AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
It's the big release that video gamers have been waiting for for 13 years.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO GAME, "GRAND THEFT AUTO VI")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As Jason Duval) I got in some trouble in the Army. Didn't leave on the best of terms. They don't give loans or anything to people like me.
RASCOE: The latest installment of Grand Theft Auto will drop next month. Super fans of one of the biggest game franchises in history are already getting in their vacation requests from work. Among them, Bud Burruss, a software engineer from Atlanta, who joins us now. Welcome to the program.
BUD BURRUSS: Thanks for having me.
RASCOE: So, Bud, I hear you're taking five days off to play Grand Theft Auto VI. Talk me through your plans.
BURRUSS: So this is the Thursday before Thanksgiving. I will, on Wednesday, finish working a normal day at 5 o'clock. And then when I am done working - my wife's a stay-at-home mom, and we have three sons, so my evenings are dominated by family time until about 8:30 when they go to bed. And then if I want to play games in a typical weekday or whatever, it involves me not sleeping, essentially. I either go downstairs after my wife and kids have all fallen asleep or I wake up at, like, 2 or 3 in the morning and play until the start of work. And that is perfectly fine for normal circumstances. But for this release, for me to not be a terrible husband and father...
RASCOE: Yeah.
BURRUSS: ...And do what I want to do with this game coming out, I don't have time for my job. So...
RASCOE: (Laughter).
BURRUSS: ...I saved my PTO days. I planned ahead. I've been a top performer in my office for years now, and I don't feel the least bit guilty using the time off that I earned.
RASCOE: Well, talk to me about this. OK, so do you know anybody else that's going to be taking time off to play Grand Theft Auto? Because I actually hear that the U.S. Army is giving some people time off to play.
BURRUSS: This is very real, OK? You know, the beautiful thing about video games is they bring together people of all sorts of economic backgrounds, whether it is hourly restaurant workers all the way to C-suite in corporate. And there are going to be a lot of people that act like they are above doing something like this. But then when the day comes, whether it's that Thursday or Friday, all of a sudden, oh, my gosh, I'm so sick. Like, you're going to see a lot of different situations, and the economic impact will be measured in billions on lost productivity.
RASCOE: But I got to ask you, what do people love - like, because people listening are going to be like, what in the world? Are you taking off work to play a video game? What is it about this game that is so special? Like, what do you love about it?
BURRUSS: Well, before I talk about that, the concept of taking time off to play a game - I don't feel like anyone should ever have to justify...
RASCOE: Yeah.
BURRUSS: ...Taking time to do something that they love to do. And one of the comparisons I heard recently is it's no different than going on a golf trip. My father, when I was a kid, he left to go to Scotland to play St. Andrews with his Scottish friends for, like, two weeks at one point. So...
RASCOE: That's true. 'Cause this is also a hobby, right?
BURRUSS: Yes. And instead of flying internationally and spending a bunch of money abroad, I'm sitting in my basement holding a PlayStation controller. So the economic impact...
RASCOE: Yeah.
BURRUSS: ...In a negative manner is minimal. But at the end of the day, what gets people playing a game is - is it fun to play? There's only so much sightseeing you can do in a game, and Grand Theft Auto, historically, has been a lot of fun.
RASCOE: That's Grand Theft Auto super fan, Bud Burruss. Thank you so much for joining us.
BURRUSS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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