Why does rockstar use fake cities in Grand Theft Auto?

Answer 1

If you consider the violence, bad language and sometimes sexual content of GTA games, Rockstar has very wisely given the cities fake names - although we know that they are based on real places.

If they gave the cities real names, it might unfairly give those cities a bad reputation, as many people may assume that the things in the games are a reflection of what goes on, for real, in that city all the time. It seems that many people have difficulty in separating fact from fiction, a classic example is when soap actors are treated like their soap characters by members of the public.