Honestly think shark cards ruined rockstar.

[Xiled]

If they truly wanted to make mission payouts fair and consistent to other missions, than every mission would pay about the same. Making it based on time played is just ridiculous.

 

So people are still going to grind them it only takes 4 times as long as it used to.

 

So now the game punishes you by giving you less money for beating the mission quickly. There fault most missions take less than 4 minutes. They made them.

 

But hey, if you want the same payout as before in the good payout missions, you do everything in the mission and afk at the final objective for 11 more minutes to make it.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Xiled

[CarimboHanky]

Waiting for a $6 million hyper car that goes 50 mph faster than any car ever in the game. Than see if shark cards are fairly priced.

 

By the way that would only cost $75 not upgraded of course.

 

Only have to grind pacific standard heist a minimum of 15 times for 6 million as a host for the one car. and it would take at least 15 hours.

long term goals, thats the key to sucess in gtao.

 

if you dont have the money to buy it, you can either set a long term goal or open up the wallet ans buy a cashcard.

[How To Get Away with M]

If they truly wanted to make mission payouts fair and consistent to other missions, than every mission would pay about the same. Making it based on time played is just ridiculous.

 

So people are still going to grind them it only takes 4 times as long as it used to.

 

So now the game punishes you by giving you less money for beating the mission quickly. There fault most missions take less than 4 minutes. They made them.

 

But hey, if you want the same payout as before in the good payout missions, you do everything in the mission and afk at the final objective for 11 more minutes to make it.

This is again the problem I mentioned.

Rockstar is trying to restrict/combat grinding, not earning money.

You have multiple different opportunities of earning money in GTA Online, from being a Bodyguard and helping your CEO complete VIP and Cargo Missions up to participating or hosting Heist missions and simply playing Cooperative missions.

The problem realy only begins to be a problem if you want to grind said methods.

With a mindset which prefers earnings over fun.

With that mindset you are not going to have a very enjoyable time in GTA Online.

 

Instead you can try to earn your money by simply using one of the many different methods that is fun to you and you may not earn as much, but you will have fun earning it.

And I guess that is the main point of playing a product of entertainment.

Edited July 22, 2016 by How To Get Away with M

[XJpostman]

 

I appreciate your level headed response but r*'s statement on making CEO activities more challenging seemed like a way to cover their asses on a bad choice but that's just my opinion. As for fun encounters, one sticky bomb or jet strafing run and you lose. Not too fun. If they had locked them to public lobbies with no explosives I might agree as chases like that can be fun.

 

I actually do still enjoy playing heists but the fail to succeed ratio is ridiculous when not with friends so the income from them varies quite a bit. I do enjoy their gameplay and feel well rewarded after completing one though, That's why I don't mention them when I do mention Lamar's missions.

 

With the dlc content. I don't mind not being able to buy everything, hell I've got 24mil in the bank and I'm still debating on buying the offroad van from FAFF update. It's when my gameplay is noticeably interrupted by a cooldown timer or gameplay mechanic (cargobob not lifting CEO vehicles with crates in them) that I get irritated. I guess I can't prove that either of those have to do with Shark cards either but the correlation is strong.

 

I said it earlier in this thread. It just seems like with gta v r* went from "let's make a fun game," to "let's milk our player base for as much money as we can." As a long time R* fan it's disappointing to see the change.

 

Depends on how you look at it realy.

 

GTA Online alltogether still seems like a pretty fun game after all.

Good example is the Cunning Stunts update, it doesn't look to me that the Update encourages people to buy Shark Cards at all, rather the opposite, you can enjoy all content of the DLC by simply joining a stunt race without every purchasing anything. Additionally it is a little more over-the-top just like the majority of the community wanted it to be.(Over-the-top races are hugely popular in GTA Online, that is probably what R*s player numbers tell as well).

 

On the other hand there are some annoying issues which can interrupt the gameplay experience quite a lot, 90% of these issues can be traced back to Griefers, I suppose, and the other 10% to connection issues.

At least that is how it turns out for me.

While I agree that the game has some griefers annoying and ruining the gameplay experience for everyone else, I still resort to the fact that the majority of lobbies I played in are not populated by such ill-minded individuals.

However I play on PC, so that might be kind of a difference.

 

Returning to the "Shark Card" point, making money is not too hard in this game.

Especially with cargo missions and Heists it can be pretty quick and even faster than in the first days of GTA Online.

