Honestly think shark cards ruined rockstar.

[MrHaynes1980]

The point of this topic was to note how rockstar has changed. They still are my favorite game developer because they have always been different to other developers. They don't spam games every year like Call Of Duty and Assassins Creed, They always delay their games, which I don't consider a bad thing because they always try to give us the best game possible at release. And every single game I have played by them has blown me away like no other game has. But with GTA Online they got into the whole micro transaction thing which I hated. I've always hated micro transactions. it just seems to be a cheap way for rich kids to have all the best stuff as soon as possible. I feel like they've changed as a developer because of this. I'm 36 years old. Been playing GTA since I was 18. So I've basically spent half of my life playing rockstar games and it saddens me to see them go down this path.

[Ghoffman9]

Shark Cards like all things Microtransaction related is optional but they do not put that in there for people to not use it. They try to entice people to buy money by crippling the rate you progress in the game itself, making it so repetitive and monotonous that your patience will buckle. They want it to buckle so you will throw even more money at them to make it stop. Games with microtransactions are always a test of one's patience. This is understandable with free to play games as they gotta get an income somehow but full retail priced games that do this are just being a bunch of greedy c*nts.

 

When a developer gets too greedy and puts microtransactions in to satisfy that greed it ultimately ends up hurting the game in a multitude of ways. If Shark Cards were not part of this equation Rockstar would not cripple your ability to progress in their game, thats all there is to it.

 

Jim Sterling sums it up best.

 

 

[Handsome Jack]

Well, sh*t happened.

Edited April 20, 2019 by THC

[jpm1]

R* is a commercial company. that shark thing didn't come into the dance after last full moon. it's been weighted by R* commercials. and it worked. R* grabbed a lot of money with that thing. i think that people that buy that kind of thing don't have the value of money (no offense). i think it's kids that just want to throw their money to your face. i mean how someone can be so stupid to buy virtual money for the game that is so empty. again i don't want to offend anyone, but buying a car in GTA with real money is something that just goes beyond my imagination. i never bought sharks and i will never do. i'm (very) fine with GTAIV. R* please stop that online thing a bit and make us a Vice city with V engine, clubs, restaurants, sitting and the dog. that's all i'm asking for

Edited July 18, 2016 by jpm1

[Scott Stapp]

Haven't been able to use new DLC cars in SP in over a year.

 

Everything I buy in SP just disappears. They could have allowed you to keep the cars you bought in SP, and added a few things like a mechanic to deliver it.

Edited July 18, 2016 by Scott Stapp

[streetx1xracer]

R* is a commercial company. that shark thing didn't come into the dance after last full moon. it's been weighted by R* commercials. and it worked. R* grabbed a lot of money with that thing. i think that people that buy that kind of thing don't have the value of money (no offense). i think it's kids that just want to throw their money to your face. i mean how someone can be so stupid to buy virtual money for the game that is so empty. again i don't want to offend anyone, but buying a car in GTA with real money is something that just goes beyond my imagination. i never bought sharks and i will never do. i'm (very) fine with GTAIV. R* please stop that online thing a bit and make us a Vice city with V engine, clubs, restaurants, sitting and the dog. that's all i'm asking for

You just went from calling people stupid kids for spending their earned money to a nostalgic high.

 

That just goes beyond my imagination.

[Candy_Licker]

 

Didn't say you were, just saying that R*'s business model is not unique or new. Nor will it - or anyone else's - be going away anytime soon.

 

 

Love them or hate them, micro-transactions are here to stay. No amount of complaining or 'calling out for help' is going to change any game companies' mind, when on the other side of the coin is a steady stream of revenue some three years after the release of a full game.

 

Slimy and/or dubious, it's a proven business model. Because if it wasn't, no-one would utilise it.

I'm under no illusion that they will (ever) stop. But I don't base my complaints/opinions on what's likely to happen.

 

Even if I was guaranteed 100% they'd never stop, I'd still call out the practice for what it is.

 

The old way of gaming was much better. Full games were released, and they didn't need patching over 30 times (only to still be littered with bugs). Nothing was repackaged and sold to us later on, or held back and then put at extortionate prices.

 

It was much, much better in my opinion. That age is over now, but that doesn't mean I'm going to pretend I think this one's better.

 

That's just my take on it anyway.

 

 

Yes, good old days. But we have to take into consideration how production costs have skyrocketted. Try to imagine the effort of making a Vice City/San Andreas with V's Los Santos. Although not only production costs did raise, but also marketing expenditures, and that's not a good thing for the customer.

