While GTA V was a critically unanimous success, GTA Online has been anything but. Rockstar apparently reached for goals too lofty to properly grasp at first lunge. Consequences for players venturing online have been frustrating, and I use ‘frustrating’ euphemistically. If you’re considering whether or not to go online, I suggest you take a moment and reflect on issues you may run into.
Recently, there have been several reports of players losing all of their in-game assets – avatar, cars, money, and the like. One such occurence was spotted on Reddit and can be viewed below:
A second, more telling issue, is directly on Rockstar’s support page. The player’s “online character, rank, items, apartments, and/or cash” suddenly went missing. When asked how these could be retrieved, Rockstar responded as follows:
We have received reports from some players who experienced losing characters, progress, items, and/or in-game cash during the first few days after release. We are working diligently to identify and correct the causes for these losses, as well as to establish how best to restore any lost progress and value. If you would like to receive an automatic email notification as soon as there is more information about this, please log into the Support Site and click Subscribe at the top of this page. You do not need to do anything else at this time.
That’s a fairly similar answer to the first report. However, subsequent notes were added, suggesting to players that they log-out of online by switching to the single player and not through the console interface. Also, they said to “NOT use the “Retry” button after receiving the message “Rockstar Cloud Servers are unavailable” as this may result in loss of character data.”
For the time being, it will behoove you to use patience. If you’re highly risk prone, well then go for it! But you’ve been warned.