 

The main problem is, how you make that money.

If you spend your time "grinding" you will not have a very good time, thus you will probably not feel satisfied either.

However if you try to spend that time to actualy having fun, by completing cargo, VIP Missions and Heists, then you might have actualy an experience well worth playing.

I think how R* tried to bundle the progression with actual enjoyable content is the main problem though, lets take cargo missions as an example, they are perfect for doing again as they are so varied and you could even stealth run through some of them I believe. However if I want to make money very fast, I tend to get the buzzard out and do them the "easy way" which can get repetetive pretty quickly, that is also a reason why I think the PvP is important in these missions, so they turn out just a little more different and dynamic.

You definitely see things from another perspective, but I agree that overall gtao is still a fun game. I just can't help but feel like a lot of the small annoyances that slow you down or just don't work in some circumstances (this vehicle is too hot to modify) could be traced back to micro transactions.

 

I also play mostly in invite only so griefers and connection aren't an issue.

 

I'm really not complaining about not earning enough money, I'm complaining about cooldown timers, restricting gameplay to make things more "challenging." From my experience with older r* games (which I'm starting to see, might have been a golden era of gaming), if r* wasn't so focused on limiting our income, the game would be smoother and more fun.

 

You're completely right about the grinding aspect sucking some of the fun out but when I either have to pay money irl or make as much gta money with the time I've got to play, enjoying the game takes a back seat. Like I said though I'm not complaining about earning. If you're fiscal and smart about it you can earn a decent amount.

 

I've also never experienced having a gaming community split because of dlc but haven't really payed to much attention to it. Loved gta iv expansions though.

 

Good posts though. Really made me think.

[CaliMeatWagon]

If they truly wanted to make mission payouts fair and consistent to other missions, than every mission would pay about the same. Making it based on time played is just ridiculous.

 

So people are still going to grind them it only takes 4 times as long as it used to.

 

So now the game punishes you by giving you less money for beating the mission quickly. There fault most missions take less than 4 minutes. They made them.

 

But hey, if you want the same payout as before in the good payout missions, you do everything in the mission and afk at the final objective for 11 more minutes to make it.

 

You are making statements that are untrue. Waiting 15 minutes to complete a mission is the worst possible dollar per hour in missions.

 

Here, educate yourself:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ff32aA0mbIMz6dnzeKd4U6YI0th_pOBksqVGusoBdlA/edit#gid=1889204387

[Xiled]

Gotta pay money to join any jobs, races, death matches and everything else.

 

How can a game be about fun when you have to pay money to do anything in A VIDEO GAME besides play in freemode? Oh wait you have to pay to own an apartment, having a mechanic, and having an assistant.

 

Video games did just fine without all of these pesky micro transactions for years.

Now fun is limited to how much money your friends have to be able to enjoy the game.

 

So if I were to have $20 million and wanted to buy a super car and my friend has $20,000 and wanted one but can't without grinding for money or buying a $100 micro transaction in a $60 game, how can you enjoy that? What are you gonna let them borrow everything you own?

 

Everything was free to use in gta iv multiplayer and didn't limit what you and your friend could do.

[How To Get Away with M]

Gotta pay money to join any jobs, races, death matches and everything else.

 

How can a game be about fun when you have to pay money to do anything in A VIDEO GAME besides play in freemode? Oh wait you have to pay to own an apartment, having a mechanic, and having an assistant.

 

Video games did just fine without all of these pesky micro transactions for years.

Now fun is limited to how much money your friends have to be able to enjoy the game.

 

So if I were to have $20 million and wanted to buy a super car and my friend has $20,000 and wanted one but can't without grinding for money or buying a $100 micro transaction in a $60 game, how can you enjoy that? What are you gonna let them borrow everything you own?

 

Everything was free to use in gta iv multiplayer and didn't limit what you and your friend could do.

You do not need any money to join an Adversary Mode,a Deathmatch, a Race, a LTS, a Capture and a Heist.

What makes you think you do?

 

I agree with some inconsistencies in Free Mode gameplay, however that is mostly balanced with a level lock on too good weapons such as the Minigun and Heavy Sniper.

Additionally, theoraticly a GTA V Deathmatch very well offers the same experience as GTA IVs Multiplayer as far as content and technicality goes.

Edited July 22, 2016 by How To Get Away with M

[Xiled]

 

If they truly wanted to make mission payouts fair and consistent to other missions, than every mission would pay about the same. Making it based on time played is just ridiculous.

