Hospital Bills Rockstars way of pushing players to buy Ca$h Cards

[Spectre321]

I read that the hospital bills in GTA:O are a scheme Rockstar came up with to help starve players of money and push them that much closer to purchasing a ca$h card.

 

If I join up into a Death Match game or a Last Team Standing game, in which the objective is to kill, I shouldn't lose more money from dying (hospital bills) than I will make back at the end of the game, even if I WIN. In my opinion, free roam and co-op missions should have hospital bills, while games like Death Match, last man standing, etc... should allow you to die as much as you need to without deducting cash from your pockets and bank account.

 

This is the problem that bugs me most about GTA:O and I really hope that Rockstar isn't really doing this to urge players to buy Ca$h cards. I understand they need to make money to keep the online mode constantly developing and expanding, but surely better ideas for micro transactions could be thought up in a game as large as this than taxing player death in all game modes.

[Inked.]

Its more of a replayability thing than it is a marketting push.

 

It's understandable to be against it when from a players perspective, you want money to do the things you want. But if you don't lose money in any way, what would happen? Within days people would be rich to the point where they would have to give money away simply because they have too much. Whenever you add a virtual currency, you're going to get a virtual economy. The economy doesn't work because everybody prospers, it works because some gain and others lose. If they didn't have it, why don't we all start with 50M, or 100M? I mean whats the point of money if everyone should be financially stable to their most desires from the get go.

 

But if you don't have alot of cash, but know theres a 600K house you want, you're more likely to keep playing until you earn enough to get it, and with you losing cash for dying, and death being inevitable, they keep players longer because the player has a harder time earning the cash.

Edited October 2, 2013 by Officer Will Troll

[blk95ta]

but its frustrating to do missions or deathmatches to make money and end up with less money than when you started with. the only way i see making good amounts of money i guess is racing or stealing cars, but you can only steal so many cars a day.

 

the irony is, the cash cards are down for maintenance. i was going to buy one with some leftover xbox cash i have so i could get a property.

Edited October 2, 2013 by blk95ta

[SUPAH JD]

Its more of a replayability thing than it is a marketting push.

 

It's understandable to be against it when from a players perspective, you want money to do the things you want. But if you don't lose money in any way, what would happen? Within days people would be rich to the point where they would have to give money away simply because they have too much. Whenever you add a virtual currency, you're going to get a virtual economy. The economy doesn't work because everybody prospers, it works because some gain and others lose. If they didn't have it, why don't we all start with 50M, or 100M? I mean whats the point of money if everyone should be financially stable to their most desires from the get go.

 

But if you don't have alot of cash, but know theres a 600K house you want, you're more likely to keep playing until you earn enough to get it, and with you losing cash for dying, and death being inevitable, they keep players longer because the player has a harder time earning the cash.

What? They'd still lose money. It's completely understandable what OP is saying.

 

The items in the game are expensive enough, as you mentioned. You still lose money from Free Roam where people can kill you. Or from the cops killing you. I shouldn't go to a damn game where the objective is to kill or be killed and lose money when the objective happens. That actually does really suck.

 

Hell, I even understand losing money within missions. But on f*cking deathmatch? DEATHMATCH?

Edited October 2, 2013 by SideburnGuru

[Patriot_Action]

Its more of a replayability thing than it is a marketting push.

Not sure I'd call it replayability (if you keep playing, you'll both gain and lose more money, so playing more doesn't necessarilly mean more money) but I get what you're saying and I agree.

 

It's a money sink. They need a way to consistently pull money out of the game or it becomes worthless and everyone is running around with millions of dollars. This is worse in games with player-driven economies (causes massive inflation), but it would be an issue here too if you earned too much than you could spend just by playing consistently.

Edited October 2, 2013 by Patriot_Action

[ProGamerGov]

 

Its more of a replayability thing than it is a marketting push.

 

It's understandable to be against it when from a players perspective, you want money to do the things you want. But if you don't lose money in any way, what would happen? Within days people would be rich to the point where they would have to give money away simply because they have too much. Whenever you add a virtual currency, you're going to get a virtual economy. The economy doesn't work because everybody prospers, it works because some gain and others lose. If they didn't have it, why don't we all start with 50M, or 100M? I mean whats the point of money if everyone should be financially stable to their most desires from the get go.

