How many of us actually prefer to play alone or with companions?

[DODI3OG]

I'm trying to gather data on how impactful solo missions are on GTA Online based on the popularity of solo-able missions vs. team-based missions.

 

For those who don't know, GTA Online used to be mostly team-based, with few lucrative missions for solo players. But, since the Cayo Perico update, R* has started catering more to the solo players through solo-able missions and the official introduction of solo/invite-only lobbies which didn't let players sell goods unless they glitched out of a public lobby.

 

EDIT:

Added "Both" as an option for the 1st question.

 

I usually play in invite-only lobbies when I'm grinding, but when I'm just driving around, I'm okay with being in a Public Lobby. I love hanging out with randoms at times. I'm friendly af, but I still find myself getting shot at half the time.

 

I prefer to grind Cayo then crates. But, when I'm looking for a little variety, I'd do gunrunning and direct selling guns and vehicles.

Edited Monday at 12:55 PM by DODI3OG

[fryday]

I used to play with my friends, but they have left the game years ago....because its old af.

Then I played alone, but I dont care anymore about that game...its old and boring

[Bella Odessa]

I played alone for the longest time. I think for the first 200+ levels I just did solo races and all the basic contact missions over and over. Started doing Survival, Slasher, and Kill Quota a little later. But still mostly kept to myself.

 

Nowadays, I play with at least one other friend--the game gets too lonely now. 

[ajalkane]

I like both. There's some good fellows I like to play with. But when they're not around I also like to play alone.

[krotex]

46 minutes ago, DODI3OG said:

I'm trying to gather data on how impactful solo missions are on GTA Online based on the popularity of solo-able missions vs. team-based missions.

In my opinion, the answer is clear. With a broken invitation system, with a lot of people whose IQ tends to zero, with an incredible number of cheaters on PC, it is possible to play only alone.

52 minutes ago, DODI3OG said:

For those who don't know, GTA Online used to be mostly team-based, with few lucrative missions for solo players.

Rockstar originally planned for players to team up in gangs and play crew vs crew. But in reality its very inconvenient. People live in different time zones, people play at different times of the day, people have families and household chores. If a wife or son turned to me for help, I can't tell them "I'm sorry, we're robbing a casino with the gang right now, so you'll have to wait".

39 minutes ago, fryday said:

Then I played alone, but I dont care anymore about that game...its old and boring

Let me not believe you.  

[GTA Hurricane]

I prefer to play in the same manner George Thorogood likes to drink: alone.

[DODI3OG]

5 hours ago, Bella Odessa said:

I played alone for the longest time. I think for the first 200+ levels I just did solo races and all the basic contact missions over and over. Started doing Survival, Slasher, and Kill Quota a little later. But still mostly kept to myself.

Jeez, first 200 levels doing solo races and contact missions? I think I was level 50 when I bought an MC business and it took me a long time to successfully sell full Cash Factory. I grinded Martin Madrazo's contact missions for at least 3 days, though and it didn't take long until I decided to buy myself a chopper using Shark Cards after I got my MC business. I should have bought an office first, but I couldn't afford it at the time.

 

I think I'm level 280 or something now. Most of the time I just prank strangers or help randoms sell using my Akula.

 

 

4 hours ago, krotex said:

In my opinion, the answer is clear. With a broken invitation system, with a lot of people whose IQ tends to zero, with an incredible number of cheaters on PC, it is possible to play only alone.

Rockstar originally planned for players to team up in gangs and play crew vs crew. But in reality its very inconvenient. People live in different time zones, people play at different times of the day, people have families and household chores. If a wife or son turned to me for help, I can't tell them "I'm sorry, we're robbing a casino with the gang right now, so you'll have to wait".

Let me not believe you.  

The crew idea was best implemented on PC on roleplay crews. Believe it or not, these roleplay crews are more disciplined compared to R*. Not sure if they're using dedicated servers or the host was using one.

 

If you f'd up a mission enough or you managed to piss everyone off, you'd be IP banned.

 

But, on consoles, the implementation sucked. I hanged out with a couple crews with almost 200 members, but we rarely got together in a single lobby to grind.

 

It sucks that turning on Passive Mode meant you cannot do Business Sales/missions without turning it off.