 

So people are still going to grind them it only takes 4 times as long as it used to.

 

So now the game punishes you by giving you less money for beating the mission quickly. There fault most missions take less than 4 minutes. They made them.

 

But hey, if you want the same payout as before in the good payout missions, you do everything in the mission and afk at the final objective for 11 more minutes to make it.

 

You are making statements that are untrue. Waiting 15 minutes to complete a mission is the worst possible dollar per hour in missions.

 

Here, educate yourself:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ff32aA0mbIMz6dnzeKd4U6YI0th_pOBksqVGusoBdlA/edit#gid=1889204387

 

You seem to miss the point on getting the old payout takes 4x as long. Yes I know grinding them on 4 minutes on repeat is faster but only because the payouts are 1/2 of what they are for the payout. And I never said multiple missions. I meant 1 mission at a time.

 

So coveted gave $216,000 for 12 of them in an hour, but now barely gives you over $100,000 in an hour.

 

Gotta pay money to join any jobs, races, death matches and everything else.

 

How can a game be about fun when you have to pay money to do anything in A VIDEO GAME besides play in freemode? Oh wait you have to pay to own an apartment, having a mechanic, and having an assistant.

 

Video games did just fine without all of these pesky micro transactions for years.

Now fun is limited to how much money your friends have to be able to enjoy the game.

 

So if I were to have $20 million and wanted to buy a super car and my friend has $20,000 and wanted one but can't without grinding for money or buying a $100 micro transaction in a $60 game, how can you enjoy that? What are you gonna let them borrow everything you own?

 

Everything was free to use in gta iv multiplayer and didn't limit what you and your friend could do.

You do not need any money to join an Adversary Mode,a Deathmatch, a Race, a LTS, a Capture and a Heist.

What makes you think you do?

 

I agree with some inconsistencies in Free Mode gameplay, however that is mostly balanced with a level lock on too good weapons such as the Minigun and Heavy Sniper.

Additionally, theoraticly a GTA V Deathmatch very well offers the same experience as GTA IVs Multiplayer as far as content and technicality goes.

 

But you can buy a homing rocket at level 1 as long as you have money. Mean while the regular rocket is locked at level 100+.

 

Every time you join a job or activity the bank history on your in game phone shows a -$200 or -$100 for job/activites fees. Like if managed to do 5,000 races it would have costed you $1 million

 

And you can buy a Hydra at level 12 if you have the money as long as you complete the heist and the tank is locked at level 70.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Xiled

[How To Get Away with M]

 

But you can buy a homing rocket at level 1 as long as you have money. Mean while the regular rocket is locked at level 100+.

 

Every time you join a job or activity the bank history on your in game phone shows a -$200 or -$100 for job/activites fees.

 

And you can buy a Hydra at level 12 if you have the money as long as you complete the heist and the tank is locked at level 70.

I agree with most of these,

Though the Job fees(which I kind of never actualy noticed) are kind of irrelevant since they are that low.

 

But you are right with the Homing Launcher and the Hydra, while it is relatively easy to earn enough money for a Homing Launcher,a Hydra is definately another caliber and offers a significant advantage.

I feel those problems could be fixed by reducing the capabilities of the Hydra and limiting the Homing Launcher to use for planes only.

 

Though my argument with the Jobs and activities still stands, many Jobs can be played without a competetive disadvantage at all.

But you make some good points here.

Edited July 22, 2016 by How To Get Away with M

[ash-274]

 

Gotta pay money to join any jobs, races, death matches and everything else.

 

How can a game be about fun when you have to pay money to do anything in A VIDEO GAME besides play in freemode? Oh wait you have to pay to own an apartment, having a mechanic, and having an assistant.

 

Video games did just fine without all of these pesky micro transactions for years.

Now fun is limited to how much money your friends have to be able to enjoy the game.

 

So if I were to have $20 million and wanted to buy a super car and my friend has $20,000 and wanted one but can't without grinding for money or buying a $100 micro transaction in a $60 game, how can you enjoy that? What are you gonna let them borrow everything you own?

 

Everything was free to use in gta iv multiplayer and didn't limit what you and your friend could do.

You do not need any money to join an Adversary Mode,a Deathmatch, a Race, a LTS, a Capture and a Heist.

What makes you think you do?

 

I agree with some inconsistencies in Free Mode gameplay, however that is mostly balanced with a level lock on too good weapons such as the Minigun and Heavy Sniper.