 

But if you don't have alot of cash, but know theres a 600K house you want, you're more likely to keep playing until you earn enough to get it, and with you losing cash for dying, and death being inevitable, they keep players longer because the player has a harder time earning the cash.

What? They'd still lose money. It's completely understandable what OP is saying.

 

The items in the game are expensive enough, as you mentioned. You still lose money from Free Roam where people can kill you. Or from the cops killing you. I shouldn't go to a damn game where the objective is to kill or be killed and lose money when the objective happens. That actually does really suck.

 

Hell, I even understand losing money within missions. But on f*cking deathmatch? DEATHMATCH?

 

 

I haven't lost a dime from being killed on deathmatch.

[Lisha]

Doesn't make sense to lose money in deathmatch. The entire premise of that game mode is "kill or be killed", the punishment in deathmatch is dying/having a bad kill to death ratio IMO.

[iwerez]

If poeple ARE loosing cash forevery single death even within a closed gamemode, thats a bug. Outisde of minigames focused on dying its legit. They arent forcing anyone to buy anything, the \ON LY poeple who would make that poor judgement are the kind of poeple who cant avoid the temptation of buying a cash card so they can boast and blame the game.

[MisterRawgers]

Yep , that's exactly what R* is doing, but should we be surprised? They needed a way to convince people to get cash cards, they needed to make it very hard to get the nice things.

[Inked.]

 

Its more of a replayability thing than it is a marketting push.

 

It's understandable to be against it when from a players perspective, you want money to do the things you want. But if you don't lose money in any way, what would happen? Within days people would be rich to the point where they would have to give money away simply because they have too much. Whenever you add a virtual currency, you're going to get a virtual economy. The economy doesn't work because everybody prospers, it works because some gain and others lose. If they didn't have it, why don't we all start with 50M, or 100M? I mean whats the point of money if everyone should be financially stable to their most desires from the get go.

 

But if you don't have alot of cash, but know theres a 600K house you want, you're more likely to keep playing until you earn enough to get it, and with you losing cash for dying, and death being inevitable, they keep players longer because the player has a harder time earning the cash.

What? They'd still lose money. It's completely understandable what OP is saying.

 

The items in the game are expensive enough, as you mentioned. You still lose money from Free Roam where people can kill you. Or from the cops killing you. I shouldn't go to a damn game where the objective is to kill or be killed and lose money when the objective happens. That actually does really suck.

 

Hell, I even understand losing money within missions. But on f*cking deathmatch? DEATHMATCH?

 

 

If you kept money in deathmatch when dying, but not in all the other modes, all we'd see is a Call of Duty take onto the game where players spend all day farming K/D killing each and taking the piss out of each other. If you're going to create t his money sink we call death bills, then it needs to be across the board because else you are just tunneling people to go one route because it's the only break they get. And yes, no matter how much think people may be dedicated to a certain mode, if they have goals, they'll go for the other route to get to them.

 

The problem is, you people need to stop looking at every decision as a direct greedy impulse and assuming that Rockstar is some sort of corporate dictatorship, when people need to play regularly or it turns out like every call of duty. Buy it for $60, play for 3 weeks, go back to w/e game.

 

@Patriot_Action - While yes you can infact lose money playing, that's part of replayability. If you do bad, but you still want to reach your goal, you are more inclined to keep playing so you can improve and play better so then you can start making profit again and getting yourself closer to your goal.

 

People are going to buy cash cards because they are lazy and don't desire to put time into acquiring the cash, rather put real cash into it. You see it in almost every game, MMO's especially. Some buy anything and everything they like with real money, often to gain an advantage. Others completely avoid using real cash for a game. Hospital Bills are a way to balance the virtual economy, not fill R*'s pockets.

Edited October 2, 2013 by Officer Will Troll

[Krazee DD]

The thing is, it would be FUN! WAAAAAY FUN! If this was the case. Throw everything at me. I will die and learn better tactics as I go. Hell, I WAS having fun until I realized the cash penalties.

