of two parts: the common Celtic place-name element dun, meaning fort; and a second part that may derive from a Celtic element, cognate with the Gaelic dè, meaning 'fire'")
(ii) history of Dundee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Dundee
("The 'jam' association refers to marmalade, which was purportedly invented in the city by Janet Keiller in 1797 (although in reality, recipes for marmalade have been found dating back to the 16th century). Keiller's marmalade became a famous brand because of its mass production and its worldwide export. The industry was never a major employer compared with the jute trade")
(iii) jute
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jute
("Jute" is the name of the plant or fiber; Jute is one of the most affordable natural fibers and is second only to cotton in amount produced; section 2 History; section 3 Production)

The hemp is a different plant/fiber.

(c) "In another [fictional] city, a Saltire, the blue-and-white national flag, flies over a building. And a racehorse named Scotland Nil alludes to the long, humiliating history of goal-less matches by Scotland’s national soccer team."
(i) Scotland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland
(flag)
(ii) football in Scotland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_in_Scotland
(section 6 National team)

(d) "DMA Design was eventually sold, through a series of complicated takeovers, to Rockstar Games, a label of the American game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software, and the Dundee connection was broken. Rockstar Games has eight studios, including Rockstar North, based in Edinburgh, which is responsible for the creative content of Grand Theft Auto. Rockstar North is one of the biggest game developers in Britain, employing 300 people."
(i) Rockstar Games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstar_Games
(based in New York City, owned by Take-Two Interactive following its purchase of British video game publisher BMG Interactive [in 1998 from Bertelsmann AG])
(ii) Rockstar North
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockstar_North
(formerly DMA Design Ltd; The name DMA was taken from the Amiga [a family of personal computers sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s] programming manuals (where it stood for Direct Memory Access))

(e) "While some consider the game Scotland’s greatest cultural export since 'Auld Lang Syne,' the game’s louche tone does not resonate with everyone. David Paterson, a councilor for the Scottish town of Hawick, said recently that he was 'absolutely disgusted' at the use of the town’s name for a 'druggie hipster' district in its latest installment.”
(i) Auld Lang Syne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auld_Lang_Syne
(ii) louche (adj; French, literally, cross-eyed, squint-eyed, from Latin luscus blind in one eye):
"not reputable or decent"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/louche