GTA V is Slammed with a Swarm of Negative Reviews Following Mod Tool Shutdown

R-T-B · Jun 20, 2017

Grand Theft Auto V's Steam entry has been swarmed with negative reviews following Take Two Interactive's decision to shutdown the popular modding tool OpenIV with a legal cease and desist letter. In just a weeks time, over 42,000 reviews have been published on the Grand Theft Auto V steam page, the overwhelming majority of them negative (only 13 percent were positive). This is in stark contrast to the games usual rating, which is generally positive. It appears to have had such an impact as to actually make the game's overall rating fall into steams "mixed" rating territory.

Obviously, PC gamers everywhere are unwavering in their strong support of game changing mods, and publishers would be wise to approach modding projects they feel violate their rights with a soft-touch where possible. But it does raise a good question, how far is too far in PC modding? If you have to circumvent DRM to enable mods, is it wrong? Legally speaking, it often is, but should it be?

Let us know how you feel in the comments below.

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JATownes · Jun 20, 2017

I sure do miss when games allowed the use of private servers... just saying.

JAT

AsRock · Jun 20, 2017

Yeah take two taking action after all these years to although pretty understandable but still sad to see to happen.

Took them over 10 years to come to this ?, hell no i have a good feeling this is more about protecting GTA5 from mods and cheating, shame there is nothing protecting us from their lame ass shark cards.

Thankfully i have a lot of hate for GTA5 it's no were near as good as GTA4 these days.

OneMoar · Jun 20, 2017

https://fivem.net/
openiv never touched online and so far the cluster bombing of everything modding related has just poked the hornets nest and made the backlash and the rampant hacking in gta:O 5x as bad

I got killed the other night by some guy riding a flaming dolphin shooting penis rockets

TheGuruStud · Jun 20, 2017

OneMoar said:
I got killed the other night by some guy riding a flaming dolphin shooting penis rockets

Was this your reaction?

OneMoar · Jun 20, 2017

no because its not the first time its happened ent and anim manipulation is par for the course for gta:O the game was obviously written by retarded orangutans

lexluthermiester · Jun 20, 2017

This is idiotic. They are shooting themselves in the foot and it will hurt them long-term. A large portion of the gaming public enjoys mods on some level and many of us will not play games we can't mod. Do they deserve this backlash? Hell yes. Will it stop the modders? Not a chance. Someone else will pick things up right where they left off and do it in a way that the Devs/Publishers can't touch. Retards..

And I don't even LIKE the GTA series..

evernessince · Jun 20, 2017

I really don't see how a company can say what you do with your Game Files after the fact. So long as you aren't selling the modified game for cash then they have zero reason to shut this down. Completely shooting themselves in the foot but yes, because you signed some agreement you now can't try to make the game better.

Given that there are plenty of examples of modding support increasing sales, this just seems like a move completely ignorant of the PC gaming scene.

Nuckles56 · Jun 20, 2017

evernessince said:
I really don't see how a company can say what you do with your Game Files after the fact. So long as you aren't selling the modified game for cash then they have zero reason to shut this down. Completely shooting themselves in the foot but yes, because you signed some agreement you now can't try to make the game better.

Given that there are plenty of examples of modding support increasing sales, this just seems like a move completely ignorant of the PC gaming scene.

The classic example would be the elder scrolls games which would be nowhere near as popular as they are without mods and the modding scene which has kept those games relevant to this day

ZoneDymo · Jun 20, 2017

Bandwagon jumping Wannabee hippies

Dammeron · Jun 20, 2017

The rating was going down since long ago, cause of rockstar's support, which showed a middle finger to all players informing about hackers wrecking the official servers.
Instead, they banned normal players and reseted their accounts, just cause some hacker added lots of ingame money to someone's character.

And when they finally do take action, they do not do proper cleaning... they just drop a nuke.

