Comment by prova_modena | Hacker News Reader

Comment by prova_modena | Hacker News Reader

One of the big open questions now is the ability to mod GTA6 (or whatever the next major installment is called).

Nopixel[0], a roleplay-focused modded GTAV server built on the FiveM framework[1], has absolutely exploded in popularity during the past year. Many of the most popular streamers on Twitch are active on this server. Cumulative live viewership of these streamers is in the tens or hundreds of thousands at any one time. Looking at the top live GTAV streamers[2], almost all are playing on Nopixel or some similar GTARP server.

Rockstar is notorious for being hostile to modders. Since Nopixel has become such a phenomenon recently (and a huge cash cow for streamers and streaming platforms) there is a lot of talk among the GTARP community about GTA6. There's speculation about whether Rockstar will continue to turn a blind eye to modders, lock down their software even more, try to go after modders legally, release their own competing RP platform or something else.

As an aside, I'm somewhat surprised I've never read any discussion about Nopixel on HN before. I started by watching one popular streamer try it a year ago and gradually began watching several Nopixel-only streamers when I get the chance. It's goofy and rough around the edges, but there are wildly creative and entertaining people involved. It feels like I've been watching a novel form of entertainment emerge in the course of a year. In a certain sense, it feels more like the "metaverse" than any thing I've seen recently advertised as such.

[0] https://nopixel.fandom.com/wiki/NoPixel_Community

[1] https://fivem.net/

[2] https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Grand%20Theft%20Auto%20...

edit: clarified that Nopixel is a server built on the FiveM framework

It's been discussed here before, but you've conflated NoPixel, a server with the most famous community, with FiveM, the mod framework that NoPixel uses.

If there is a GTA6 online, which there will be of course, then they would be very stupid to not build in all the functionality used on RP servers today. The worry is that they will overly focus on mechanics and economy which somewhat work against role playing. If they have a way for players to be cops or EMS or mechanics or car salesmen or shopkeepers then they're set.

Does FiveM allow players to be sex workers? Just curious.

I know that within the GTARP communities there are sex workers, but I don't know to what extent FiveM enables this.

FiveM is just a multiplayer server implementation with a modding framework built in. It's base functionality is pretty basic, and doesn't support players being sex workers or having jobs in general. There are mods out there that add that feature though.

You are right, FiveM is absolutely worth mentioning separately as it seems to underpin most modded servers. I'm aware of the distinction and I wasn't attempting to downplay the work people put into the FiveM framework or non-Nopixel servers. My apologies to any FiveM devs if my comment came off that way.

The reason I call out Nopixel specifically is that server' recent prominence and popularity may affect Rockstar's plan for GTA6. For better or for worse, the Nopixel brand has moved GTAV modding towards the mainstream and that has the potential to affect all future modding.

I'm pretty much in agreement with your predictions and concerns about RP in GTA6, I think this is a widely shared view. In addition to your concern about mechanics overriding RP, I would also say that (from my view) RP seems to be most successful when mod devs and admins are closely integrated with the community and able to tweak/add content to prevent things getting stale. It's very hard to see how that could happen with Rockstar administering RP servers.

It's doable, FiveM have accomplished it, even.

I used to host dedicated game servers back in the day when that was a thing you did. Most servers had custom variables set for all sorts of stuff: health, gravity, respawn time, etc. All of these sorts of settings exist in GTA, and Cyberpunk, and Halo, and so on. It's up to the developers to expose them.

It seems perfectly reasonable to me, and likely you, that Rockstar could charge to host a private server, provide admins with all the knobs and levers they could dream of, and even provide access to scripting and resource primitives that modders will figure out how to access anyways. But they probably won't.

If they were really smart, they'd just buy FiveM, and have GTA6 ship with paid modding support.

NoPixel, and GTARP in general are fundamentally flawed because they enforce game design objectives through community rules instead of through game design itself. It works ok for streaming, because you have a small group of paid actors who mostly follow the rules, but try actually playing it and you realize everything quickly dissolves into a shitshow of petty meta-arguments.

The rules try to foster an environment where players act in a somewhat realistic manner, valuing their own life, yet the game design acts in completely opposed to this; get killed and you respawn at the nearest hospital without consequences just like in single-player.

An example; some characters were holding a funeral for another character. (consensus among the players had emerged that this death was 'real', as opposed to just being a normal 'respawn'). Some popular streamer turned up and suicide-bombed the funeral for laughs, sending bodies flying in every direction. The next hour is spent on meta-debates about if this suicide-bomb attack was canonical, only canonical for the bomber, or should be ignored and considered as never having occurred. The whole shitshow could have been avoided if the game design was in service to the server's objectives, e.g. when you die your character is perma-dead, instead of leaving that determination up to interpretation of the server's rules.

Goofy roleplay metaverse sounds a lot cooler than cartoonified realworld self metaverse

Lots of it is goofy. Some of it is wildly deep too. As a police officer you have shifts, tickets to give out, tons of paperwork, break time, arresting, booking, interrogating, rules for shoot outs, you learn all the codes for “officer down”, “robbery in progress”, etc, certifications to get for driving various vehicles, you have to learn every street by heart to participate in chases because you have to constantly use call signs and say “he’s going north on broadway, now east on lake ave”, promotions and pay scales, radio operation and dispatch…absolutely insane imo, a completely new level of role playing.

   >>>  It feels like I've been watching a novel form of entertainment emerge

Had the same sentiment. Meta merger of Hollywood and Vinewood incoming, that is: some streamers are becoming improvising actors, some dialogues might be pre-scripted and rehearsed today.

> Rockstar is notorious for being hostile to modders.

I wonder why. Mods have been a part of GTA for so long. Why can't they just embrace it?

Microtransactions do not fit well with some kinds of mods as it could enable players to access new content not in the company control.

Mods are great for players and the most dedicated fans, thou.

Harder to monetize and control

>a roleplay-focused GTAV mod

My girlfriend currently is addicted to GTAV role play. GTAV RP is huge and very popular with women it seems.

That and Dead by Daylight.

Need to take a look at it.

But regarding GTARP: I've never seen so many female players in one game. On some servers it's roughly 50/50 split between men and women. (Most servers have the rule that you need to play a character of the same sex you have in the real world).

I believe GTARP is The Sims on Crack (or Cocaine or whatever the gangs are trading there).

Any roles for gender fluid?

I guess it depends on the server. I know of one trans woman who had no problem playing a female character on the server my GF plays on. She was just accepted by the community.

But as this is mostly role play I don't see why gender fluidity should be a problem.

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