As Grand Theft Auto VI approaches its launch, Rockstar Games has drawn a firm boundary around the creative freedoms its community once took for granted, signaling that the era of open modding within the franchise is giving way to tighter ecosystem control. The decision reflects a broader tension in modern gaming between corporate stewardship of living, monetized worlds and the grassroots creativity that has long extended the life and love of these same worlds. What Rockstar gains in control, it risks losing in the goodwill of the modders who have, for years, been among its most devoted caretak