OneMoar · Jun 20, 2017

ZoneDymo said:
Bandwagon jumping Wannabee hippies

comming from the guy with the fidget spinner as his profile pic

Octopuss · Jun 20, 2017

I am absolutely stunned by the sheer incompetence of the developer who wasn't able to implement any anticheat systems in several years.

HopelesslyFaithful · Jun 20, 2017

circumventing DRM for private use was never illegal and if it was that would be unconstitutional in the US.

Library of congress has ruled many times that this falls into fair use and basic logic dictates that it is fair use.

Library of Congress also stated that all DRM must be removed if a product is abandoned which never happens. GTA4 for starters.

I wish there was teeth into charges brought against companies for not disabling DRM when they abandon a product.

DRM is explicitly why I dont buy rockstar games or UBIsoft. The lack of private servers is another reason.

If people were smart they would stop buying these games and give the finger to these companies. I refuse to pay more than 5 bucks for anything on steam because of steams own DRM.

GOG? I have no problem paying for games there because i know i dont have to deal with bullsh.......forgot this forum is childish/petty/immature. Well you know.

qubit · Jun 20, 2017

Take Two are being complete douchebags for doing this after their sales clearly benefited from the mod community. Nice to see so many people respond with those reviews, as it might just make Take Two reverse their ban if we're lucky.

HopelesslyFaithful · Jun 20, 2017

qubit said:
Take Two are being complete douchebags for doing this after their sales clearly benefited from the mod community. Nice to see so many people respond with those reviews, as it might just make Take Two reverse their ban if we're lucky.

or maybe people will be smart and not buy this game or the next one. I would love to see them make GTA6 and its a total flop as everyone gives them the finger.

lexluthermiester · Jun 20, 2017

OneMoar said:
comming from the guy with the fidget spinner as his profile pic

Where are you seeing a spinner? I see a modified bio-hazzard symbol, which seems to fit into the discussion of this article very well.

HopelesslyFaithful said:
circumventing DRM for private use was never illegal and if it was that would be unconstitutional in the US.
Library of congress has ruled many times that this falls into fair use and basic logic dictates that it is fair use.

Nailed that on the head!

HopelesslyFaithful said:
Library of Congress also stated that all DRM must be removed if a product is abandoned which never happens. GTA4 for starters.

Do you have a link for that point? I follow the fair-use side copyright law very closely and this is one I heard of but have never been able to find actual documentation on.

HopelesslyFaithful said:
I wish there was teeth into charges brought against companies for not disabling DRM when they abandon a product.

Oh so with you on that one.

HopelesslyFaithful said:
DRM is explicitly why I dont buy rockstar games or UBIsoft. The lack of private servers is another reason.

Completely with you on this one as well. I don't buy any games that have ANY level of DRM on them, unless they're awesome games and "patches" have been made to remove the offending DRM. X-Com was the last game bought that had any. But there were several really good "patches" out that worked well, so it wasn't a big deal. But as rule, it's better not to have to deal with it at all.

HopelesslyFaithful said:
If people were smart they would stop buying these games and give the finger to these companies. I refuse to pay more than 5 bucks for anything on steam because of steams own DRM.

Again, totally agree. I use Steam at all because of it.

HopelesslyFaithful said:
GOG? I have no problem paying for games there because i know i dont have to deal with bullsh.......forgot this forum is childish/petty/immature. Well you know.

LOVE GOG! It's where I game on PC!

HopelesslyFaithful · Jun 20, 2017

lexluthermiester said:
Where are you seeing a spinner? I see a modified bio-hazzard symbol, which seems to fit into the discussion of this article very well.

Nailed that on the head!

Do you have a link for that point? I follow the fair-use side copyright law very closely and this is one I heard of but have never been able to find actual documentation on.

Oh so with you on that one.

Completely with you on this one as well. I don't buy any games that have ANY level of DRM on them, unless they're awesome games and "patches" have been made to remove the offending DRM. X-Com was the last game bought that had any. But there were several really good "patches" out that worked well, so it wasn't a big deal. But as rule, it's better not to have to deal with it at all.

Again, totally agree. I use Steam at all because of it.

