Special Events Introduction

When Grand Theft Auto V approached its launch day it appeared to be precisely what it in fact is: the proper heir to the modern video game throne.

In the royal hierarchy of a modern video games industry, RockStar Games development studios, known in the industry as “Rockstar North” and formerly considered to be the core studio of DMA Design Ltd. -- the design studio that was destined to make up the bulwarks of what became R* North -- would be the home to the throne upon which the undisputed royalty of the games industry (at least for today) presents itself in the form of Dan and Sam Houser.

From deep within the bowels of their secret lair located behind an unmarked door off of a side street in the maze of ancient blocks sometimes called Edinburgh, Scotland (you have no bloody idea how long I have been patiently waiting for an opportunity to use the phrase “deep within the bowels of their secret lair” -- I am just saying )...

While best known for its creation of the bulk of the GTA Series, R* North has also given birth to such shining lights in the firmament of games and Gaming as Red Dead, Max Payne, Manhunt, and even Lemmings just to name a few...

The Making of GTA5 online

When the decision was made -- deep in the development process of Grand Theft Auto Five - to spin off its multi-player side into a stand-alone mini-massive multi-player online role-playing-game, that decision was not made lightly. Or perhaps it was - with the Houser brothers you never can tell!

Whether it was a deeply considered matter or, as has been suggested on more than three occasions, was the result of the two Houser's stumbling in to the studio at three in the afternoon after an around-the-clock strategy session at the satellite planning offices of Rockstar Games (the booth in the far back left-had side of the main rooms at The Port O'Leith Pub), announcing to Aaron Garbut -- the art director at Rockstar North ever since the studio pushed out GTA III -- that they would be killing the multi-player side of GTA V in favor of a stand-alone mini-MMO... And the rest, as they say, is history!

The Port O'Leith Pub, it is widely rumored, is said to have concealed in the jumble of natutical flags that adorn its ceiling the House Flag for a tramp freighter whose name -- which will be very familiar to even the least of you -- is the flag for the mixed cargo freighter MV Platypus, whose home port is Budva, Montenegro, and has a well-establish reputation for its many hidden smuggling compartments and its predominantly Serbian crew.

But none of that has anything to do with the subject of this page in the guide -- which is all about the oddly unanticipated and yet massively effective strategy of using spur-of-the-moment and largely unexpected special Events to add zing to the zest of GTA5 online!

Special Events

The Introduction is down to just this: when the subject came to separating the multi-player side from the main game in GTA5 there was really no hesitation at all - so it should not be all that great a surprise that the decision to use special Events to add zip! zowie! and zamo! to the game - it would be in the form of very fleeting, very fickle, but also very special Special Events.

Of course you lowly play-ahs discovered to your own grief and shame that the Gods givent, and the Gods taketh away! Lessons clearly delivered via the Xmas SE through which it appeared as if you were able to obtain all these really cool new game bits -- only to discover that once the SE was over so were the special new game bits!

So don't let that happen to you again mates - when it is SE time in ole GTAO it is time to bust loose and LIVE I tell ya!