I don't consider GTA Online's story to be "canon"

[lol232]

Absolutely sure that majority of people don't either.

 

And I think GTA V's story sucks ass, for many reasons, and it's pretty short on top of that, which doesn't help given the fact that you have 3 protagonists. Lots of stranger missions but main story is far more important. But it's still not as stupid as GTA O post-2015.

GTA Online's story started as a simple prequel, and while there were some wacky stuff it was still somewhat in line. All the original contact missions and original heists take place shortly before GTA V, everything past that (Lamar's missions and onwards) take place after GTA V's story. f*cking hell, I can even imagine all the "prequel" stuff as somewhat canon and even Lowrider's missions but then past that sh*t started getting very f*cking strange especially post gun-running. Doomsday heist is cool gameplay wise, but all that sci-fi invisible clone sh*t made it feel like dollar store Saint's Row. It's all obviously money grab and we know this.

 

It's just very hard to believe that all that stupid sh*t is in the same universe as GTA IV's story. Sure, TBOGT had over the top things but not nearly as much as GTA O did, both in quantity and sheer ridiculousness.

But my main point is, is GTA VI REALLY gonna consider GTA Online as canon?

Edited March 26 by lol232

[kobeni]

The fact that Friedlander of all the characters in V is some sort of drug baron now in the new dlc is enough of a strong reason to believe that the current writers for Online must be on some of the strongest crack cocaine known to mankind.

[Moth]

5 hours ago, kobeni said:

believe that the current writers for Online must be on some of the strongest crack cocaine known to mankind.

Seeing the writing of GTA Online has destroyed all hope for me that GTA VI is going to have a good story.

[Ivan1997GTA]

13 minutes ago, Moth said:

Seeing the writing of GTA Online has destroyed all hope for me that GTA VI is going to have a good story.

Maybe GTA VI's Online mode will be set in its own continuity, and V's Online mode will be mostly retconned as a bad drug trip.

[Legomanarthur]

I hope Online isn't considered canon by Rockstar. Online needs to be its own separate continuity, that way none of its most wacky additions should ever impact the series' future entries story-wise.

I was rather confident in the past that Online was too crazy to be part of the HD universe's main timeline but with the recent missions featuring Franklin and Lamar I'm not too sure anymore. I think Online's story lost me the moment I had to fight Avon Hertz's clone army and save the world from his insecure AI.

[untitledupcoming]

GTAO will most likely be uncanon. How does Dr. Friedlander come back? How did the government become so advanced in 2017, that we developed space cannons? Flying motorcycles? Unless VI is Cyberpunk 2077, it's NOT canon.

[Homicidal Hipster]

I consider bits and pieces of it canon. Like what happens to ALIVE characters post story. Franklin getting with Tanisha etc.. And Trevor's heist where he loses the impotent rage statue definitely happened.. but other bits are just bullsh*t alternate reality stuff. So basically I consider things that are convenient to me canon. It's my headcanon and I'm sticking with it. 

[lol232]

I definitely consider the original contact missions (all before heists update), the heists update, and even lowriders. All of it was pretty much in line with GTA V's story and made a lot of sense. 

I do hope that at least past some point, GTA Online's continuity is its own.

 

But as other have said, in GTA O, past Lowriders, every single f*cking story or lore has been stupid as f*ck like someone on crack cocaine wrote it. Especially Doomsday.

Edited March 27 by lol232

[Nicki]

I still ask myself what in the whole universe is the orbital cannon doing in a GTA game since it doesn’t even suit the game at all. Sure in war games like CoD or Battlefield, but not GTA. 

let’s not mention those flying bikes shooting rockets… I guess that’s what happens when you’re out of ideas it’s just sad that they ruin the whole game with those nonsense updates and characters that the majority doesn’t even like or care about. 

[Spider-Vice]

On 3/26/2023 at 10:16 AM, lol232 said:

But my main point is, is GTA VI REALLY gonna consider GTA Online as canon?

No, don't think so lol. Considering they chose to mention Jay Norris and the LifeInvader incident in one of the GTA VI clips as well. Don't know why people are so afraid of this, as it's pretty clear that GTAO is a different timeline to the actual Story Mode games. GTA VI certainly won't have orbital cannons and Oppressors just because GTA Online does. Not to mention clearly there has been some sort of change at R* because they stopped adding this kind of content after a while.

[E Revere]

They might mention some things from GTAO but that's not to say they'll fill the game with references to flyinf bikes. People's concrete-like adherence to "canon" and "noncanon" are unnecessary. Let things be canon to your own heart's content.

[jonhyosbourne]

In my opinion the missions and characters of gta online mainly in last dlcs it doesn't make any sense.. We can see  the characters are ridiculous, simple and meaningless, do not have context, relevant depth! Missions in gta online is just to prolong the life of multiplayer, the narratives themselves nothing special, the screenwriters seems not showing enthusiasm in the projects, but anyway.. Time to new GTA! 

