Forget your yachts, your special cargo, your adversary modes, there is a small community within GTAForums that has no interest in such folly and is instead committed to 100%ing the 3D era of GTA over and over again, one mission at a time.
Introducing: The Chain Game.
In a nutshell, The Chain Game is a long-running forum game and it’s aim is to load up a new game of GTA and achieve 100% completion. It begins with a leader posting a clean starter game save and inviting players to come forward and take a turn by completing a mission or set objective, then saving it themselves and passing it onto the next player to complete the following mission or objective. These turns carry on with whomever wants to participate and for however long it takes until the game achieves 100%. And this is all from the same starter game save that the leader had posted at the beginning.
The concept of the Chain Game was essentially a by-product of the Save N Play community, a service first founded back in 2004 by the formidable @Demarest, in which players would help other players complete difficult missions or tasks that they struggled with and then sending their save game file back to them to continue playing on. GTASnP.com, a save sharing website dedicated to this whole process, was created especially for GTAForums and launched in 2005; it’s still used by the wider community today and is maintained by developer @Samutz. The idea of the Chain Game was then born some time amongst all of this, allowing players to come together and complete the game as a collective. From one perspective it’s nice to think of it as an early form of GTA multiplayer, and you must have a heart of stone if it doesn’t give you warm fuzzy feelings inside knowing that this sharing community is still going today.
It currently actively operates out of our GTA San Andreas, GTA Vice City and GTA III subforums. Below you’ll find a little tidbit about each game from each section. We’ve also had the leaders and most active participants across the three offer some thoughts and reasons why they keep on playing the Chain Game today even with the variety and updated graphics of GTA V and GTA Online on offer, accompanied by their favourite missions for a touch of added nostalgia.
The longest running Chain Game is GTA SA, which has been led tirelessly by @JAJ since it’s conception 11 years ago in 2006. The GTA SA Chain Game is currently on it’s 116th round, with the previous round taking 10 months to complete, so you imagine how much dedication, patience and mutual respect between players it takes to participate, and it’s this what we’d like to recognise in our GTAForums Spotlight.
My first experience with a chain game was in Aug. 2005 when OrionSR and a few others played a version of the chain game on another forum. It was a friendly game that a few played to get to 100%. The rules were very simple compared to what the current GTASA chain game is now. I got a lot of good advice & help from the people on the forum at the time. The list is long and can be seen in the first few pages of the current chain game post. It took about 3 months of off and on thinking and studying about how the rules should be for a large forum like the gtaforums, I didn’t want there to be too many ‘assumptions’ about how to play the game, how many missions & other stuff to do on a turn so it would be fair and allow the most players to contribute. It’s been a lot of fun playing the chain game, meeting players from all over the world and just working together with the objective to get to 100%.
JAJ
The most active Chain Games are for GTA VC and GTA III, which are both currently led by retired staff member @GTAKid667.
The GTA VC Chain Game has had a couple of different iterations over the years due to lack of participation; the first was created over 6 years ago in 2010, but the most recent outing began in 2015 and is currently in it’s 11th round.
Long story short, I joined in June 2015 when 35th round of GTA III Chain Game was taking place. I was really enjoying this new style of gameplay. 3D era GTAs are my favorite, the first GTA I played was III so it has special place in my heart but I like Vice City little bit more because of the 80s atmosphere, soundtrack and storyline.
I asked GTAKid667 about starting Chain Game in Vice City section too and after some time we revived Vice City Chain Game. That was in October 2015. Since then we finished 10 rounds, some went faster, some slower but it was always great fun.
Always enjoyed playing GTA and it’s nice to share my experience, stories and crazy moments with other players. I like to take tons of screenshots and lately also gifs (two examples, from III game though) so I feel like this adds to enjyoing the Chain Game even more as you can actually see what everyone did, what happened in their turn. There are some hilarious conversations in the Lounge, we have great statistics (I love statistics) from GTAKid667 and it’s nice to find some stuff some of us had no idea that there is in these games, for example destination of tank in Sir, Yes Sir.
TubewayArmy
It’s safe to say that thanks to Chain Game, III & Vice City will be forever my favorite video games. Not only they still look great 15 years after release and are fun to play for 1000th time, we have great community too.
The GTA III Chain Game has enjoyed it’s presence on the forums since 2010 and it’s currently on its 62nd round. GTAKid667 said:
I’ve always enjoyed playing the older GTA Games and since joining the GTA III Chain Game over 4 years ago I have had the opportunity to experience the games in a new way, playing together with a community of fellow GTA Players to complete the game to 100% as a team. It doesn’t matter how experienced you are with the game or what contribution you make, every turn that a player makes is a step towards the ultimate goal of 100% completion.
During the time that I have been playing the Chain Game, both as a player and through leading the GTA III and Vice City Chain Games, I have seen what was once a simple idea grow into small community of players who genuinely get along and are dedicated to helping the game achieve it’s goal over and over again. We all have a great time discussing and playing the games that made us interested in GTA and share our experiences of playing the game with each other learning new things along the way. None of what has been achieved would have been possible without the participation of the players, they are what make the game what it is today and the reason that I will always enjoy playing in the Chain Game.
A Chain Game for GTA IV sadly died back in 2013 due to lack of interest; I’m told by GTAKid667 that PC problems could possibly be to blame for this, as it’s not been as easy to share save files without corrupting them along the way.
GTA V to this date is still a virgin yet to be touched by the Chain Game, although there are some lightly fanning the embers – you’re able to take advantage of GTASnP.com and share save games in this pinned GTA V Save N Play topic in Help & Support if things have got a little too tricky for you in modern day Los Santos, but whether it ever develops into a Chain Game remains to be seen.
For me, the chain game is a collective effort, where even the slightest contributions feel like a huge step towards completion, while also bringing a new twist to an old game. It doesn’t feel like anything new or special until you really get into it. It either grabs you or it doesn’t, but even the people who just jumped in for a turn and then never looked back had a part in helping. And in the end, that’s what made me stay – the ability to just be able to help push every round a bit further towards completion.
Th3MaN1
My favorite aspect of the Chain Game has to be the sense of community that revolves around it. I think it’s so cool how we have players from all over the world collaborating and working towards a single goal. Everyone is always very respectful, knowledgeable, and extremely welcoming. Moreover, the Chain Game gives me a reason to want to play these old GTA games — it keeps me reminded on how entertaining old games like GTA III and Vice City are.
thehambone
So what have you got to lose? Participation is open to everyone as long as you play by the rules of the game, and if it’s not your thing, at least enjoy the videos above and reminisce about the good old days for a change.
GTA San Andreas Chain Game – GTA Vice City Chain Game – GTA III Chain Game
Source – GTASnP.com
Source – @GTAKid667 – Thanks for keeping my facts straight!