why is GTA Online disliked by so many players?

[Nihilanth1982]

upon reading around and even going on youtube, people seem to crap on gta online while putting the gta5 story up on a pedestal.

for me, its the opposite - story was forgettable but i loved the online.

i am doing online on pc and its good to see the array of variety and things you can do, especially compared to red dead online (which i enjoyed on ps4). i like the contact missions, heists, survivals and businesses you do. maybe for gta6, that has an online mode too, with its own map.

i dont get the hate online gets sometimes..?

[Cyoctane]

Because most of the people you see hate on GTA O tried it once back at launch when it was an unstable mess with little content and decided their first impression would be the opinion they would hold on to for 8 years, ignoring all the improvements, changes, and additions GTA O has made.

 

I still see people on other forums who are mad about the Contract DLC because they want to see Franklin again but think that because it's Online you are forced to play in public sessions and deal with griefers. They've had 8 years to learn about the existence of invite only sessions, but they don't want solutions to their problems, they want an excuse to be mad and sh*t on the game.

[ZaxxerDog]

Because it's the best and the worst game at the same time.  GTAO is a mess where great content can be instantly followed by the worst and that makes it very uneven + how a public lobby also means PvP seems very strange and outdated now especially with how badly balanced and wonky it is.

 

On top of the obvious design issues the business model is basically nonsense that continues to hold the game back in various ways. For example we'll never get patches that improve the game on a global scale because the business model is built around people buying new properties in order to unlock new content. That means that the old content can never be refreshed, rebalanced or redesigned and that newer content constantly adds parasitic design elements (examples: car meet rep, Imani tech) that are segmented off and never affect the core systems in meaningful ways. That creates an overwhelming trash fire where 60-70% of the available content is outdated or irrelevant without anything to guide new players through sorting out all the garbage from the good stuff.

[Standard Deluxe 59]

We're tired of the map, believe online's success has postponed GTA VI from release, the douchecanoe MKII is a driveable idiot button, it was made on a now outdated engine, god mode glitches run rampant and are largely ignored by rockstar and old existing content is almost never updated. Many of us are of the impression that it has overstayed its welcome and while jokes abound that V/Online will be re-re-re-re-released for PS6, complete with the same 2013 map, there's a surprising chance it could very well end up being that way. 

 

I'm probably of a small minority but I genuinely hope that VI doesn't have an online mode like V. Of course I know that won't happen, online modes are too much of money printers to ignore.

 

I should add that I don't hate this game, it is my most played on PS4 after all, but that doesn't negate what I said in the first part. 

Edited January 25 by Standard Deluxe 59

[MayoChiki]

[Robin1996ify]

According to my observation, most of the people who hates GTA Online is either new player who thinks the game is too grindy and everything is ridiculously expensive, Players that tired seeing mk2 / god mode griefers in each session harassing them and ruining their sell missions or just some #SaveRedDeadOnline "extremists" hating GTA O because it was more successful than the RDO.

[justinlynch3]

47 minutes ago, Nihilanth1982 said:

upon reading around and even going on youtube, people seem to crap on gta online while putting the gta5 story up on a pedestal.

for me, its the opposite - story was forgettable but i loved the online.

i am doing online on pc and its good to see the array of variety and things you can do, especially compared to red dead online (which i enjoyed on ps4). i like the contact missions, heists, survivals and businesses you do. maybe for gta6, that has an online mode too, with its own map.

i dont get the hate online gets sometimes..?

I like  both story and online, Trevor is one of/if not the best gta character ever for me.

 

But main problem with GTAO is the community.     Game is full of jerks, and on top of that R* encourages people to be jerks.     Spend hours or days building business stock stock, and first of all R* don't let you sell in a invite lobby.    So you go public, and soon as you do go to sell expect some thwat in a Oppressor MKII or Laser to blow you up.

 

You know R* could of put you off the radar and gave you vehicles that blend in with traffic, but keep the time limits.    So when you go to make a sale others players could get a alert like "C832 is selling cargo.    Search the map for vehicles speeding or driving wildly, find them to steal or destroy cargo."       But no, can't give the seller a fair shake, make the game tactical, have to have jerkoff's work to find you.     Nah instead R* thinks it's smart to put a giant red dot on the player and be all like "This person got cargo, we're showing you exactly where he is.    Take your most overpower death machine and KILL KILL KILL"

 

You have people who care about their meaningless K/D ratio way to much to even the point where they'll mod on PC or do God Mode glitches on console so they are invincible.

