Unfortunately a lot of the people who were around high school age when GTA:SA was in its prime, such as myself, are now graduating college and getting jobs in the "real world". That means no more summer breaks, ever. (Unless... unemployment! But that also sucks.)
One realistic way in which we could perhaps get more players is by implementing a few good ideas to make the game mode more engaging for new players just joining the server. I think it's a huge problem that frequently, when new players join, they run around a bit, get ganged up on by regulars, and then leave out of boredom or frustration within 10 minutes. Fortunately, though, this seems like a problem where minimal development effort (at least compared to rewriting the game mode completely) could go a long way.
One such idea I've had is that each new player, upon joining, would be given a random target to hunt down and kill, and upon successfully doing so, they'd be rewarded with cash. This would give them some sort of an objective to go for, which in turn would keep them playing for longer, and perhaps make them want to come back for more later. And, best of all, it feels relatively easy to implement, as it's pretty similar to the existing bounty system.
VC-MP: 
