Rockstar posted up a big article yesterday giving many more details about GTA Online. If you're sceptical about the game, or are just not sure about certain aspects of it, you should definitely read it. Below are excerpts of the main points Rockstar want to get across. First of all, some general details about it:
 

• Grand Theft Auto Online is going to be something brand new for us: a fully realized and living world for multiple players that will continue to grow and take shape over time.
   
• The ultimate shape of GTA Online will be determined as much by you, the player, as by the work we put in. What you like and don’t like, what you play and what you want will determine how the game develops and what it turns into.
   
• Everything we do will be informed by feedback from you all – from the types of missions that roll out to all kinds of future content.
   
• We are planning for a constant stream of new content, tweaks and updates in the weeks and months ahead.
   
• The first couple of weeks we expect to be heavily focused on tuning the experience as it goes from internal testing to the reality of being played by tons of people in the real world so that all the usual teething problems for an online game are overcome. We hope it will all run incredibly smoothly, but please bear with us if it doesn't, and help us fix any and all problems!
   
• After that, we will begin releasing content updates and giving you the opportunity to make your own content.

Next up, Rockstar need everyone's feedback straight from day one, it's needed because they need to know what people think is good and what people think is bad about the game, allowing them to focus their efforts on giving the best experience to everyone.
 

This is vital for the ongoing success of the game. The first few months of Grand Theft Auto Online will be critical as everyone enters this dynamic new world for the first time. Plenty of issues are bound to occur. Remember this interesting character?

One thing we are already aware of, and are trying to alleviate as fast as we can, is the unanticipated additional pressure on the servers due to a significantly higher number of players than we were anticipating at this point – we are working around the clock to buy and add more servers, but this increased scale is only going to make the first few days even more temperamental than such things usually are. This is part of the problem some of you have been experiencing with the iFruit App and some Social Club services – we apologize in advance for this and thank you for your patience in this area.

More than ever, we need your help to report your experiences, findings, likes, loves, dislikes and hates – and we will be looking at your feedback constantly to tune the game into its optimal shape and help guide how Grand Theft Auto Online will grow and evolve past this initial period. We will be checking out how people are playing and what they are not playing or not enjoying, while also monitoring feedback via two other new Rockstar channels:

• [email protected]: This email address will be active from launch day as a place to send your input and feedback direct to us relating to the game.
   
• GTA Online Forums at Social Club: At some point this fall after the initial release of GTA Online, we are planning to launch Social Club Forums where players can chat with one another about their online experiences as well as access a GTA Online Suggestion board to post about any suggested features, tweaks and changes you want to see.

 

And details on what to expect from day one of the launch of GTA Online:
 

From launch, up to 16 players can enter the world together to partake in everything from:

• Open-World Crime and Chaos: Go on your own or round up your friends to explore the open world together – catch a movie, go mountain biking, hit the shooting range and much more. Want to test the law? Knock over a convenience store, take down a gang or rob an armored truck for easy cash and Reputation.
   
• Jobs: Los Santos and Blaine County are ripe with opportunity for the ambitious and criminal minded. Take on Missions and an array of other Jobs as a lone wolf, team up with your Crew or join fellow mercenaries and degenerates to pull off a wide range of robberies and illicit activities together.
   
• Races: Everything from classic street competition and off-road tracks to boat racing on the open ocean, or take to the skies in aerial events. Jump into the madness of a GTA Race, or try out a brand new race type, Rally, where driver and co-pilot work together to navigate treacherous courses at high speeds.
   
• Sports: Join your friends / any random stranger for a game of tennis, a round of golf or go base jumping and more, all for cash and Reputation.
   
• Customization: Create your character using the Character Creator – then earn some cash and spend it getting dressed for success. You can also collect and customize cars for your garage and personalize your full weapons cache.
   
• Reputation and Cash Flow: Reputation is earned from all your online exploits in everything you do in GTA Online – and will help you rank up, providing access to new features, weapons and criminal contacts. Spend cash you’ve gained on cars, clothes, guns, properties and much more. You can either quickly accumulate cash through profitable activities like knocking over armored cars, winning street races, doing stick-ups or a host of other cash-making endeavors – or if you’re the completely instant gratification type, you can choose to buy denominations of GTA$. You will have the option to purchase GTA$ through the in-game Store. The game and its economy have been designed and balanced for the vast majority of players who will not buy extra cash. There is no in-game paywall and nothing that should disrupt the balance of the game. You don’t have to spend real money to attain the cars, guns, clothes, flash and style of a high-roller in Los Santos, but can if you wish to get them a little quicker. The economy is balanced differently from the single player economy, and cash earned in one cannot be taken over to the other. Most players will earn cash much faster Online than in Story Mode.
   
• Growing Pains: There will be the typical growing pains for an online game, including but not limited to crashes, glitches, crazy bugs, gameplay modes and mechanics that need re-balancing and other surprises! Even in GTAV Story Mode, some of you may have seen a few odd and even amusing little glitches out there last week. This sort of thing is inevitable in a massive open-world game and there’ll surely be lots more unexpected oddities like this in the Online world next week – rest assured we’ll be monitoring and actively doing all we can to smooth such things out as they happen, but we need your help to find them, as well as your feedback to help fine tune all of the game's systems so everything is perfectly balanced.

 

Finally, a few details on some content updates that are already planned:

Here is a quick overview of a few initial things we’re working on for the first few weeks of Grand Theft Auto Online, alongside an aggressive period of tuning and finessing the game. We will give you dates for all of this content as soon as we have them – bear in mind that the order of things may well change, and we will probably add some extra stuff as well!

• The Content Creator: The Content Creator will launch with tools to tailor and publish your own Deathmatches & Races.
   
• The Beach Bum Pack: Featuring 4 new amazing beach fun vehicles, over 300 new items of incredible down tempo leisure wear and 2 new but not remotely relaxing weapons.
   
• Capture the Flag: GTA Online’s take on the classic CTF mode including the ability to make your own using The Content Creator.
   
• Heists: This update will introduce full-on cooperative Heist missions that will require careful planning, teamwork and sharp execution – along with the Heist Planning Board for your apartment.

Just to be clear, all of these updates will be free. We’ll have more info on this and much more additional content as our plans develop through the launch period, and as we get feedback from you. Please stay tuned for further info and updates. And remember – we need your help to make this experience all it can be.