 

This game is full of people who are either idiots or trolls.    You'll be doing missions or heists and texts on screen could clearly read "STEAL a vehicle" and instead these noobs blow it up, failing the mission.

 

And people are just unfriendly most of the time and can't just mind their own business, rather their idea of fun is ruining everybody else game.    Try just be friendly and pick people up, you die.    Try host a car meet, if you wanted to host it outside in the daylight rather then in the Casino or Carmeet garages, good luck you die.     Just in general not use passive mode, you die, etc.

[kobeni]

Because they're scrubs.

[Valiant ENT CEO]

I'd say much of the hate is because of what the online sector "could have been"

 

For such a massive online game it's almost? Almost! Better played alone? I enjoy populated lobbies but they can become toxic realllly quick with people warping all over the map. The game becomes completely unreasonable and shouldn't even be labeled as grand theft auto. Some weird hybrid of Saints Row, Battlefield, Paper Boy, Destroy All Humans? But I absolutely would not label some of these sh*t head public lobbies as GTA. I dont much hate it...but it's very dull and uninspiring at times.

[StoneyCargo]

I love gta online but public session can be a pain with Greefers that is in the game only to kill players and makes your game play terrible but that is my opinion

[secrecy274]

Because it's an unbalanced mess run by incompetent company... no, I shouldn't say incompetent, they're making one hell of a profit. They have had years, years, to fix many of the issues that plague the game. God mode has existed since Nightclubs were released? Jets has the capability of literally catch you in a deathloop, thanks due to the thermal glitch (also unfixed). Oh, and lets mention how thermal can see you through walls and buildings at long range, letting you snipe people without LoS. Vehicle balance is a joke, and several is severely outdated. Oppressor MKII exist. The Kosatkas anti-air missiles has shorter range than their lock-on due to the missiles being fired up at an angle. This is the level of care that goes into the code (till unfixed, btw). PvP is a joke, and has always been. It took years to fix passive pooping. Suicide is still the meta. PvE content is all the same, just with a new coat of paint.

 

Did I miss anything?

[Rotorhead359]

Ok, here's what I dislike about GTA Online, in no particular order

• The lack of dedicated servers for PC. Peer to Peer allows too much hacking and cheating, most of which would not be possible on a server with any form of anti-cheat. FiveM does this better. Ok, at least P2P allows for heist replay glitches.
• The profanity filter on the text chat. GTA V was rated for mature audiences, but GTA Online is not, so they had to include a profanity filter, wtf? Meanwhile npcs in Online are swearing at you left and right.
• Cargo dots on map, as mentioned above. There is no outsmarting would-be griefers, if they know exactly where you are, and they come at you multiple times with whatever they want, while you are in a big slow unarmored truck.
  Even if you kill them once, they can respawn and try again, this stuff is very unbalanced. What would be balanced is cargo sales off-radar (I don't mind the weak vehicle) and would-be griefers actually have to look for you. This way you could outsmart them.
• Currently the best way to make money is playing a solo heist in Invite-Only sessions, like wtf I thought this was a multiplayer game.
• Rockstar never update/change old content. Is anyone still actually playing the Doomsday heist? (not Bogdan glitch) No? Thought so.
  And yes, I realize that at some point in the game, the OG (apartment) heists were the best way to make money, but nowadays they only exist to trap and frustrate new players.
  The main problem? Getting 3 people to join you who are somewhat decent at the game. And this problem is not limited to the OG heists.
  Spoiler

  Some changes I'd like to see to the OG heists, without breaking the 4-player Loyalty and CMM challenges:

  • Fleeca Job: 1-2 players for the setups. If solo, driver has to hack on the scope out, in front of the bank.
  • Prison Break:
    • Plane: 2-4 players. Get rid of pilot/ground team roles. Kill all the Vagos first to unlock the plane, then get all players in the plane and fly to LSIA.
    • Station: 2-4 players, 1-2 per team. Splitting this mission in 2 would break the challenges, but both objectives can be done by a solo player.
    • Wet Work: same as Station
    • Finale: 4 players
  • Humane raid
    • Key Codes: 2-4 players, get rid of the roles.
    • Deliver EMP: 1-4 players. No typo.
    • Finale: 4 players
  • Series A
    • Coke: 2-4 players. Up to the player to use the boat, the helicopter, or both.
    • Trash Truck: 2-4 players, no operator/collector roles. Every player can drive and collect as they choose. Get rid of the time limit
    • Weed: actually 4 players, 2 on the cargo trucks, 2 on the Technical.
    • Finale: 4 players
  • Pacific Standard
    • Vans: 2-4 players, no roles.
    • Hack: 2-4 players, keep the driver/decoy roles.
    • Finale: 4 players

  Any setup I didn't mention, just require 2-4 players and remove any teams / roles.

   

Edited January 25 by AirWolf359

[TrickyMario7654]

I think people are mainly sick of Rockstar just milking the game for all it’s worth, plus the lack of GTA VI (GTA V came out in September 2013, nearly eight and a half years ago now).

[Jenkiiii]

Why does GTA online receive so much hate?

 

The answer is straightforward: We only pay attention to negative things on the Internet. GTA is the same as it ever was, but most people find it easier to complain.

 

If you look on the this forum alone, the Bitch & Moan Thread (Part 3)

 ... is 700 pages long and the most popular on this forum.

 

The only thing that rivals it is the NextDLC Speculation Topic Mk XI

It's human nature I'm afraid. People bitch about how awful their lives are and how things could be so much better in the future.

 

Edited January 25 by Jenkiiii

[Spider-Vice]

8 minutes ago, Jenkiiii said:

 ... is 700 pages long and the most popular on this forum.

 

The only thing that rivals it is the NextDLC Speculation Topic Mk XI

Uncomparable, as the B&M topic is the same since 2018 and the Next DLC topic was refreshed (because we keep the page limit per topic kinda sane just below 1000) in 2021. Not trying to sh*t on your post, just pointing that out.  The B&M topic is much older so it has a lot more replies.

 

18.5k replies in ~1 year for Next DLC vs. 20.9k replies in 3.5 years for B&M. You could argue Next DLC has some bitching in it too lol.

[Jenkiiii]

1 minute ago, Spider-Vice said:

Uncomparable, as the B&M topic is the same since 2018 and the Next DLC topic was refreshed (because we keep the page limit per topic kinda sane just below 1000) in 2021. Not trying to sh*t on your post, just pointing that out.  The B&M topic is much older so it has a lot more replies.

So, why does the game receive so much hate, which is the question/point?

 

Because people like to bitch and moan or speculate about the next big thing. We rarely stand still and say "hey, GTA online is just great, isn't it?" unless it's new DLC launch day.

[Rammer2k]

I'd say the hate comes from the ridiculous challenge of getting 40000 pts on Penetrator.

[WanteD1]

Outdated Concept + Loading simulator  + no dedicated servers + no decent anti cheat + full of toxic kids + grinding BS and replaying same BS missions + boring after a while + the world doesn't feel alive + so many other problems = GTAO  

[ilovefreebird]

12 hours ago, Standard Deluxe 59 said:

We're tired of the map, believe online's success has postponed GTA VI from release, the douchecanoe MKII is a driveable idiot button, it was made on a now outdated engine, god mode glitches run rampant and are largely ignored by rockstar and old existing content is almost never updated. Many of us are of the impression that it has overstayed its welcome and while jokes abound that V/Online will be re-re-re-re-released for PS6, complete with the same 2013 map, there's a surprising chance it could very well end up being that way. 

 

I'm probably of a small minority but I genuinely hope that VI doesn't have an online mode like V. Of course I know that won't happen, online modes are too much of money printers to ignore.

 

I should add that I don't hate this game, it is my most played on PS4 after all, but that doesn't negate what I said in the first part. 

 

I don't hate this game (and I don't think many of us here do), and I'm also not bothered by most of the common issues, but wow is this a great response.

[Jamwes]

• Player base in online sessions is toxic.
• Forced public session content.
• Inconsistent game design. It's obvious the DLC devs work in silos and don't make new content mesh with old content.
• Bad game design. This includes never having updates to fix issues, quality of life enhancements, and adding to old content.
• There really isn't anything to do beyond replaying the same content over and over again in a money grind. Because of the previous two points there is only ever one profitable thing to do at a time. Playing anything else is just wasting your time, from a money making perspective.