Additionally, theoraticly a GTA V Deathmatch very well offers the same experience as GTA IVs Multiplayer as far as content and technicality goes.

 

Because you do. The game deducts a couple hundred dollars (not really visible, but check your bank balance before and after a race/job) when you join any job mode. Not sure what the point of it is, as there are very few dead-broke players, but even a last-place DNF of the worst-paying game rewards a player with more money than it costs to enter. Even is a player wanted to constantly join jobs and quit them before finishing they'd end up in Bad Sport before losing any punitive amount of money. One successful round of Headhunter would allow you to quit out of 70-100 races before you're in negative money.

[Xiled]

So if it serves no purpose than why is it there. It feels like a slow money drain losing fractions of a % of your money slowly over time. Adds up if you have played since day 1.

[How To Get Away with M]

So if it serves no purpose than why is it there. It feels like a slow money drain losing fractions of a % of your money slowly over time. Adds up if you have played since day 1.

I assume it is a leftover mechanic added at a time where GTA Online did not have lobbies and was Free Mode only, during mid-developement.

And then later forgot and not removed again or something along those lines.

Implying malice here is a bit ludicrious to be honest, the amount of money you lose is that low that it is more than irrelevant.

But I would still hit Rockstar Games up with feedback about this particular mechanic.

 

I might remind you that Grand Theft Auto Online still has a way to go and Updates to be added, which could clarify some of its current mechanics, for example Job Points remain useless until this day, but they will be used in an future Update eventually.

Edited July 23, 2016 by How To Get Away with M

[ash-274]

So if it serves no purpose than why is it there. It feels like a slow money drain losing fractions of a % of your money slowly over time. Adds up if you have played since day 1.

My data (as a Day-1 player):

Spent on Job & Activity entry fees $1.1M

Overall expenses $158M

 

0.69%

[CaliMeatWagon]

 

I've never stated any such thing about you, but I can tell you your math is wrong.

1,600,000 is the number you used, so lets use that as an example

IF you play missions on hard, by yourself, and you complete them in 4-5 minutes you will get paid 9K. You can do that 12 times in a hour. So lets use that info to see how long it would take to make 1.6M solo, just by playing missions.

9K a mission * 12 missions an hour = 108K an hour

1.6M/108K an hour = 14 hours.

 

If you can complete 12 contact missions in an hour I'll faint.

If you're going to argue $/hour of grinding, you have to account for the loading screens and all that time lost

 

 

I just timed myself for an hour. My mission I was on wasn't finished so it came out to 01:03:17. Including the cost of Pegasus Vehicles, the cost of ammo and body armor, I made $101,073. Also take into account that because I was already using my timer for something I didn't complete every mission in 4 minutes. Some I completed in under and as a result did not receive optimal dollar per hour on them (6-7K).

 

So basing it off of that experience it would take me 10-11 hours to make 1 million in GTA. So if I only played 2 hours a day, it would take me less than a week. Or 2 months to buy the most expensive yacht fully customized.

Edited July 23, 2016 by CaliMeatWagon

[lydianduck]

So what can I do to grind solo missions on hard? They all give me between 5 and 7500$, and the money keeps lowering as I keep replaying them. It's not worth it. Any tips?

 

I keep going back and forth between 'check out time' and 'deal breaker' since they're completed pretty fast, but the payout isn't particularly great, even on hard.

Edited July 23, 2016 by lydianduck

[JosephGTA]

lol at anyone who doesnt think gta online and this new gen of games in general are just cash grabs because consumers are suckers. The only choices you got are either spend hundreds of dollars for virtual dollars in a game you already bought or spend all day playing it, which is impossible if you have real responsibilities. All the microtransaction bull has really taken the fun out of games.

[CaliMeatWagon]

So what can I do to grind solo missions on hard? They all give me between 5 and 7500$, and the money keeps lowering as I keep replaying them. It's not worth it. Any tips?

 

I keep going back and forth between 'check out time' and 'deal breaker' since they're completed pretty fast, but the payout isn't particularly great, even on hard.

 

Makes sure that you spend at least 4 minutes and 1 second and no more than 5 minutes in each missions. Don't worry about trying to be fast and don't worry about doing the same missions. Switch it up. The mission payouts are based on how long you spend in them. 4 minutes is the optimal time.

[CarimboHanky]

there are so many money making options in the game, that i dont get why people grind missions!