LOVE GOG! It's where I game on PC!

I read it on EFFs website or news letter. I dont have an actual source for it anymore. It was several years ago.

this isnt it but goes over some exceptions which are strictly unconstitutional.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/...ress-renews-and-expands-protections-fair-uses
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...-anti-circumvention-exemptions-hot-mess.shtml

This law in of itself is illegal but....statist.

I could have sworn it was ruled or in the law. I could have sworn it was in an eff email or website :/

like the core law stated DRM must be removed after product is no longer in service. Maybe i am mistaken. If it isn't thats even more idiotic than i thought the law was TT

Caring1 · Jun 20, 2017

My take on this is modding should be allowed, in single player mode, but when online in team player mode then everyone should be on an level playing field, no mods.

lexluthermiester · Jun 20, 2017

HopelesslyFaithful said:
I read it on EFFs website or news letter. I dont have an actual source for it anymore. It was several years ago.
this isnt it but goes over some exceptions which are strictly unconstitutional.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/...ress-renews-and-expands-protections-fair-uses
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...-anti-circumvention-exemptions-hot-mess.shtml
This law in of itself is illegal but....statist.
I could have sworn it was ruled or in the law. I could have sworn it was in an eff email or website :/
like the core law stated DRM must be removed after product is no longer in service. Maybe i am mistaken. If it isn't thats even more idiotic than i thought the law was TT

Ah, cool. The EFF article was something I read some time ago, but the Techdirt I hadn't seen. Still Thank You. I think the DRM removal point was limited to end users having the right to remove such after it is abandoned, but it doesn't seem to require the authors to remove it. Of course, the part of the DMCA that states no one may circumvent DRM even for personal use, is actually unconstitutional and is unenforceable by technicality. That however has not stopped copyright owners from trying.

Caring1 said:
My take on this is modding should be allowed, in single player mode, but when online in team player mode then everyone should be on an level playing field, no mods.

Unless everyone is using the same mod. This happened in the Command & Conquer series. If you used custom graphics and/or custom ini's and you wanted to do a multiplayer game everyone had to use the same config or the game would crash for everyone. It could be a pain, but it also made sure everyone was playing by the same rules.

HopelesslyFaithful · Jun 20, 2017

lexluthermiester said:
Ah, cool. The EFF article was something I read some time ago, but the Techdirt I hadn't seen. Still Thank You. I think the DRM removal point was limited to end users having the right to remove such after it is abandoned, but it doesn't seem to require the authors to remove it. Of course, the part of the DMCA that states no one may circumvent DRM even for personal use, is actually unconstitutional and is unenforceable by technicality. That however has not stopped copyright owners from trying.

Unless everyone is using the same mod. This happened in the Command & Conquer series. If you used custom graphics and/or custom ini's and you wanted to do a multiplayer game everyone had to use the same config or the game would crash for everyone. It could be a pain, but it also made sure everyone was playing by the same rules.

thats the same for x wing allaince...god that game was epic for times time period

FordGT90Concept · Jun 20, 2017

I don't have a problem with them removing mods online if they allow private servers with no restrictions/monitoring by Rockstar.

cyneater · Jun 20, 2017

Mods are what make PC's great with out them they would be shitty consoles.

This is Rockstar being Epic Dicks.

After all they started on amiga then went to PC...

lexluthermiester · Jun 20, 2017

HopelesslyFaithful said:
thats the same for x wing allaince...god that game was epic for times time period

That is the only one of the Star Wars games that I wanted on GOG that I haven't bought yet! Really need too...

Ino. · Jun 20, 2017

They should have just released official mod tools instead, not shutting down those community tools with no replacement. No wonder people are angered, mods give longevity to games for a long time after their release.

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GTA V is Slammed with a Swarm of Negative Reviews Following Mod Tool Shutdown

R-T-B

JATownes

The Lurker

AsRock

TPU addict

OneMoar

There is Always Moar

TheGuruStud

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OneMoar

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ZoneDymo

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OneMoar

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