Online video game launches tend to be precarious things. Publishers can buy in vast networks of servers and hire the best software engineers to ensure gamers aren't left out in the cold. But when many thousands hit the infrastructure at once, the results can be wildly unpredictable. We only have to look at the chaotic arrival of EA's Sim City or Blizzard's Diablo III for evidence of this. Both games pretty much collapsed at launch, with fans unable to sign in for many hours and instead jamming the forums with questions and complaints.
So this is going to be an edgy day for Rockstar. Released last month to huge critical acclaim, Grand Theft Auto V has sold in the region of 15m copies, making it the year's biggest entertainment release. And today at noon the publisher is unlocking the ambitious multiplayer mode: Grand Theft Auto Online. Providing fans with a persistent version of the game's world, Los Santos, owners of GTA V can access the new mode for free, join gangs, and get involved in heists, races, death matches and other nefarious activities, all the time earning Reputation Points which unlock new goodies such as weapons and cars.
It's essentially a massively multiplayer game, like World of Warcraft, but set in a modern city rather than a fantasy kingdom. Each time you play, you enter a server that is currently restricted to 16 players, but the entire universe is interconnected – there's even a persistent economy and a stock market that changes dynamically based on what players all over the world spend their in-game cash on.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/01/gta-online-launches-server-issuesit goes live TODAY.
Bodybuilding related: I think the % of people that are obese in this game is NOT congruent with actual American obesity statistics. Everyone looks like they lift.