Now I have to play it on EASY MODE for profit and take the fun out of the game....

Whats even worse is a simple smash and grab job that pays $1500 will throw every gang banger, cop, and redneck in the game at you. Almost forcing a death that penalizes more than the payout.

Edited October 2, 2013 by Krazee DD

[Inked.]

@Krazee DD - While it may be fun to be able to just gain cash like a vacuum or a prostitute, it would be pointless to even have cash if it was simply too easy. Whats the point of cash if there is no progression and nobody working to gain more of it?

 

The hardest part for a game developer is; "Will people enjoy it?". With so many of us gamers out there, they cant appeal to each and every one of us and we wont ALL have the greatest experience of our lives because we all enjoy things differently. The important thing is to keep with your goals. Rockstar set out to make V the way they thought it should be and they are given the power to make the game how they have, as they're the ones making it. While you may not agree with their decisions, and you may even in the end stop playing, it is a loss they have to take because if they were to change to appeal to you, they will simply lose out and the people opposed to your view point will be just as frustrated as you are.

[myname2917]

@Krazee DD - While it may be fun to be able to just gain cash like a vacuum or a prostitute, it would be pointless to even have cash if it was simply too easy. Whats the point of cash if there is no progression and nobody working to gain more of it?

 

The hardest part for a game developer is; "Will people enjoy it?". With so many of us gamers out there, they cant appeal to each and every one of us and we wont ALL have the greatest experience of our lives because we all enjoy things differently. The important thing is to keep with your goals. Rockstar set out to make V the way they thought it should be and they are given the power to make the game how they have, as they're the ones making it. While you may not agree with their decisions, and you may even in the end stop playing, it is a loss they have to take because if they were to change to appeal to you, they will simply lose out and the people opposed to your view point will be just as frustrated as you are.

 

Oh spare me the Rockstar water carrying.

 

This death penalty was CLEARLY done to make people have to grind or buy the cards with real cash. It isn't any fun and it will make MORE people want to quit playing than say to themselves "gee, I'm getting hosed in this game by these hospital bills and all the deaths I take. I need to play more!!"

 

Having to pay a death toll in deathmatch is absurd. Having to pay a death match in missions where the NPC characters/cops are terminators is absurd. An example? I was playing the Meth/RV mission tonight with my brother and we got shot from gang members who were BEHIND the RV as I was driving. They shot us THROUGH the back of the RV and the NPCs seem to have sniper accuracy where it's one or maybe two shots and you're dead. I also liked shooting one of the gang members 5 times int he head while he was on his motorcycle and he didn't fall off or die. That was great.

 

The whole death bill almost makes GTAO unplayable. That you can do a mission and come out with a net LOSS of money clearly shows how idiotic it is.

 

Sad how many Rockstar fanboys are out there. Just because Rockstar makes good games doesn't magically make everything they do perfect. They fugged up with this and for anyone to not agree makes me think they lick the Rockstar nutsack.

[aR2k]

I am not loosing money from dying in death matches or missions.

 

If you do, it must be a bug.

 

There is no "scheme"

[Zanje]

 

 

If you kept money in deathmatch when dying, but not in all the other modes, all we'd see is a Call of Duty take onto the game where players spend all day farming K/D killing each and taking the piss out of each other.

 

 

I personally have to say something on this, some people like that gameplay style and why should they be punished simply for how they enjoy playing the game? As we see on this very forum people flip out at those who play like that in free roam calling them griefers, trolls, "kiddies" etc. and that if they want to kill folks they should just go play deathmatch, which is true! But the way the system works currently there is absolutely no point in playing a deathmatch as whoever wins still loses in the grand scheme of things.

 

Bottom line, they should remove death bills from death matches, all of them. Team, standard, last man standing, ETC. and then those who enjoy playing like that will have far more incentive to play in those game modes and enjoy themselves, while those who wish to play in a more cooperative setting can stick to free roam and they could live in relative harmony. Not that it would solve all the griefing problems but im sure it would help.

[SpidersWeb]

I'll be waiting another week until I get further in before I make a call on this subject.

