Over the past decade or so, video gamers have become enthralled with titles that offer sprawling online multiplayer experiences in addition to their single player campaigns. But some games are simply not meant to be played in multiplayer format, and from the looks of it, the critically acclaimed Grand Theft Auto series fits into that category.

Despite that fact, Rockstar Games, the developer behind the Grand Theft Auto series and the mastermind of the series’ latest game, Grand Theft Auto V, is trying to do anything to make the launch of its new Grand Theft Auto Online world something other than the disastrous failure it has been hailed. According to a recent article from PC Magazine, Rockstar is now taking a leaf out of the federal government’s playbook, offering a “stimulus” package that will hopefully encourage players to embrace the Grand Theft Auto online experience. Players with active accounts will receive two deposits of $250,000 – in GTA cash, sadly – for a total of $500 grand.

In order to receive the money users must either play – or have played – Grand Theft Auto Online during the month of October. Precisely what players can do with the money is a bit unclear, especially since it normally isn’t difficult to earn or steal money in the GTA world. However, the stimulus is clearly an attempt by Rockstar to populate its online world and start earning gamer buzz for the online experience, a plan that may or may not have any chance of success.

Grand Theft Auto Online has been ridden with errors since it launched, from accusations that it was pointless, with nothing interesting to do, to server issues that left curious players unable to access the online game world. Apparently, the online version of Grand Theft Auto is little different than the offline version: players can race, fight, and blow stuff up, all while interacting with real players rather than with artificial intelligence.

But despite the pointless nature of the online play, the biggest problems have thus far revolved around Rockstar’s character creation system – which bogs down the server, loses characters entirely, and doesn’t allow for many customization options anyway – and around a mission system which was meant to create the feel of the single player Grand Theft Auto game, but which instead ends up feeling like monotonous busy work. $500,000 stimulus or not, it’s doubtful that these problems will go away.

Luckily for Rockstar, however, Grand Theft Auto V itself is anything but a failure: the game notched $1 billion in sales in just the first three days of its release.