After years of waiting, Grand Theft Auto 5 finally hit store shelves in mid-September, and was met with both commercial and critical success. Gamers everywhere were heralding Rockstar for yet another triumph in the open world crime genre.

But, that early enthusiasm soon gave way to disappointment as the subsequent launch of Grand Theft Auto Online was anything but a success, leaving many gamers locked out of the multiplayer experience for several days. And although things have improved substantially thanks to a recent PS3 and Xbox 360 update, they are still not altogether fixed.

One new problem that seems to have appeared since the update — or maybe it's just gained more notoriety as the GTA Online player base has increased — is a loss of in-game progress and items (money, clothing, cars). It's an issue that Rockstar Games has already acknowledged and is working to fix, but now they have a temporary solution (or a warning, rather) that should prevent gamers from making things worse.

As explained on their official help page, Rockstar asks that if players find their character missing from Grand Theft Auto Online that they do not create a new character in the empty slot where their character should be. Instead they recommend players back out to Grand Theft Auto 5's story mode and try re-entering GTA Online from the pause menu.

Presumably, this would prevent GTA 5 from overwriting the created character's save file, and thus eliminating him or her (or it?) from existence. Rockstar is obviously having problems handling the server load from all the GTA Online players out there, and as a result many created characters are not loading properly. That doesn't mean they are lost, though, but they could be if players overwrite the save file slot. As well, they recommend players quit out to the Story Mode before turning off the game, as that sequence initiates a save.

Yet another headache brought on by GTA Online is surely not helping the multiplayer experience win gamers over. Not logging in is one thing but losing hours of progress and hard-earned cash and rewards is wholly deflating.

As was mentioned in our previous post, Rockstar has released a list of known issues with Grand Theft Auto Online and are working on getting those straightened out. However, if gamers have encountered any additional problems not listed on their help page, they are encouraged to send them to Rockstar support.

Have you noticed any workarounds for GTA Online that you care to share? Since the update have things got better or worse for you in the multiplayer?

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Source: Rockstar