 

At the moment 2K per death seems painful, but it will probably be almost unnoticeable later in the game - until I get further in I can't be sure though. For the mean time, it's fairly motivating to 'not die' or pick fights with randoms.

[aR2k]

Ill say again, i dont pay any money from dying in deathmatch games, if i did i would be broke constantly coz i suck at it.

 

If you do, it must be a bug, rockstar would not be stupid enough to put medical bills into a deathmatch game

[cjkuhlenbeck]

I am not loosing money from dying in death matches or missions.

 

If you do, it must be a bug.

 

There is no "scheme"

Agreed, I have not experienced this either. Can anyone confirm this? sounds like a bug.

[JohnMcClainNYPD]

I wish the stock market was up and running for online. I'm planning on spreading all of my money out on low risk stock. It seems like it would be safer to have your money spread out on low risk stock than to have it in your bank.

[Corrupt King]

Hit down on D pad after you die in a mission...

[aurther61287]

its gotta be -10$ for normal death match, -1000 for missions 1-4, 1-2, -100 for freeroam.

 

otherwise i also have to agree its rockstars way of forcing people over 100k to buy cards if they want to play death match at all. otherwise enjoy your maximum few K.

 

its also going to force people to abuse only a few missions even more then they normally would. why would i risk TDM when i can go join a mission that gives me 9k is much faster and doesnt get me killed. when you got a lot of money 2k every death adds up. no way im risking that im just going to play it safe and abuse the easy missions. yay rockstar thats soooo much fun, i might play for fun only after i got all my toys....no way am i paying money for your scam

[big slug]

Why are people so butthurt by this?
Like someone said, if you don't ever lose money then whats the point? In a week everyone on the game will have the fastest car with best mods and the biggest apartment..
The game is all about playing risk, try saving up & making money fast and you may F up instead. I've found best way is to just not worry about the money whatsoever and crack on doing whatever missions you enjoy and the money rolls in anyway.

[JOSEPH X]

Its more of a replayability thing than it is a marketting push.

 

It's understandable to be against it when from a players perspective, you want money to do the things you want. But if you don't lose money in any way, what would happen? Within days people would be rich to the point where they would have to give money away simply because they have too much. Whenever you add a virtual currency, you're going to get a virtual economy. The economy doesn't work because everybody prospers, it works because some gain and others lose. If they didn't have it, why don't we all start with 50M, or 100M? I mean whats the point of money if everyone should be financially stable to their most desires from the get go.

 

But if you don't have alot of cash, but know theres a 600K house you want, you're more likely to keep playing until you earn enough to get it, and with you losing cash for dying, and death being inevitable, they keep players longer because the player has a harder time earning the cash.

You aren't giving a reason for Rockstar making money off selling 'money' there. You are only justifying the in-game economy.

 

Losing money from hospital bills and buying things is all well and good, but for the game manufacturer to then offer you fake money is beyond satire.

 

It's as if you were playing Monopoly and you could call up the makers of that game to drop you some 'monopoly money' while you're playing.

 

It's totally uncalled for and the people who profit from it should be f*cking shot.

[FearedSkill]

Guys, the fact of the matter is, we payed $60 to play this game. Rockstar should not be draining us of our money and trying to make us spend more. I play GTA to have fun, part of the fun is being reckless with friends. I shouldn't have to worry about loosing money all the time by either other players killing me, or me just wanting to jump out of a plane. Think about it, the average store heist and car sale gets you $1,500. The most cheap property is $80,000. This would mean that you would have to pull off 53.3 missions without failing or having any fun online (due to the fact that you will most definitely be killed). If you are killed you will have to do 2 jobs to make up for that 1 failed job. This means the average person would have to do around 80 to 90 jobs without playing anything else online to buy the smallest property. This is absurd. Rockstar is scamming you for your money. There should be no penalty for death other than dropping the money you are carrying!! Enough with the "Health care and bail" charges. It doesnt need to be that realistic! The game is so realistic that its boring!

Edited October 4, 2013 by FearedSkill

[ScruffyBamboo]

Ill say again, i dont pay any money from dying in deathmatch games, if i did i would be broke constantly coz i suck at it.