Edited Monday at 04:48 PM by DODI3OG

[Big Molio]

Lone Wolf till I die

[Jamwes]

Since the question is asking which I prefer I answered both solo and with companions. Most of my grinding is alone because my friends don't do much grinding, but we usually do a Cayo heist once a week and I would prefer to play with them more often. Too bad adult lives get in the way of our gaming.

 

Since the question asked about grinding, I prefer to do grinding in private invite only sessions because it prevents anything bad happening. I think I would prefer grinding in a populated session, if there was a way to do it safely. To use MMO terms, I would prefer PVE servers instead of PVP servers. Where people can do their own thing but can't hurt each other. The world feels more alive when there are more people populating it.

[DODI3OG]

15 minutes ago, Jamwes said:

To use MMO terms, I would prefer PVE servers instead of PVP servers. Where people can do their own thing but can't hurt each other. The world feels more alive when there are more people populating it.

This is actually a good idea. In MMO terms, I wish that the only way to PK another player was to ask them via phone for a deathmatch. Missions should mostly be interior-based from then on to prevent other players from wrecking mission-specific items such as cargoes and vehicles. This is how most MMOs do it nowadays, with most important quests being set in dungeons where the party leader uses his/her key and the party gets inside that particular area and only the party members get to see the boss and take the loot.

 

They should also find a way to prevent other players from destroying others' PVs since a lot of times I get wrecked because some idiot destroyed my PV and I'm stuck with the usual traffic vehicles for getaway.

[UncleScrooge]

Grinding preference:

Alone, because nobody else can be trusted.

In public lobbies, because it keeps things fresh and entertaining; Empty lobbies are so boring.

 

This said I don’t really grind anymore, I made my fortune years ago, so now I just mess around and enjoy retirement.

 

I’ll play structured non-freemode activities like heists with randoms on occasion, but only for fun, never to grind.

[OnlineProtagonist]

(sorry for the long post) TL:DR - I like solo and co-op with friends.

 

I played with friends in public servers for the first years of GTAO on PS3. Because I'd loved GTAIV multiplayer and RD1 multiplayer, it seemed natural to goof around in public sessions. When I realized that much of the player base were hateful, juvenile bigots, I focused on cooperative play: missions and heists. I wasted a lot of time fighting idiots with barcode names, receiving the most hateful vitriol I've ever read in a video game. After a point, playing gta was an obnoxious bummer. Growing up with the early couch co-op consoles, I never cared about PVP, in gta or any games.

 

When the Oppressor MKII was released, I grew sick of the game and stepped away for a year or more. I started playing again during the pandemic, when my wife and I decided to buy a second PS4 to play gtao and red dead online together. This completely changed how I enjoyed GTA and RDR, and I fell in love again.

 

In early lockdown days, we met many cool folks to play through all the contact missions, original heists, doomsday, casino, and eventually Cayo Perico. I slowed down, enjoying the narratives & cutscenes, delighted as I discovered the scope and level of continuity in the narrative across the years. I acquired all the businesses and could finally buy fun stuff like an Avenger, Maze Bank Tower, Yacht, & all the vehicles I'd wanted. The OPMKII ended up being one of my favorite vehicles for missions and for navigating the map from a new perspective. I appreciated the long evolution of GTAO, and that all the DLCs were free.

 

Rockstar's push toward making all gameplay available in private sessions has kept me playing. I really enjoy the Auto Contracts, Agency missions, and especially the ability to run businesses in private sessions (particularly Air Freight cargo with 3 friends). 

 

I often play solo, experiencing gta like a single player game, or play co-op with my wife and friends. I will say that when I recently ventured into public sessions to get that 28 Day Daily Objective streak, I didn't run into as many annoying fools. In fact, I met a lot of kind people who just wanted to try one another's vehicles. I'm still targeted by jet griefers because of my high level, but whatever. It's not worth my time to engage with them. 

 

I love joining Quick Jobs to help strangers, both low level and other high level players who want to play cooperatively. As long as we have the choice to play the game content in friend sessions, I'm happy (so please add invite only sessions to Red Dead Redemption online, r*).

[Aquamaniac]

Playing contact missions with randoms is what I enjoy the most but I don't do it for the money.