 

Unfortunately, the industry has reached the point of mainstream capitalism. It's the job of the Houser brothers now to enrich their investors and themselves in the process.

[scalliano]

Staying above a million dollars is piss-easy in GTAO. All you have to do is be careful about what you spend your money on. I just dropped below $10mil for the first time since the Heists update, and even then it was only because I splashed out on a swanky office suite. I'm currently sitting at just over $9mil and I'll be back to where I was probably by the end of the month. It's not that hard.

[VanessaMagick]

Staying above a million dollars is piss-easy in GTAO. All you have to do is be careful about what you spend your money on. I just dropped below $10mil for the first time since the Heists update, and even then it was only because I splashed out on a swanky office suite. I'm currently sitting at just over $9mil and I'll be back to where I was probably by the end of the month. It's not that hard.

 

It's still a sh*t load of effort to get there, which I think a lot of people don't realize. Unless you have a dedicated Heist team or already have your CEO sh*t sorted, getting $1M in GTA can take days of effort. Which is perfectly fine for people who don't really do things other than play GTA, or people who really enjoy a long, slow grind, or people who have a dedicated Heist team or CEO sh*t so money isn't an issue anymore, but for most people, the time it takes to get anything is riduculous.

[Labovasha]

I like micro transactions because some players pay for everyone DLC but to stay honest I think Rockstar is taking advantage of their popularity and are being very low with how they are doing it. They have show without doubts to be very inept and cannot be trusted with some things like gameplay balancing and reward payouts. The payout system punishes players who are efficient and skilled and the a.i literately was updated to break the rules of the game on purpose.

I think prices are ok. I have everything I need like the attack helicopters and a fast car and still have some millions. Clothing customization is really bland so I never really care about most of it but still you can make enough for that just by playing regular missions few times.

 

Making money should be easy but I know why some people say making money is too hard. It's other players. The heist missions pay a lot of money and are easy to do after you learn them.

The problem is too many GTA players are not very good at the game and it holds others back. I have to play alone now but before I used to play with a family member and friends and could make a million and a half very easy in one short play time. No one wants to play gta anymore so now almost every time I try heist someone quits after many restarts. I stopped playing heist after almost 2 hours wasted on prison break that failed.

Maybe because when they test play they do it in the office where there is no 0.37k/d "nutbusta" and just don't understand the type of people gta attracts and how public games really are like.

Edited July 18, 2016 by Gducky

[Mokrie Dela]

The problem is too many GTA players are not very good at the game

quoted for truth

Seriously why, when you naively play with randoms, rather than playing correctly or even trying to achieve the goals aggressively they tend to run off in the wrong direction and end up suicide by cop. Or blowing themselves up.

 

Hell I made a break for it with the money on the Pac St. And I made it to the bikes before anyone else without losing much more than fifty dollars or something. Hell, I made it out of the city, alone with the money, and one of my 'crew' decided to eat the fender of a car.

 

Ultimately gta o is crap if you don't have half a dozen friends who have the same schedule as you. I still have a few million left, after buying cars, yachts and apartments. But I never really play it so it don't matter.

[DentureDynamite]

Hmm; it is still fairly easy to make decent money in-game, but I don't see the point in jacking up prices only to then jack up how much money you can make.

 

I can't prove it, but I suspect the "change" started with heists--with players now making roughly $250k in Pacific Standard (still a good amount of money), you now "have to" start charging more for new content to keep up with the influx of abundant cash. Otherwise, you end up with the Watch Dogs scenario, where you have tons of money, but hardly anything to spend it on--where players on old-gen consoles literally find themselves. Not much point (or fun) in having billions of GTA$ with nothing to spend it on.

Another part of the problem are huge amounts of "modded" (script kiddie) money coming into GTA Online via players who transfer from old-gen consoles, and (on the PC--though pretty quiet at the moment) script kiddies dumping millions of GTA$ via money bags. I really do believe that the Ill-Gotten Gains updates were R*'s reaction to those two issues--and they haven't looked back.

Edited July 18, 2016 by DentureDynamite

[Wscratch]

I would prefer pay for the dlc and access everything

Looks at the price of the cars now it becomes ridiculous

More than 30 $ to buy and upgrate a virtual car ( if its enought)

And now u limited in place so u have to sold old ones

I know u can earn money in game but not everybody got enought time to collect crates and play heist again and again to buy the stuff

Everything in this game is thinked to f*ck ur gta dollars

Like its a shame we cant have dlc stuff offline

Why? Because rockstar force us to buy stuff online

Stop saying gta got free dlc

Dlc are not free

[Van_Hellsing]

Every easy money method is getting nerfed. Everything in the ceo missions is to prolong playtime, before you can cash.