 

If you do, it must be a bug, rockstar would not be stupid enough to put medical bills into a deathmatch game

 

I agree about the deathmatches - I haven't lost any money from dying. Missions though, are another story.

 

I recently went on an epic, 16-player mission where it was a race to steal the drugs and race them home (ctf, basically). I was amazing - 8 players on each team, cars blowing up everywhere (and we all still have weak guns! Imagine when we all have rpgs!), and of course, people dying left right and center. I ended up getting killed 9 times (killing 8 myself) before grabbing the bag and taking it home... the whole mission took about 10 minutes. Again, epic.

 

But when it's over, I realise that even though I've won $2000, my bank balance is over $15000 lower... sure enough, I check my transactions, and I've been charged almost $2000 PER DEATH, in a mission where the MAX reward is $2000. It's insane.

 

It's gotten to a point that I'd love to do missions, but I just can't afford to do them. And I'm not the onlt one - in all the lobbies I was in tonight, everybody was saying - races and deathmatches only - no missions! This CAN'T be what Rockstar wanted.

[BettyBlueGT]

 

Ill say again, i dont pay any money from dying in deathmatch games, if i did i would be broke constantly coz i suck at it.

 

If you do, it must be a bug, rockstar would not be stupid enough to put medical bills into a deathmatch game

 

I agree about the deathmatches - I haven't lost any money from dying. Missions though, are another story.

 

I recently went on an epic, 16-player mission where it was a race to steal the drugs and race them home (ctf, basically). I was amazing - 8 players on each team, cars blowing up everywhere (and we all still have weak guns! Imagine when we all have rpgs!), and of course, people dying left right and center. I ended up getting killed 9 times (killing 8 myself) before grabbing the bag and taking it home... the whole mission took about 10 minutes. Again, epic.

 

But when it's over, I realise that even though I've won $2000, my bank balance is over $15000 lower... sure enough, I check my transactions, and I've been charged almost $2000 PER DEATH, in a mission where the MAX reward is $2000. It's insane.

 

It's gotten to a point that I'd love to do missions, but I just can't afford to do them. And I'm not the onlt one - in all the lobbies I was in tonight, everybody was saying - races and deathmatches only - no missions! This CAN'T be what Rockstar wanted.

 

 

With what you just said I think its clear as day this is what Rockstar wanted.

[ScruffyBamboo]

Guys, the fact of the matter is, we payed $60 to play this game. Rockstar should not be draining of our money and trying to make us spend more. I play GTA to have fun, part of the fun is being reckless with friends. I shouldn't have to worry about loosing money all the time by either other players killing me, or me just wanting to jump out of a plane. Think about it, the average store heist and car sale gets you $1,500. The most cheap property is $80,000. This would mean that you would have to pull off 53.3 missions without failing or having any fun online (due to the fact that you will most definitely be killed). If you are killed you will have to do 2 jobs to make up for that 1 failed job. This means the average person would have to do around 80 to 90 jobs without playing anything else online to buy the smallest property. This is absurd. Rockstar is scamming you for your money. There should be no penalty for death other than dropping the money you are carrying!! Enough will the "Health care and bail" charges. It doesnt need to be that realistic! The game is so realistic that its boring!

 

Well said. I fully agree. It's to expensive to have fun, as things are right now.

[ScruffyBamboo]

With what you just said I think its clear as day this is what Rockstar wanted.

 

I hope you're wrong... but you might be right. I guess we'll see in a week or two, if they change things up. If GTA online is just one giant scam, I'm out.

 

And this is from somebody who's been having a great time - but I'm just floored now that the "Hospital and Bail" thing has drained my entire bank account (often because I'm getting spawn-camped, or on missions before I realized this was happening). It's really aggravating.

[BettyBlueGT]

This game is so realistic with healthcare bills and bonds that I'm looking to fill my car with gas and pay off the families of the victims I killed..

[polycount]

Hospital bills HAVE to go. There is no alternative. There is no excuse for draining me of my money in a mission and then reimburse me for a quarter of it. Either they reduce them substantially or they go entirely.

 

It's ridiculous. I hit 4 liquor stores, takes a lot of effort because by that time its a 4 star hit, 1 death and all that money is gone...