GTA & Rockstar Documents From Early 2000s Released Online as a Form of Protest
A GTAForums user objected to the actions of a "notorious" Rockstar collector, John Doe.
Over on GTAForums, Christmas celebrations coincided with a relatively obscure drama involving an anonymous user, FrankieLiberty, who protested the actions of one John Doe – a "notorious" Rockstar collector who allegedly has been profiting by selling the company's internal documents obtained through shady methods.
While the drama itself may not captivate you if you're outside the circle of die-hard Rockstar fans, FrankieLiberty's method of protest certainly will, as they shared a sizeable archive of Rockstar Games' design documents from the early 2000s, offering a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into one of the most secretive video game development studios in the industry.
Rockstar
In their statement, FrankieLiberty claimed that John Doe's actions have harmed his buyers, Rockstar Games, and the community as a whole, calling him a "deeply irresponsible bad faith actor who thinks of themselves as the Robin Hood of stolen property". According to the anonymous user, Doe has obtained a significant amount of content from former Rockstar developers over the years, ranging from assets to sensitive documents, acting as a fence to protect the identities of those ex-devs.
The statement further alleges that Doe's MO involves either offering content he doesn't own at inflated prices based on other listings or purchasing items cheaply and reselling them at ten times the price. FrankieLiberty describes the collector as a known trafficker of stolen Rockstar content, whose actions previously contributed to other leaks, such as the early builds of Manhunt 1 and Manhunt 2.
"John Doe has proudly flexed his contacts, his insight, and the stuff he's been able to gather for years," reads FrankieLiberty's post. "He's also engaged in further illegal acts, such as requesting personal identification documents from buyers during sales while claiming that he's interested in the security of said assets.
Of course, we all know that's all a lie because even if he plays victim, as if he's giving back to the community by selling stolen documents, game builds, and press kits and making it possible only under secrecy by saying that if anything leaks 'he'd lose his hard-earned trust and contacts,' the man is not at all concerned with security, legality or even morals. He could have chosen the righteous path of releasing the content freely for the community to access, or at the very least, abide by his promise of exclusivity towards the buyers.
Instead, John Doe has been cleverly interacting with different members of our community from different groups, making sure to never sell the same thing to the same group. A man worried about keeping things secret would certainly avoid such risks, no?
Well, John Doe has instead been profiting massively for years by selling and reselling content to many members and gouging the market by offering higher or lower prices depending on whoever he's offering to. Select ex-developers have made a killing off his sales while being entirely protected with him acting as a fence. John Doe has easily made tens of thousands of dollars, oftentimes reselling the same asset priced at e.g. $2K to five different parties."
In protest of these actions, FrankieLiberty released a file containing Rockstar Games' internal design documents from two decades ago, which include details about GTA: San Andreas, GTA: Advance, GTA: Vice City Stories, a GTA Online document dated 2001, and other projects.
According to FrankieLiberty, the files are "a reupload of John Doe's documents," indicating that they aren't truly a new leak but have already been accessible to a select few outside of Rockstar Games who were willing to pay for the information. The documents themselves include details on the aforementioned titles' gameplay mechanics, San Andreas' girlfriends, quests, map screenshots, and a massive overview of a 2001 Grand Theft Auto: Online project, discussing its gameplay, NPCs, character interactions, environments, and more.
Check out FrankieLiberty's original GTAForums post here and don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.