[Bella Odessa]

8 hours ago, DODI3OG said:

Jeez, first 200 levels doing solo races and contact missions? I think I was level 50 when I bought an MC business and it took me a long time to successfully sell full Cash Factory. I grinded Martin Madrazo's contact missions for at least 3 days, though and it didn't take long until I decided to buy myself a chopper using Shark Cards after I got my MC business. I should have bought an office first, but I couldn't afford it at the time.

 

I think I'm level 280 or something now. Most of the time I just prank strangers or help randoms sell using my Akula.

I literally had no idea how business sells worked at that point LOL 

I got killed a lot when I was new, so having to sell in public lobbies at the time turned me off to them completely--but I still wanted to play the game of course. 

 

With my rather slow progression, I'm actually kinda shocked I'm rank 506 with a pretty decent K/D. 

My favorite things to do now are troll evildoers and grind with the homies. 

[Electronic Farts]

4 hours ago, Aquamaniac said:

Playing contact missions with randoms is what I enjoy the most but I don't do it for the money.

This, some of the nicest people I've met in this game were in random mission lobbies, playing just for fun

[Exsanguination]

Alone, can’t find anyone to play with. (other than randoms in races, contact missions etc)

 

I’ve become rich going at it alone though so multiplayer isn’t a necessity. 

[DeathNyx]

I play mostly in invite only, I just don't like the chaotic and laggy public sessions. After some solo things I start joining matches with phone, mostly heists, survivals and contact missions, occasionally also races, much less deathmatches.

 

PS: they could sort contact missions better, matchmaking is terrible. 

 

Sometimes I play in invite only with friends and I help them doing selling missions, heists or other things. 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 01:51 AM by DeathNyx

[Malibu Club]

I mostly play alone. I only ever play it when I randomly feel like playing, and my last two friends who still play on PC are the same and these times rarely ever match up. Plus no offense to them, but I also just prefer playing gta online at my own pace.

[DODI3OG]

4 hours ago, Electronic Farts said:

This, some of the nicest people I've met in this game were in random mission lobbies, playing just for fun

FR. This is how I decided to finally dip in and invest money in good weaponized vehicles. Some of the players were kind enough to let us try their PV while they go AFK.

 

15 minutes ago, Malibu Club said:

I mostly play alone. I only ever play it when I randomly feel like playing, and my last two friends who still play on PC are the same and these times rarely ever match up. Plus no offense to them, but I also just prefer playing gta online at my own pace.

I have lots of friends who play GTA V. Three friends SP only (two on PC), two friends who roleplay on PC, and the rest are online junkies. Most of us grind alone and just mess around in Public Lobbies.

[Valiant ENT CEO]

I can't seem to accomplish anything in this game if I try to involve other players in any fashion. The in-game connections have been quite poor lately with the recent update. I usually just que for jobs. Play Prison Break 3 times in a row and then quit.

[Malibu Club]

28 minutes ago, DODI3OG said:

I have lots of friends who play GTA V. Three friends SP only (two on PC), two friends who roleplay on PC, and the rest are online junkies. Most of us grind alone and just mess around in Public Lobbies.

Lucky. Most of my friends who still actively play are on consoles. Here's hoping GTA 6 has crossplay (who am I kidding it's not gonna happen).

[DODI3OG]

19 minutes ago, Malibu Club said:

Lucky. Most of my friends who still actively play are on consoles. Here's hoping GTA 6 has crossplay (who am I kidding it's not gonna happen).

As I said, we don't hang out that much. Most are from the US. My Filipino GTA buddies are mostly on PC (in contrast to you. XD). No offense, but as long as there's no strict anti-cheat measures on R* servers, I'm gonna stay away from playing with PC players. That's what killed my love for Warzone.

[GAUNTLET HELLFIRE]

I hate playing with other people. I had an IRL friend a few years ago that wanted to play with me a lot but I didn't like playing with others. I like playing at my own pace and that isn't possible when playing with others. Sometimes I will do a payphone hit and then do a couple of the Dre contract preps and then do a few contact missions and then go afk for 10 minutes or so and watch a Youtube video and then come back and sell a business but when you are playing with someone else they don't usually want to jump around doing different things like that. Back when I was playing with my IRL friend I started a second account so when he was playing and I wanted to do my own thing I played on my second account and he wouldn't know I was playing the game and avoiding him.