 

I agree there is money enough floating around. A public session is a boat grave yard off vespucci beach. Each yacht is €100 in real money.

[saintsrow]

Haven't been able to use new DLC cars in SP in over a year.

 

Everything I buy in SP just disappears. They could have allowed you to keep the cars you bought in SP, and added a few things like a mechanic to deliver it.

Rockstar has been abandoned SP in the same way that they abandoned last gen consoles.

 

 

 

It's still a sh*t load of effort to get there, which I think a lot of people don't realize. Unless you have a dedicated Heist team or already have your CEO sh*t sorted, getting $1M in GTA can take days of effort. Which is perfectly fine for people who don't really do things other than play GTA, or people who really enjoy a long, slow grind, or people who have a dedicated Heist team or CEO sh*t so money isn't an issue anymore, but for most people, the time it takes to get anything is riduculous.

 

I've been gold farming in GTA Online since the beginning. The slope was steep then, and it's getting steeper.

 

 

 

 

Ultimately gta o is crap if you don't have half a dozen friends who have the same schedule as you.

 

Quoted for truth. I do almost everything solo (nothing but a few contact missions basically), which is true gold farming, abut the only way it can be worse is trying to do heists with randoms. I have to say, though, that doing some of the contact missions with randoms can be fun. As long as they aren't a total fail.

[gawel772]

I'd rather pay 10$ every month for online and things were much cheaper, than free online and very expensive things.

[huckmonkey]

I honestly think shark card threads are ruining this forum

[Wscratch]

I honestly think shark card threads are ruining this forum

I honestly think you ruining this forum

[XJpostman]

Things like the latest dlc fixing the "issue" where you didn't have to enter your warehouse after delivering the last crate in a multi crate CEO buy mission with your buzzard. No other reason to do this other than to make a time sink, and even if it's only 10 seconds (each time) the game is riddled with mechanics like that (cooldown timers, no mission replays, Lamar "no deaths" missions, etc.) to slow down money making with little to no care of their effect on gameplay.

 

I do enjoy having to earn my way in the game but that was after a 30mil dead hooked injection. If I had to start clean I probably wouldn't be playing anymore.

 

I might consider a shark card if the prices were reasonable but I work too hard for irl money.

[AVARITIA]

So you prefer paid DLC? Or season pass? or fking premium like in Battlefield series? Corporations like R* needs to generate money it's not charity thing.

[XJpostman]

So you prefer paid DLC? Or season pass? or fking premium like in Battlefield series? Corporations like R* needs to generate money it's not charity thing.

They needed to generate money for gta 1-4 too but none of those games gameplay was hindered because of it.

 

I can understand micro transactions are here to stay but when gameplay starts to suffer so they can sell more of them, something needs to change.

[BitBasher]

They needed to generate money for gta 1-4 too but none of those games gameplay was hindered because of it.

And the industry worked different financially back then. You are essentially angry that it isn't 7 years ago. Games on current gen cost substantially more to make than they did then, yet the games sell for the same price.

 

Also, TBoGT and TLAtD sold very badly, they sold substantially less then expected, partially because they were a timed exclusive for xbox. Either way they sold badly enough they they made single player expansions unattractive to Rockstar Games.

 

http://kotaku.com/5429648/take-two--grand-theft-auto-episodes-market-smaller-than-initially-expected

Edited July 19, 2016 by BitBasher

[CarimboHanky]

Stop saying gta got free dlc

Dlc are not free

this dlcs are likely paid by the cashcard buyers, so yes they are not at all free...

 

but we are not paying for them so yeah they are "free" evenmore for people like me that only spend money buying the game.

[Hunter]

 

They needed to generate money for gta 1-4 too but none of those games gameplay was hindered because of it.

And the industry worked different financially back then. You are essentially angry that it isn't 7 years ago. Games on current gen cost substantially more to make than they did then, yet the games sell for the same price.

 

Also, TBoGT and TLAtD sold very badly, they sold substantially less then expected, partially because they were a timed exclusive for xbox. Either way they sold badly enough they they made single player expansions unattractive to Rockstar Games.

