About

Grand Theft Auto Mods are fan-made addons for various titles within the Grand Theft Auto franchise that have been altered to allow players to use various cheats, wear custom avatars or play entirely new game modes. While some mods have been created for jailbroken console games, the majority of modifications have been made for use on PC ports.

Origin

It is currently unknown what the first mod was for GTA. Modding began proliferating with GTA 2, the second installment of the series, and was mainly new textures for in-game cars. Modding began to pick up by the release of GTA 3, where people could recreate real-life cars in 3d, in addition to adding new scripts. By the time GTA: Vice city came out, modding had advanced so much people could create easy ways to add cars and even combine entire game maps. However, the main memetic proliferation of modding came with the release of the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in June 2005. After it was released, many script, car and plane mods were released, including the now-famous ENBseries graphics modifier. In July, a mod titled "Hot Coffee"^[2] was released, which allows the player to play a normally inaccessible mini-game featuring animated avatars engaging in sexual intercourse with the protagonist Carl "CJ" Johnson (shown below). The mod sparked a significant backlash from politicians, including Senator Hillary Clinton who proposed new regulations concerning the sale of video games. The game was subsequently re-rated as an adult game and pulled from shelves in many retail stores. Modding continued for GTA IV, ranging from script mods to new cars to even better looking ENBseries mods.

Spread

On September 30th, 2006, YouTuber s1thpunk uploaded gameplay footage of a mod in which the player controls a Superman-skinned avatar that can fly through the air (shown below, left). Within nine years, the video gained over 14 million views and 13,000 comments. On October 16th, 2006, YouTuber jessrocked uploaded footage of a Super Mario mod for the game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, featuring the song "Bodies" by Drowning Pool playing in the background (shown below, right).

On August 18th, 2010, YouTuber Tara Arts Game posted footage of a Batman-themed San Andreas mod, garnering more than eight million views and 3,000 comments in five years (shown below, left). On May 10th, 2011, YouTuber RedMonster GR uploaded a video titled "GTA San Andreas King Kong!", in which the player battles against a giant ape enemy in San Andreas (shown below, right). In four years, the video received upwards of 15 million views and 2,400 comments.

Grand Theft Auto IV Mods

On August 29th, 2012, YouTuber seedyrom34 uploaded a video showcasing a Back to the Future-themed mod for Grand Theft Auto IV, in which the player can drive a DeLorean DMC-12 time machine (shown below, left). In three years, the video accumulated over 4.6 million views and 3,400 comments. On April 13th, 2013, YouTuber SpeirsTheAmazingHD posted a video of a GTA IV mod allowing the player to control the superhero Iron Man, gathering more than 4.1 million views and 2,700 comments in two years (shown below, right).

On July 21st, 2013, YouTuber TheGamingLemon uploaded gameplay footage of a GTA IV mod in which the player can control an avatar skinned as the superhero Incredible Hulk (shown below, left). In two years, the video received upwards of 23 million views and 12,000 comments. On July 8th, 2014, YouTuber taltigolt posted a video of a Spider-Man mod for GTA IV, gaining over 5.1 million views and 420 comments over the next year (shown below, right).

Grand Theft Auto V Mods

On January 24th, 2014, YouTuber Robbaz uploaded footage of a tsunami mod for the PlayStation 3 version of Grand Theft Auto V, requiring a jailbroken console with CFW software installed (shown below, left). In two years, the video garnered more than 5.9 million views and 4,000 comments. Following the release of the PC version of the game in April 2015, YouTuber Merfish uploaded a video titled "The Largest Mammal on Land," in which a giant whale is dropped on streets, vehicles and people in GTA V (shown below, right). In less than a month, the video received upwards of 1.5 million views and 770 comments.

On April 29th, YouTuber PewDiePie posted footage of himself playing a modded copy of GTA V in which he customizes his avatar to be a variety of animals (shown below, left). The video gained over 3.2 million views in the first two weeks. On May 6th, YouTuber PersonalityCoreCompany uploaded a video titled "I Fucking Love PC [Grand Theft Auto V]", in which a chimpanzee-skinned player shoots cars out of a gun and flies through the air in GTA V (shown below, right). In the first week, the video received more than 1.8 million views and 1,100 comments.

GTA V Mod Controversy

Following the release of GTA V, many people believed that due to file encryption made by the new format, modding would be unable to blossom for some time, including the head of the ENB project. However soon after release, a script plugin was added allowing people to add new scripts (e.g spawning of rare vehicles in SP, new garages). In addition, the OpenIV modding tool was updated, allowing people to modify ingame files.

On May 6th, 2015. Rockstar Games appeared to update the end-user license agreement (EULA) for Grand Theft Auto 5, which stated that players could not use modifications. Following the change, many players falsely reported that the company had banned the use of single-player mods, however the majority of them were online cheaters. On May 7th, 2015, Rockstar issued an official statement revealing they would not ban players for using single-player modifications.

"We have always appreciated the creative efforts of the PC modding community and we still fondly remember the awesome zombie invasion mod and original GTA map mod for GTAIV PC among many other classics. To be clear, the modding policy in our license has not changed and is the same as for GTAIV. Recent updates to GTAV PC had an unintended effect of making unplayable certain single player modifications. This was not intentional, no one has been banned for using single player modifications, and you should not worry about being banned or being relegated to the cheater pool just for using single player PC mods. Our primary focus is on protecting GTA Online against modifications that could give players an unfair advantage, disrupt gameplay, or cause griefing. It also bears mentioning that because game mods are by definition unauthorized, they may be broken by technical updates, cause instability, or affect your game in other unforeseen ways."

GTA V Mod Malware

In the morning of May 14, 2015, it was discovered that the mods Angry Planes and Simple Noclip had a keylogger^[3] that would take passwords while it was running. Following that, many people had their steam accounts hacked and there items stolen. It is reported that the creator of the mods, based in Denmark, mainly used those to send cash to his steam account. IF YOU HAVE EITHER OF THOSE MODS, DELETE THEM AND FOLLOW THIS

Virus Removal Guide.

Roleplay Mods

One of the more popular mod types for GTA V are Roleplay mods. In roleplay mode, players take on an identity of a character and voice and act like the character in the servers. Roleplay servers began growing popular with streamers; in November of 2016, popular Twitch streamers GreekGodX and Tyler1 streamed GTA roleplay sessions with GreekGodX playing as a character called "TayTay." (examples shown below).

The pair returned to their sessions in March of 2019. On March 15th, GreekGodX uploaded the first in his "Return of TayTay" series (shown below, left).

One of the most popular mods featuring roleplay servers is FiveM, a mod based off Grand Theft Auto V's online which allows players to play multiple different mods without downloading each mod individually. This allows for multiple different servers including zombie mode and roleplay mode.^[4] Others, including users like Kitboga, have also participated in roleplay mods for GTA V.^[6] The recent uptick in roleplay clips was inquired about in /r/OutOfTheLoop^[5] on March 17th, 2019.

Search Interest

External References