It would seem as though the Grand Theft Auto Online community has seen a massive jump in players, as it's free on the Epic Games Store this week. Unfortunately, not all of the players that have jumped into the game are out to play fair, as hackers and modders have been flooding onto servers now that they have free access.
The giveaway of Grand Theft Auto 5, along with its online component, has easily been the most successful free game on the Epic Games Store. Even Fortnite went down thanks to all of the increased traffic that the free game brought the online store, and with that many people coming to jump into the game, that does, unfortunately, mean that some less than friendly players are coming online as well.
Players on the GTA Online subreddit have voiced their annoyance with hackers coming into the game and disrupting everything. Some players have reported getting trapped in cages, with random NPCs and objects spawning right on top of them, while others are finding that jumping into a public session can result in some interesting mods being added to their own characters. The problem has gotten so bad that players are beginning to ask, "Will GTA Online ever become normal again?" and even questioning if giving away GTA V for free was the best idea for the community.
When players aren't being targeted specifically, the servers themselves have been feeling the heat as hackers load in dozens of objects, like planes, tanks, and other large vehicles, in order to lag out a server until it finally crashes. With GTA Online already crashing on its own due to the number of new players who have signed into the Epic Games Store to pick up the game, this can be frustrating for those that want to return to normal.
For now, the influx of new players may be too much for Rockstar to be able to deal with, though the company has never been above banning players for mods before, so there may be a fix sooner rather than later.
Mods can be fun to use, especially in a sandbox like GTA 5 and GTA Online, where the developers have even added cheats to the single-player mode to turn players into walking tanks on their own. Some players even ran a community event with alien mods earlier this month, using these mods to bring players together. However, when players are using hacks and mods to grief and ruin the fun, there is a line where messing around becomes inappropriate and should be stopped.
GTA Online is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Kotaku