 

http://kotaku.com/5429648/take-two--grand-theft-auto-episodes-market-smaller-than-initially-expected

 

No one's really bothered by what's attractive to Rockstar though. This is a forum for fans of the game - it's not some business forum where we all have to be really understanding about how they want to maximize the profit they make off us.

[XJpostman]

 

They needed to generate money for gta 1-4 too but none of those games gameplay was hindered because of it.

And the industry worked different financially back then. You are essentially angry that it isn't 7 years ago. Games on current gen cost substantially more to make than they did then, yet the games sell for the same price.

 

Also, TBoGT and TLAtD sold very badly, they sold substantially less then expected, partially because they were a timed exclusive for xbox. Either way they sold badly enough they they made single player expansions unattractive to Rockstar Games.

 

http://kotaku.com/5429648/take-two--grand-theft-auto-episodes-market-smaller-than-initially-expected

I can understand that games cost quite a bit more to make nowadays but they are also breaking records for profits topping a lot of other forms of entertainment. I'm also not completely against micro transactions but the balance between them making a profit and us having fun should be weighted towards our fun.

 

I also purchased both expansions for gta iv and enjoyed them a lot. They had quality content.

^^ and by profit I mean the extreme profits these companies make.

[Zader]

The hole in the DLC argument is that this isn't DLC.

These are wholly mandatory updates required to continue online play.

Toting them as a DLC only notes the fact that we have yet to receive any actual DLC content.

 

Edit: I know, "DLC content" is like saying "ATM Machine"

 

As an aside, I would like actual paid DLC. Maybe you pay a couple bucks to unlock the transfer bonuses from last gen or something for those that bought it for PC only, or balanced car packs and weapon sets that would be on par with items in the game. Buying the DLC wouldn't just give them to you for free, but instead allow you to purchase them at similar prices as the base game and update weapons. I'd buy that over a Shark Card any day of the week.

Edited July 19, 2016 by Zader

[Dburger]

 

And the industry worked different financially back then. You are essentially angry that it isn't 7 years ago.

 

 

 

 

I am essentially angry that it isn't 30 years ago, when people didn't worry, times were simpler, the fashion was better, the cars were better, there was no social media, and the average person didn't own a cell phone. But, I have to deal with a ton of complexity, smart phones, and distracted drivers everyday. Yay me...give me 1986 over 2016 any day of the week.

 

As for the OP...some people have said that they won't play much if Rockstar keeps milking Shark Cards. I won't play much anymore if there are paid updates. I'd much rather have free updates with expensive stuff and Shark Card dependence over paid updates, less Shark Card use, and cheap (virtual) items.

 

I'm poor by GTA Forums standards, even. Spent $2M on this update (purchased and fully upgraded/customized a Burger Shot Stallion, Omnis, and Tropos Rallye...and wasted money because I couldn't decide on a livery or color for the Omnis). Went from $2.7M to $700K and have crawled back to about $1.4M after grinding contact missions like I normally do. Went 5 for 5 on my first 5 stunt races but after I finished 3rd in my 6th stunt race, I called it quits.

Edited July 19, 2016 by Dburger

[CarimboHanky]

The hole in the DLC argument is that this isn't DLC.

These are wholly mandatory updates required to continue online play.

Toting them as a DLC only notes the fact that we have yet to receive any actual DLC content.

 

Edit: I know, "DLC content" is like saying "ATM Machine"

 

As an aside, I would like actual paid DLC.Maybe you pay a couple bucks to unlock the transfer bonuses from last gen or something for those that bought it for PC only, or balanced car packs and weapon sets that would be on par with items in the game. Buying the DLC wouldn't just give them to you for free, but instead allow you to purchase them at similar prices as the base game and update weapons. I'd buy that over a Shark Card any day of the week.

soo you are willing to pay real money to unlock unlock weapons that are on par with those already in the game?

 

why dont just play with what the game give you then? after all they would be no difference 0_o

[Zader]

soo you are willing to pay real money to unlock unlock weapons that are on par with those already in the game?

why dont just play with what the game give you then? after all they would be no difference 0_o

Variation. I also said cars, mind you. I'd have probably bought the CS cars as a car pack for a couple bucks.

[ash-274]

 

soo you are willing to pay real money to unlock unlock weapons that are on par with those already in the game?

 

why dont just play with what the game give you then? after all they would be no difference 0_o

 

Variation. I also said cars, mind you. I'd have probably bought the CS cars as a car pack for a couple bucks.If they weren't better than in-game cars people wouldn't buy them.

If they were better than in-game cars people would consider the game to be pay-to-win.