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Well, there's the Multi Theft Auto mod:
http://mtavc.com/

Haven't tried it, though. All my friends are too busy leveling up in WoW and EVE to engage in any simple human skill-based game.

Well, the thing that boggles the mind is that independent developers have managed to put pretty decently-featured TCP/IP multiplayer into Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City. Honestly, if enthusiasts can hack a single player game to allow multiplayer over the net, I can see NO excuse for an original developer not including these kind of features to start (especially when such a feature is in super high demand). We're talking about some guys adding this stuff with NO source code available to them, and then the original developer with probably $millions of funding saying that they can't do it. I don't feel the slighest bit of understanding about this.

ok, winxp came out late 2001.

grand theft auto iii was released (for pc) early 2002.
grand theft auto: vice city was release (for pc) early 2003.
grand theft auto: san andreas (for pc) sometime 2005.

for anyone that hasn't played with them on pc... wow.
my favorite thing to do, in gta 3 at least, was set up key macros to spawn 100's of any vehicle (like, one of the race car type things). it would make them into a huge pyramid stacked in front of you, and they wouldnt catch fire. at least, not until you hit the 'spawn tank' macro. talk about one massive explosion. if you use over 50 cars, its guaranteed to crash the game.

oh, and playing it multiplayer.... http://mtavc.com/
multitheftauto, yo.

now i just play text twist. violence got to me after awhile :(

p.s. when is someone going to make a Grand Theft Auto MMORPG!!!

Forget Multiplayer... what about making it massively multiplayer?

Wait... that'd be a bad idea. You'd end up with a lot of griefers running around sniping people.

FYI - there's already an online multiplayer game for GTA: SA http://www.mtavc.com/ is an online racing game :O)

I've been a fan of the Grand Theft Auto series since the beginning, loved the style and gameplay of every single game. Watching my mate play World of Warcraft the other day, and I realised how many game mechanics are the same.
I initially noticed it when he entered a new area and it popped up with the "suburb name" and I thought, "Heh, just like in GTA" then I noticed the map, the style, the way people give you quests, and (in San Andreas, anyway) the skill development.
I've played Multi Theft Auto and it's damn cool, but I never thought it would be commercially viable because it seems to be lacking something... somthing to make people come back and play it continuously. But what if they added experience points? Levelling? Character classes? Different people play for different gangs? Gangwars? They'd have to cut out cinematics, obviously, but they could still have quests, and jobs. Goddamned, that would be my favourite game ever. And now it looks like it's possible to get a game like that with a usable ping. Hot stuff!

I posted this on my wiki site, but figured I'd put my own $0.02 here since it was appropriate. (Besides, I'm not so sure my server could handle the traffic ;) ).

Whenever I run across people who are against something, I usually ask two important questions:

What exactly are you looking to protect?

And

Do you profit by it?

For example: people who are against abortion would probably tell you that they're doing it to save human life (in this case, unborn children). Now, whether you agree with that statement or not, that's the point: protecting life.

People who are against dumping chemicals in our water are usually trying to protect the environment and our health.

People who are against pornography are usually doing so because they feel, or have studies that show, that pornography can cause other addictive behavior (including increased sexual promiscuity, abuse, etc).

Again - people can argue one side or the other until they are blue in the face, and since I don't feel like looking like a http://www.smurf.com/homepage.html Smuff, I'm not going to debate that here. That's what the "discussion" link up at the top is for. (Go ahead - click it if you need to. I'm not going to stop you.)

But the second question can often be just as important. When Microsoft gives talks about how Free Software Movement is just http://cs.senecac.on.ca/~selmys/quotes.html communism, you know that if Open Source software usage drops, Microsoft's will rise. When a group promoting nuclear energy comes out against the use of oil and coal, you know they're really saying "Nuclear energy is better - buy it!"

Some people protest things for good motives - some are less than pure. And if there's anything that protesters soon learn, it's "use what works", over and over again.

Take the case of Jack Thompson. Not too long ago, there was the "Hot Coffee Scandal". Here's the short version: somebody discovered there was a sex mini-game in "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" (GTA: SA), but no way to play it. In other words, Rockstar shipped a game with unplayable content, feeling that nobody would ever figure out how to turn it on.

Stupidly, they forgot that unlike the PS2 and Xbox versions, people are more than willing to modify PC versions of the games. In fact, PC modifications of "Grand Theft Auto III" are very popular, including the mod http://www.mtavc.com/ "Multi Theft Auto", which modifies the PC version to allow multiplayer use.