 

I do enjoy playing certain things with randoms. Contact missions with randoms is one of my favourite things in the game because I can stop playing any time I want without having people getting annoyed, if they die I can do any mission solo anyway and if they troll and destroy the objective I can leave and find different people to play with. The only problem with that is that no one plays contact missions unless they are double money and R* doesn't do 2x missions anymore. I also like LTS with randoms. There has been a few times when people I'm playing with add me to their friends list and I use to add them back and even did a few heists with them but it is so annoying when you agree to do a heist but after a few set ups you want to go eat, watch a video, do something else in GTA or play another game but you feel like you are letting them down if you leave. Now if someone adds me I just leave when the mission or LTS ends and ignore them.

 

I 100% am and always will be a solo player in GTA and every other game I play. 

[Tomtomsengermany]

It depends on my mood. I grind often alone. Sourcing (Bunker etc)  and NC sale in open lobbies and the rest in invite only.

PvP i often play with friends. 

[Lay]

I have one friend I do business sells with. Aside from that I’m solo in public lobbies and invite only lobbies. I’m content playing solo. Always have been.

[Gettin up]

I prefer to play on low populated public lobbies. Usually no cheaters. If I see any, I'll report them and switch sessions.

Either bunker, cargo or nightclub sales I might do just invite-only now, if I'm not comfortable about randoms being on the same public session.

I'd be happy to play with friends like I used to. But most of my friends have stopped playing GTA and I'm lazy to find someone to play with, unless I join to someone's job and we agree to do more missions together, etc.

Edited yesterday at 10:48 AM by Gettin up

[VirgateMoney321]

For the first ~50 levels, I played only with my friend, because he helped me get heists & money, until I was able to get my own businesses, start grinding, & doing heists. From level 50 - 350, I was completely solo, until I found a group of 3 that we all did heists with, selling businesses etc. I do recommend playing with friends though, because those hours spent solo grinding were one of the most degenerate & depressing lol. Nobody to talk to and just a video in the background for white noise.

[nb2010]

 

I like doing cayo with randoms, even better with just one as they more than likely know what they are doing and have done so a thousand times.

 

Just follow them around and dont get caught!

I'm only there cos they need someone to keycard locked doors!!

 

I prefer doing the finale on my own but the preps are boring as f*ck.

[Fish_head]

I generally start off playing alone but my characters kinda hot, so I usually end up with an entourage of horny desperates.. bless

[DODI3OG]

I did this survey to find out how many people prefer to play alone in private, invite-only sessions. Most of GTA Online's gameplay is grind-based, so I used the term throughout the survey. Although, some retired grinders just want to fool around with some kind people every now and then.

 

68% of the 50 samples responded they prefer grinding alone; 28% of them said they prefer to grind alone and with a companion every now and then; only 4% (or two people out of 50) said they prefer to grind with companions.

 

64% (32 out of 50) of those who play alone prefer to play in invite-only lobbies, 20% play in public lobbies, and 16% (8 people, including me), play on Public lobbies sometimes, depending on the player aggression.

 

Even those who play with companions like to play in Invite-only lobbies, with 65% (22 out of 35 non-solo players) respondents; 20% (7 samples) responding lobby choice depends on player aggression; and only 17% (6 samples) preferring public lobbies.

 

62% (21 samples out of 34) of those who play with companions prefer their friends over random strangers, with the remaining 38% (13 samples) being okay with being matched with such players.

 

Additionally, 55% (20 out of 36) of non-solo players who responded primarily grind Business Activities over Heists, which is unsurprisingly preferred by the remaining 45% (16 samples). I didn't ask the same questions to solo players since most of us will grind Cayo Perico and do Business Sales during its cooldown.

 

This sample only covers people who established themselves already in the GTA Online underworld. Since new players typically grind contact missions with randoms or do solo races for easy money. I did not include them since they are forced to play with randoms in most lucrative contact missions anyway.

 

 

8 minutes ago, Fish_head said:

I generally start off playing alone but my characters kinda hot, so I usually end up with an entourage of horny desperates.. bless

I get a lot of invites from horny blokes, too.  IDK about your standards, but a lot of times creepy players invite me to their house and ask me to turn on the mic.