With the April 14 launch of Grand Theft Auto V on PC, a whole new world of opportunity opened up for modders. Rockstar stated that they were in support of fan-created modifications in the single player portion of the game. Modders jumped on the opportunity, making mods that range from the useful, such as field of view and graphical tweaks, through the fun, such as the recent Jetpack mod, all the way to the absolutely insane, such flooding the entire map. Some extremely resourceful modders took things to the limit, devising a way to quickly and easily lift over maps from other games, specifically other entries in the Grand Theft Auto series, into GTA V's engine.

However, while the world of mods is a beautiful one, full of creativity and wonder, unfortunately this is the internet we are talking about, so there are always a few a$$holes who dick things up for everyone else. Enter the cheaters, trying to use the versatility of mods to gain an unfair advantage in Grand Theft Auto Online, thus ruining the game not only for everyone else, but for themselves as well (yes, GTA BOOM supports "official" single player cheats only!). I mean seriously, what fun is there in winning by cheating? This isn't some stereotypical life-lesson thing here, I'm genuinely curious. I'm a young adult who likes playing video games. Incidentally, I also like to win. I'll be honest, I've tried cheating in multiplayer before. The second I gained the unfair advantage, I stopped enjoying myself.

Here's an idea: If any of you among the readers use/used cheats/hacks in GTA Online, or any online multiplayer game, to win, would you be so kind as to share your thoughts on this?

Anyway, back to the news: With the recent 1.27 patch, Rockstar has begun a crusade against the less honest among the players of GTA Online. The new patch brought a new wave of tweaks that allows Rockstar to closely track any player using mods in GTA Online, and they have issued an ultimatum through their official newswire, warning of permanent bans to be issued against modders.

As part of our ongoing commitment to combat cheating and griefing, we have recently implemented new systems to allow us to more efficiently detect and target any players found running mods and cheat programs within GTA Online.

As a reminder, any attempt to tamper with the behavior of GTA Online by installing or executing mods, scripts, or other exploits, modifying the game files or manipulating the game in any way while it is executing will result in disciplinary action including but not limited to time in the cheater pool, bans and potential suspension of your account. Please help maintain the integrity of the GTA Online experience by keeping sessions free of modifications and exploits.

Rockstar has also turned to the community to chip in. They've called upon all the honest players of Grand Theft Auto Online to report any and all cheaters to Rockstar, so they can start to clean things up.