First thing I have to say is that despite the fact that there are some players using blatant hacks and messing up the game for other players, they aren’t so common as to ruin your day every time you play. You can escape them by switching sessions, and unlike FPS or sports games, GTA Online isn’t a game where you can expect to impress other players with your “skill” on in game leaderboards or the end of round scoreboard. There are a lot of jobs and activities which are cooperative, and players can accept being in 2nd place for a round, then quit and find someone else to play with. There is no way for a hacker to “live” in a lobby and be more than a short term annoyance.
http://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/52096/taking-aim-at-gta-online-cheaters.html
Rockstar has strategies to deal with online cheaters, beyond simply catching them and banning them. Players can be put in a Bad Sport zone, where they can only mess with other Bad Sports. Active cheaters could be put into Cheater Zones, where everyone is cheating and nobody will care because they wont affect normal, non-cheating player’s games.
The cheats vary in degree of annoyance. Many are based on the single player mod tools, which are both fun and offer players a way to explore the game and do things it was never originally designed to do. Since it is your single player game, nobody will care if you choose to “cheat” rather than play fair, Though most of the mods are used not to beat the game easily, but to simply mess around and do things that are funny, different, or just a good way to blow off steam rather than always playing seriously.
So when a hacker makes a whale fall from the sky, a UFO appear, or trees grow on the side of the road, it can be a funny episode in our Online game. As long as nobody gets hurt, does it matter?
If someone cheats to get free money or RP, and progresses in the game faster than you can possibly do normally, that doesn’t directly harm other players. It isn’t fair, and I’d expect Rockstar to look for this sort of thing and try to correct the inflated bank accounts and levels, but for the most part, they won’t hurt you any worse than a player who legitimately got that. Besides that, there is only so much money you really need in order to have some good stuff, and you can earn that quickly enough in normal play. Rank unlocks above 120 won’t give you anything new, and based on my play so far (rank 50 in five weeks), cheating doesn’t give you anything useful you wouldn’t get normally.
For me, and most players, part of the fun is actually earning things normally. The feeling of accomplishment is almost a better reward than the money and new stuff unlocked. Getting everything for free would deprive you of that. Sure, I’d love to get more vehicle unlocks faster, but it isn’t that hard to find races where you can win, especially when you play with teams of friends. Even so, it is just a matter of playing the game — as is making lots of money.
http://www.lazygamer.net/pc-gaming/not-even-god-mode-can-save-your-cheating-ass-in-gta-v-pc/
Still, there are players out there who will use cheats to beat other players. Or worse, mess with them in other ways. It is annoying to run into someone who can’t be killed, or who kills you easily, despite your superior skill and weapons. Running a race with someone who can teleport, use weapons in a non-GTA race, or simply move super fast, quickly becomes boring. As it must seem to the cheater, who has only so many different ways to win while obviously cheating to use before everyone quits playing with him — making the cheats effectively useless.
GTA is more than just races, death matches, and other jobs, though. We have a persistent character with possessions — guns, vehicles, and money. How much can a hacker mess with those things?
Well, the first risk is that the hacker could simply give you lots of unwanted money, which makes you a sort of accessory to the “crime” of hacking. Rockstar will take away unearned funds from players, and may do nothing else. I would still worry about being blamed as a hacker by Rockstar. If I don’t have a big bank account, I don’t have so much to lose. But if I’ve been saving up for a big purchase, it would be a pain to lose it.
Worse is the possibility of a hacker taking your resources, rather than giving you unwanted presents. I’ve had a hacker steal my car and repaint it, which cost me money to restore to my original design. Or at least, as close as I could remember it. Changing upgrades on the vehicles is worse — more money wasted. Stealing weapons or money would directly hurt your play in the game, requiring a lot of effort to restore it. Can Rockstar undo these hacker-induced changes? I hope so.
On a positive note, most of the hackers I’ve seen either get quickly bored or don’t do much to bother most players. We have solo, invite, crew, and friends for sessions which are safe from such predation. And you can freely change sessions and avoid being stuck with annoying players — both hackers and just general annoyances.
And if Rockstar can trap hackers so they are locked out of normal play sessions, it might be enough to keep us honest players safe and having fun.
