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GTA3 and Vice City now Online Multiplayer
glengineer writes "A deep bow and an "I'm not worthy" to Kent Simon, at the University of Kentucky, Ed Lyons in London, and Chris McArthur in Canada who have made the dream come true for GTA fanatics like me - GTA3 and Vice City online multiplayer! Now I can streetrace and play Liberty City Survivor with real people, not just use the "crazy pedestrians" cheat. Rockstar would be nuts not to hire these guys. So, anyone up for a deathmatch? Meet me at the Malibu Club in Vice, or the construction site on Staunton Island."
GTA online won't work. it's far too easy to die in GTA to some bastard in a fast car, unless you've got a rocketlauncher you arn't going to stop that little kid who repeatedly runs you over outside the hospital.
I like muppets.
Maybe someone should note that the mod is for GTA3. The original Grand Theft Auto had multiplayer right out of the box. I can't remember if it was LAN only or if internet play was possible as well. But then that was a PC only game, right.
I wonder if precious features such as multiplayer will get rarer, now that many hit titles are ported from various consoles to proper computers. In this case the game was released with the unfinished multiplayer code and some dedicated people are getting it to work. Why did the original programmers give up at what appears to be more than half way through?
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Rockstar would be nuts not to hire these guys.
Or, given the current US corporate attitude,
"Rockstar would be nuts not to sue these guys."
I can't imagine that what they've done doesnt break some copyright law somewhere
They're not circumventing a copyright-protection device, so they're not violating the DMCA.
Possibly, they could be violating the End-User License Agreement on the game, if it includes an anti-reverse-engineering clause. Although it's anyone's guess as to if they'd be able to enforce it.
what are the odds Rockstar sues?
"Very, very, small" Seems like a good guess to me.
Why would they?
1) These guys don't have any money.
2) They're not making any money off it.
3) Rockstar isn't losing any money off it, more likely the opposite.
Doesn't seem like they'd get much in damages. Hardly enough to outweigh the lawyer costs and PR damages.
Besides, there are only upsides to people doing this stuff. It extends the life of the game and generates more interest and sales. Game developers know this. The general trend in the last 10 years has been towards accomodizing people who want to mod games, not sueing them.
It's not like this is a trademark issue, where you have to go after people or you risk losing it.