As if the online world of Grand Theft Auto wasn’t calamitous enough: some inexperienced gamers have taken to cheating in an effort to get ahead in Los Santos. We take a look at why GTA V Online is now almost unplayable…

I’ve heard statements to the effect of  “modding is just good fun”. I’ve bared witness to admissions that modders are “hacking” or “exploiting” the game to make it more adventurous. The truth of the matter is that players who engage in this do so out of a lack of ability. By its very definition games have rules –  a set of limitations that the player operates within to gain success. The game itself measures this success within its set parameters.

However some players cannot compete at an adequate level and have sought out ways to circumnavigate the route of game success by using force hacks.

These specific GTA cheats began as menus downloaded by PC users. Certain members of the so-called “Master Race” originally took to installing mods for GTA as a variation on the game’s theme – an innocent enough endeavour and one that I undertook during many rigorous nights playing Quake in my youth. But then the mods began to turn sour. The introduction of God Mode paved the way for sets of tools that specialized in griefing other players.

These griefing menus meant that players could interfere with the success of other players on a detrimental level, and with real-world consequences. With the introduction of Shark Cards (in-game cash bundles bought with real-world cash) Rockstar has not only severely impacted the economy of the game, they have turned the mechanics of the game toward a more pay-to-win dynamic.

Shark cards demonstrate where theft can actually take place in-game resulting in the loss of real-world currency. Players online are now open to de-ranking, losing money and weapons, property, cars, status and attained bonuses. The hackers now have the ability to kill every character in a lobby and even ban players from GTA Online altogether.

Rockstar became aware of the situation and began to crack down on players with “financial irregularities” by instituting ban-waves and penalties. This however had a Trevor-with-petrol-can effect on the community and hackers began to dump spawned money onto players (money griefing) in effort to get them banned by Rockstar.

The Xbox 360 lobbies contain at least one hacker almost by statistical and regimented default. By all accounts the PC lobbies appear to be unplayable. That is unless you wish to indulge in a nightmarish modfest. Some lobbies even contain giant robots made out of tanks with fighter jests for hands – giant griefing machines made for tormenting but somehow more likable than anything Michael Bay has ever done with the Transformers franchise.

Eventually (Feb 2018) the countless calls from the fans and its presumably-resulting paperwork led to Rockstar and Take Two Interactive sending out cease and desist letters to the creators of the mod menus in an effort to curb these force-hack junkies. This was a most significant move on their part but it resulted in a vacuum which was quickly filled by smaller mod menu companies. Again Rockstar set about closing them down.

Rockstar began spectating random lobbies to isolate any behaviour that contravened their terms of service. This also meant monitoring the license plates of cars in-game to try to crack down on players duplicating cars and selling them. From this they created so-called watch lists and monitored players kill/death ratios, money, weapons and unlockables.

In may 2018 a modder by the handle “chromexmods”  was caught selling the menus and Take Two began legal proceedings after previous attempts to shut him down failed. This legal action was hot on the heels of widely publicised case brought by Epic the creators of Fortnite, who pursued a 14-year-old hacker. The problem with this case being that he was only a mod user and not a creator of the menu. The case was thrown out as the game is offered free-to-play and the modder in question is a minor. At last glance it appears Epic are still pursuing it.

The GTA Online community began with only the best intentions. The game was seen as an online playground where criminals could band together to make bigger scores. There was a certain amount of honour among thieves so-to-speak. This community has gone to the dogs.
So what exactly does this mean for the Red Dead Redemption 2 online content? (November 2018)

What is clear is that modders, hackers and glitchers are not welcome in the community. GTA Online has enough trouble with toxicity of griefer trolls and squeakers without the addition of cheaters. If you’re not good enough to compete then don’t play – simple as that.
In my personal experience (having been hacked 3 times over the last few years and having lost rank, money, weapons and stats) I would avoid public lobbies and stick to invite only or private lobbies. Unless you absolutely have to use them for mission completions. My experiences of hacking have been on the Xbox 360 format of the game. Each time the problems have been reported along with relevant information and Rockstar Support have been speedy about fixing any issues. Since moving to Xbox One i havent experienced any problems.

Big shoutout to Ross @MrBossFtw who covers these stories in great detail over on his Youtube channel – so check him out.

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