Boycott Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition

Boycott Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition

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Anonymous Modder started this petition to Rockstar Games and

Introduction

Modding for the Grand Theft Auto series have been an integral part for the PC versions of the old trilogy games - GTA III, GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas. For more than 15 years, mods have provided countless additions and new experiences to the games including unofficial patches that were made by dedicated fans that were meant to fix visual and technical bugs left in the PC versions. When newer operating systems released, these games became less playable and required fan patches to fix countless bugs and technical issues that were left unattended without Rockstar's support. Unofficial patches and other mods were an important part in the original trilogy's lifespan, and continued to flourish years later even after newer titles like GTA 5 and RDR2 were released. Modding was even recognized by Rockstar Games themselves and were featured on their blog posts on the Social Club website.

As of today, Rockstar's highest income online service - GTA Online is still heavily plagued by hackers, griefers and illegal mod menu users who continue to wreck havoc, ruin the experience and even cause considerable harm beyond the game itself. This is due to the service's very poor security that allows hackers to easily acquire every player's IP address, location, Rockstar ID and more with ease. Despite this rampant problem, Rockstar and Take Two have decided to crack down on the wrong type of modders - The ones who kept their old games alive and their communities flourishing: Single player modders.

 

What happened so far?

In 2017, Take Two has decided to issue a cease & desist order to the creator of OpenIV - a free software that allowed to change and modify files for the newer GTA titles on the RAGE engine. This move alone generated enough controversy to make Take Two back out and let OpenIV operate - as a result, an agreement was enacted between Rockstar and the community: Do not port 3D era/other games' assets to the RAGE engine and do not touch GTA: Online at all.

In 2019, the agreement was altered without informing the community. These changes included a new disclaimer saying that Take Two is entitled to change the agreement and do as they like. This alteration was left unnoticed until recently.

In the past, Take Two Interactive have used intimidation, bullying and harassment to force content creators to comply with their demands by sending private investigators to their families' homes and harassing them.

On July 17th 2021, Take Two interactive decided to wage an unprovoked war against the dedicated fans that worked so hard to keep the legacy of the old GTAs by issuing DMCA takedowns on the following fan projects:

GTA: Underground - A massive fan project that added maps, weapons, vehicles and features from previous Rockstar 3D titles including loads of original custom work and a new multiplayer client.

GTA: Liberty City - A total conversion mod for GTA: Vice City that existed for over 15 years.

GTA: State of Liberty - A total conversion mod for GTA: Vice City.

GTA V on San Andreas - Conversion mod for San Andreas

Vice Cry - A texture mod for Vice City that improves the overall look of the city

As a result of these takedowns, many more dedicated modders and fans including the famous GTA: United team have decided to delete their creations in fear of Take Two Interactive striking them down.

Throughout the years Rockstar has completely abandoned and neglected the original trilogy, while the fans had to create unofficial patches such as SilentPatch and Widescreen fix to make the PC ports playable on modern machines. Without said patches, these games were impossible to play as intended.

On September 3rd, the teams responsible for re3 and reVC - reverse engineering projects that allowed to play the original GTA 3 and GTA Vice City properly on the PC version were hit with a lawsuit by Take Two Interactive. The multi million corporation is seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage against a small passionate modding team despite the known fact that both projects required legitimate copies of the original games to work.

On October 8th 2021, Rockstar Games have officially announced Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition. Extending a "heartfelt thank you to all the Grand Theft Auto fans who have supported the games over the past two decades", Rockstar has sugarcoated and downplayed the horrible and cruel decisions made against its most dedicated fans to present the situation as if everything was normal. To add insult to injury, The original GTA Trilogy titles were delisted completely from all online platforms while the new Definitive edition is outrageously priced 60$. This decision alone spits in the face of the dedicated fans who kept the original games relevant for the past few decades.

 

What shall we do about this?

As modders and content creators - We outright refuse to support this so called "Definitive Edition" with new mods. Mods were an integral part in the GTA community and kept the old games relevant with unofficial patches, exciting new additions and a thriving modding community that lasted to this day. Because of Rockstar's and Take Two's disgusting behavior towards us, we refuse to make new additions or fixes to the upcoming title.

As dedicated fans - We choose to boycott and refrain from buying the Definitive Edition. Rockstar's anti-consumer behavior towards its fanbase is unacceptable, malicious and outright predatory to make us spend more money on Shark cards, repetitive GTA 5 re-releases and other micro-transactions. In addition, Rockstar's total disregard and lack of respect towards the now delisted original GTA titles is an insult to their legacy and the thriving fanbase who kept it relevant for over two decades. It is a horrible way to introduce new players to the franchise who will never get to play the original classics. 

What do we demand?

  1. We demand Rockstar & Take Two to come forward and address these issues publicly. We cannot expect a "heartfelt thank you" when in reality they are shaming us like this.
  2. We demand Rockstar & Take Two to address the altered 2017-2019 agreement allegation.
  3. We demand Rockstar & Take Two to cease harassing and intimidating passionate fans.
  4. We demand Rockstar to bring back the original titles back to the online stores - the legacy of these classic GTAs do not deserve to be disrespected.
0 have signed. Let’s get to 5,000!
At 5,000 signatures, this petition is more likely to get picked up by local news!