[SummerFreeze]

Because it turned GTA into an MMO.

[Jenkiiii]

1 hour ago, Jamwes said:

• There really isn't anything to do beyond replaying the same content over and over again in a money grind. Because of the previous two points there is only ever one profitable thing to do at a time. Playing anything else is just wasting your time, from a money making perspective.

This is very true. The last couple of weeks I have been mostly playing Security Contracts and Payphone hits, interspersed with Cayo Perico heists.

 

The only real reason to do this is to generate more money that will never be spent. If you're only doing activities to earn in-game cash it emphasizes that there is a problem with the structure of the game. One of the reasons that I abandoned the creator mode years ago is because Rockstar doesn't reward you for your efforts. You still have to grind and play thousands of hours to make in-game money. You don't get any passive income when you are not playing online, but only when active.

 

I'm not sure that money grinding is the problem itself, but it's certainly an unhealthy addiction. Sometimes (often) I have to tell myself that I don't need yet more millions, and force myself to turn the game off.

[theEwing1979]

GTA V single player bored me to tears. I just couldn't get invested in it. 

 

Online... I have such mixed feelings about it. I should start by saying I was a regular player between 2014 and 2018, and I mean REGULAR, it's pretty much all I played on console. In recent years I jump on board the DLC day hype train, ride it for a few weeks and then wait for the next one. 

 

In my opinion online peaked around the time of OG heists and the ill gotten gains dlcs. Most of what followed has either been trash or in my opinion, lightweight and lacked depth. Every business in the game could have been so much more than it was.... They could have added so much more depth and complexity to the biker businesses and the nightclub for example...  But as others have said, new DLC, new property, more fish card sales. 

[Lay]

GTA: Online is brilliant. The story mode was okay at best 

[HamwithCheese]

Because 90 percent of it's execution is awful.

[Valiant ENT CEO]

Because GTA: Blip Hunter Online

 

 

[Big Molio]

Probably because despite there being some really fun elements to it, and it occupying a unique position in the genre, it remains probably one of the most deliberately infuriating and painful gaming experiences of all time. It is a game in which maximum impedance of any progress and annoyance of players to each other is an inherent feature, is encouraged and is facilitated by design. When you aren't getting harassed by ten year old children dressed like clowns, you are having to deal with interior locations which are deliberately configured to be time sinks, and force you to waste hours plodding to job computers which are (in)conveniently always furthest from the door.

 

Compounding the frustrating and tedious play elements is a game which is technically inept and broken. Endless hours are wasted trying to connect, or waiting to return to freemode whilst stuck in the clouds, or timing out of the game altogether.

 

I have a love hate relationship with this game. I love its potential, and its promise of a good gaming experience, but its execution and 99% of the player base are just downright awful.

[Quinn_flower]

Hi r*
if you have to ask that question 8 years in then you are really out of touch 

[Shadowfennekin]

Because they foolishly think VI isn't going to happen due to it

 

That or they're butthurt #SaveRedDeadOnline turds

[Kiethblacklion]

I enjoy Online but I have issues with the convoluted mess that Rockstar has created and issues that Rockstar has yet to fix over the past 8 years. Rockstar added the bad sport points early on to discourage the obnoxious behavior but then added vehicles and objectives that encouraged the obnoxious behavior, thus making the bad sport points obsolete but Rockstar has never removed them from the game.

 

After 8 years, my friends and I can run a set of contact missions together and then when we go from the mission select screen to free roam, we will end up in different sessions, some of us ending up in private sessions and some ending up in public. Why? If we are in a private session together before we start the missions and we're in an XBox party, when we go back to free roam we should be dropped in the same session together. 

 

I find it frustrating that some modes limit which vehicles we can call in. At this point in the game, at least the contact missions should allow all own vehicles to be useable. Yet vehicles such as the Ruiner 2000 and the Avenger can only be used in special missions or in free roam. 

 

Rockstar drags its feet when it comes to bugs that harm a player's experience, but if there is something that helps the player (such as the NAT test on Xbox that allowed players to enter solo public lobbies) then those issues with get Rockstar's full attention. 

 

It really just boils down to Rockstar's inconsistency with maintaining the game world. I've said before that at times it feels like they have different teams of people working on different aspects of the game and they don't talk to each other.