So, when the PC version of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" hit the shelves, of course people started looking at what they could modify. Next thing you know, the sex game is found, someone releases a mod that turns it on, and to the horror of religious conservatives everywhere, people can watch polygons of a naked woman and a man with no penis having sex.

Trust me. I've seen the video. It's not that hot.

Once the news is out, politicians are going nuts. Senator Hillary Clinton wants senate hearings. The ESRB, under major pressure, changes the game's rating from "M" to "AO for Adults Only". Stores pull the game from the shelves. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1441534/p osts Dogs and cats are sleeping together - mass hysteria!

Chart out the steps you have to get to this content: First you have to buy the game. Since the game is rated "M for Mature", this means that you should have to be at least 17 or older to even purchase the game. Second, you have to willingly install the game on your computer. Third, go online and find the mod. Fourth, install it.

The number of steps here are very important: it's not like you can just be play

Hm... If you read the topic where that "i was thinking about releasing the source anyway" comes from http://forum.mtavc.com/viewtopic.php?t=4201 refering to the server config tool, not MTA.

"A teenager is looking for a trainer for his favourite game GTA3 on google. [...] He also downloads the source code since this trainer was open-source. [...] and the first GTA3 multiplayer game was created." ...

" MTA isn't open source... And likely never will be." ...

Blokker_1999 / The MTA Team (Sun Sep 28, 2003 3:45 am): "i was thinking about releasing the source anyway"

"A teenager is looking for a trainer for his favourite game GTA3 on google. [...] He also downloads the source code since this trainer was open-source. [...] and the first GTA3 multiplayer game was created." ...

" MTA isn't open source... And likely never will be." ...

Blokker_1999 / The MTA Team (Sun Sep 28, 2003 3:45 am): "i was thinking about releasing the source anyway"

Multi Theft Auto anyone?

There is, although not from rockstar.

Mutl-Theft Auto

Those crazy modder don't need our help...

Multi-Theft Auto http://www.mtavc.com/

So go play your online GTA and stop bugging us to change the opus that has been created.

Actually I've spent a couple of good hours on MTAVC and have enjoyed it... Personally I think the GTA series is what it is because of the stories. They work well with 1 "hero/villan" not with 40,000 of them running around causing chaos.

Multitheft Auto is a modification for GTA3 and GTAVC that make the game multiplayer, up to 32 people can play on a server... check it out here (mtavc.com)

As much as I salivate at the prospect of even more features, more weapons and larger areas, I feel that GTA is running itself into a rut now. Rockstar, obviously concerned, have started introducing features such as 'eating unhealthily makes you fat' or 'jogging frequently makes you run for longer.' This conjures up worrying memories of The Sims or even Tomb Raider's latest incarnation.

This is one of the few directions they can take the game, I guess, since the missions are going to get stale eventually. GTA3's addition of a stronger narrative and side missions really helped but even by Vice City the side missions were boring and I felt something was missing.

Not that the game wasn't fun - it was - but GTA4 obviously can't continue down this path of 'bigger is better' without adding something cool. GTA:London was the first to have an actual city, GTA2 added real gangs with different loyalties towards you, and GTA3 obviously added a whole slew of features alongside the 3D - quite ambitious and impressive, looking back at it.

I think that GTA4 should either have multiplayer (although GTA3 sorta has it) or a real gang structure, or maybe both. Imagine starting up your own gang and sending out orders, or having the police enter your territory and get shot down by your goons. You could do drugs on the side, Dope Wars-style, and arrange bribes with the cops to let it happen. Then spend the money on plastic explosives and rob a few banks.

With the asset-buying and bank-robbing side mission in VC, I definitely think this is where GTA4 is going - not just a bigger area, but more freedom as well.

Multi theft Auto: Vice City has a Stunt mode with jumps and ramps and such. It's still pretty beta, but it is damn fun.

Multi Theft Auto

Knock yourself out.

Too bad they didn't mention Multitheft Auto for Vice City. Those guys made their own netcode and everything with no access to the source code.. don't ask me how that sort of thing is done. (I'm sure there's someone here who will inform me that "it actually isn't very hard to do.") The only thing (IMFO) that the GTA franchise is missing is solid multiplayer functionality.


p

Not "could". Is.

If you want to see what GTA3 would look like with more than one enterprising thug, check out Multi Theft Auto, the first (but not only) multi player mod for GTA. Only having the PS2 version, I can't speak for the quality but I've heard really good things.