 

there are other, more fun ways of making easy money!

[lydianduck]

 

So what can I do to grind solo missions on hard? They all give me between 5 and 7500$, and the money keeps lowering as I keep replaying them. It's not worth it. Any tips?

 

I keep going back and forth between 'check out time' and 'deal breaker' since they're completed pretty fast, but the payout isn't particularly great, even on hard.

Makes sure that you spend at least 4 minutes and 1 second and no more than 5 minutes in each missions. Don't worry about trying to be fast and don't worry about doing the same missions. Switch it up. The mission payouts are based on how long you spend in them. 4 minutes is the optimal time.

Doing it in 4 minutes doubled my payout, thank you!

[Gtaman_92]

there are so many money making options in the game, that i dont get why people grind missions!

 

there are other, more fun ways of making easy money!

 

Like what?

[DangerZ0neX]

 

there are so many money making options in the game, that i dont get why people grind missions!

 

there are other, more fun ways of making easy money!

Like what?

Like CEO work, but you need a minimum of 4 million for that sh*t.

 

1 million for the cheapest office, 1 million for the nearest medium warehouse, and a buzzard for 1.75 million. You need to sell five full medium warehouses just to break even, but afterwards it becomes pretty lucrative and pays $346K per hour.

 

Just be sure to play Headhunter after every crate mission and only buy 3 crates.

[Gtaman_92]

 

 

there are so many money making options in the game, that i dont get why people grind missions!

 

there are other, more fun ways of making easy money!

Like what?

Like CEO work, but you need a minimum of 4 million for that sh*t.

 

1 million for the cheapest office, 1 million for the nearest medium warehouse, and a buzzard for 1.75 million. You need to sell five full medium warehouses just to break even, but afterwards it becomes pretty lucrative and pays $346K per hour.

 

Just be sure to play Headhunter after every crate mission and only buy 3 crates.

 

Alright. Good looking out.

[BitBasher]

I guarantee for every one person like you there are 10 like me. I have never purchased Shark Cards and I have everything I want (for the most part) in the game. Shark Cards are not a mandatory item.

Of course, that's the business model. 1% of the players spend the vast majority of all cash on the game. Whales.

 

 

i.e. Barely anything, which was my point.

 

You could make money faster in the old days, yet things costed less in general.

Those are some impressive rose tinted glasses you wear. You are comparing a few completely broken missions to actually playing the game.

 

The game is far, far better off now that Simeon (and other) jobs aren't paying 900 bucks for chasing a car all over the map. It's a far better game when you can play any contact missions and make 100k an hour instead of being forced to grind the same one or two mind numbingly boring jobs over and over.

[CaliMeatWagon]

 

 

 

there are so many money making options in the game, that i dont get why people grind missions!

 

there are other, more fun ways of making easy money!

Like what?

Like CEO work, but you need a minimum of 4 million for that sh*t.

 

1 million for the cheapest office, 1 million for the nearest medium warehouse, and a buzzard for 1.75 million. You need to sell five full medium warehouses just to break even, but afterwards it becomes pretty lucrative and pays $346K per hour.

 

Just be sure to play Headhunter after every crate mission and only buy 3 crates.

 

Alright. Good looking out.

 

 

If you want a full breakdown check my sig. There is more to it then he is explaining. And you don't need 4M. You can do it with 1.5M to start. A small warehouse filled up 3 crates at a time will come out to ~135K an hour. With a large warehouse you can make ~210K an hour. But that is only doing crates.

But you will want to have Associates to help. If you only run crates they'll only make 20-40K an hour. So you'll want to alternate between crates and CEO/VIP work. My suggestion would be to run Sightseer in between crates. Takes 5-7 minutes and pays 22K. If you alternate between that and 3 crate delivers with a small warehouse, you're associates will make ~108-128K an hour and you'll make ~170K an hour.

Edited July 23, 2016 by CaliMeatWagon

[Hunter]

Those are some impressive rose tinted glasses you wear. You are comparing a few completely broken missions to actually playing the game.

 

The game is far, far better off now that Simeon (and other) jobs aren't paying 900 bucks for chasing a car all over the map. It's a far better game when you can play any contact missions and make 100k an hour instead of being forced to grind the same one or two mind numbingly boring jobs over and over.

 

I've already played all the jobs hundreds of times over - at this rate, what's the use in pretending I haven't grinded them all to death?

 

May as well go the whole hog and grind properly (therefore making much more money than is possible today). But that's not possible anymore.

 

So yeah, I'll keep these rose tinted glasses on, thank you very much.

[manicmechanic71]

They're terrible value for money, and I don't like the philosophy of them, but if you're cash rich but time poor I can imagine them being a godsend1

[Scott Stapp]

There's more incentive to make the missions fun if the payouts are balanced. I don't want to do the same boring mission over and over because the payouts are good. If the mission sucks, players will avoid it and R* will take notice.

 

The problem is, they haven't really added any interesting missions or survivals in ages. The Lamar ones are a giant waste of time. Crate chasing feels more like an in-lobby race than an actual mission.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Scott Stapp

[ten-a-penny]

 

You don't have to buy shark cards. Money is really easy to make in this game if you do heists with friends or do the CEO crates with a Hydra. Its all really easy.

Because a new player has access to all of those

Nevermind that.

The latter two are Enhanced GTAV Only. There are people who are still stuck in LG GTAO you know. I wouldn't be "complaining" about money in this game if I had the game on the PS4.

[Jimbatron]

As I said above, I think the bad thing about Shark Cards is that they are indirectly responsible for what I would describe as cheap novelty updates (not major quality ones like Heist) - basically as an excuse to introduce some new vehicles and tax impatient players who have to buy the new stuff straight away. The shift in focus from quality to quantity isn't a good thing.

 

Nevetheless, I don't think this is likely to be a larger shift in strategy - looking at the financial reports for Take2, however much a nice little earner Shark Cards might be, they blatantly can't replace the impact of a major game release.

 

Net Income by year for Take2:

Year ending March 2014: $361m profit (GTA V launch year)

Year ending March 2015: $279m loss (V PS4 and Xbox One launch year)

Year ending March 2016: $8m loss (V PC launch year)

 

Obviously, you've got 2K titles impacting these figures too, but they never swing the parent company's P&L like major R* releases. Looking at it in 2015 and 2016, it's clear the Shark Cards (however much they are making), are nowhere near sufficient to put the company in the black. Pretty much the only thing that does is a new GTA game release. Bottom line is they have to bring out new games and charge for it. They're not going to say no to extra money from shark cards, but looking at the recent financial performance, I doubt they could risk straying too far from the existing formula of SP and Online for V that made the launch year such a success.

[How To Get Away with M]

There's more incentive to make the missions fun if the payouts are balanced. I don't want to do the same boring mission over and over because the payouts are good. If the mission sucks, players will avoid it and R* will take notice.

 

The problem is, they haven't really added any interesting missions or survivals in ages. The Lamar ones are a giant waste of time. Crate chasing feels more like an in-lobby race than an actual mission.

I feel like that is the main reason, why Rockstar Games shifted from Coop missions to in-lobby missions like VIP and crate missions.

 

The Lamar missions were actualy designed very good from a gameplay perspective, however their stuped ruleset similar to Heists lead to them being pretty much abandoned.

That is probably the reason Rockstar wanted to focus on the better place for all kinds of Missions, Free Mode.

And if you think about it that is not necessarily a bad thing, while you may call the missions an "in-lobby race", I think they are well designed for doing them over and over again simply because of the sheer random nature of these missions.

This Random mission nature has been suggested by many players for coop missions to make them more engaging, and Rockstar simply applied it to the crate and CEO missions.

If you think about it, crate missions are essentially more randomized, more diverse and more fun contact missions, they add certain factors such as:

- randomization in order to allow for a huge amount of variants the mission may vary

- fun combat encounters such as a Trap by the police or a gang

- optional Stealth - for example the plane crash mission can be completed in Stealth

- diverse locations - air, sea, etc.

- actual difficulty: I have seen a lot of people complain about the so called artificial difficulty increase by simply buffing about armor, health and accuracy, however in crate missions the difficulty is increased by giving the Enemies better weapons and having more enemies attack you with better AI(At higher difficulties enemies will chase you faster and more efficient)

 

So in conclusion, I think the current crate, CEO and VIP missions are indicating a shift from out-of-lobby coop missions into Free Mode.

Another additional supportive pillar would be the recently linked Biker Missions, which seem to be related to the CEO mechanic as well.

 

Back onto Shark cards:

As shown above, there are a lot of ways to earn money in this game without the necessity of grinding, and there are more methods coming as well.

So I remain with the point that Shark Cards are the inherently better business model than a Season Pass/paid DLC.