[DubiousThiny]

GTA Online story, characters and lore are undoubtedly the absolute worst in the entire series (not counting the 2D games) they're literally carbon copy of the Saints Row series even the official Twitter account called them out for it.

the reason SR formula works is because they proudly presented themselves as 'the wackier and crazier GTA Clone' that doesn't take themselves too seriously or realistic, when the GTA series - the same series that prides themselves on being 'realistic and serious' tried to replicate the SR formula it didn't just felt out of place for the series, but it failed miserablely at it. 

say all you want about SA or TBoGT over-the-top missions, but at least they still managed to feel in place and down-to-earth with the rest of the series. 

[reallymore]

GTA Online is only the result of bringing everything unreal from the 3D Universe and Mods from the community making it look like a non-canonical spin off of the saga

 

but rockstar has so much priority over gta online (just squeezing it out) that it won't be strange for the entire game to be canonical and in gta vi we will see more nods to gta online than to gta v

[lol232]

On 3/28/2023 at 3:04 PM, Spider-Vice said:

No, don't think so lol. Considering they chose to mention Jay Norris and the LifeInvader incident in one of the GTA VI clips as well. Don't know why people are so afraid of this, as it's pretty clear that GTAO is a different timeline to the actual Story Mode games. GTA VI certainly won't have orbital cannons and Oppressors just because GTA Online does. Not to mention clearly there has been some sort of change at R* because they stopped adding this kind of content after a while.

I don't expect GTA O gameplay elements (like the cannon) to be in GTA VI, I believe GTA VI will be more of a classic GTA gameplay. Nor am I afraid of this, rather that I'd just lose interest if that is the case. I am purely referring to the lore/story/continuity/canon or whatever.

Jay Norris being mentioned in the GTA VI isn't exactly proof of whether or not it will follow Online's continuity or not though. What would really be stupid is if the Doomsday stuff and such are a part of the singleplayer canon.

Edited March 29 by lol232

[Spider-Vice]

I also doubt that considering the whole Doomsday thing is supposedly a "world ending scenario", so Vice City wouldn't exist either if something bad happened there.  Even if R* for some reason make it so Doomsday happens and Los Santos gets nuked to transition to GTA Online 2 (just a hypothetical), that sorta thing certainly won't be canon whatsoever in GTA VI Story Mode.

[lol232]

4 minutes ago, Spider-Vice said:

I also doubt that considering the whole Doomsday thing is supposedly a "world ending scenario", so Vice City wouldn't exist either if something bad happened there.  Even if R* for some reason make it so Doomsday happens and Los Santos gets nuked to transition to GTA Online 2 (just a hypothetical), that sorta thing certainly won't be canon whatsoever in GTA VI Story Mode.

 

Nah, that ain't what I am referring to either. Doomsday was just an example, obviously nothing bad happened as in the story that the bad guy was taken care of. It's not like Doomsday made it so rest of the world is gone.

[Space Cowboy]

I think the issue is a bit nuanced to say that GTAO is either canon or non-canon. I personally believe the GTAO events indeed happened, but they won't ever be referenced in great detail (or expanded upon) in VI singleplayer. At the very least not the outlandish parts of GTAO like the doomsday heist. They won't ever need to address this in VI, the story will likely have a much different focus than GTAO and looking back at the GTAs released in the past, it was never the case that the games had one overaching story, so Rockstar can easily just ignore most of the events or the vehicles that exist in GTAO.

I don't like that in GTAO it seems that every character that could die in the story mode of V is canonically alive, so I would prefer if they didn't appear or were presumed to be alive/dead in VI at all. But if that's not the case, I am pretty sure Michael, Trevor, Dr. Friedlander etc. will be alive in VI.

And yes I don't like the idea of GTAO taking place in the same universe/timeline as GTA IV, it feels rather odd, but I don't think Rockstar cares. As I said, they can easily ignore what happened in GTAO and not reference it at all.

[happygrowls]

its canon, and im pretty sure that saying 10 years of content updates for a game played by millions never happened is more of a slap in the face to fans of GTAO than it is to people who chose to kill Michael/Trevor/Friedlander

[Blue carpet]

It seems like I'm in the minority at least when it comes to liking GTA V story. I do think some people don't like it just because we haven't had a new GTA game in almost a decade now and they are sick of the characters which I can understand. But back on topic I'm with you OP in terms of online I don't consider it cannon neither.

[DubiousThiny]

16 minutes ago, Blue carpet said:

I do think some people don't like it just because we haven't had a new GTA game in almost a decade now and they are sick of the characters which I can understand.

you actually got it wrong, we don't hate it because the reasons you mentioned, we hate it because the writing and characters are a major downgrade from IV & SA

it's a poorly-pased hollywood blockbuster action adventure drama movie story at worst and it's a mediocre, forgottable story at best

[Blue carpet]

3 hours ago, 2L8 said:

you actually got it wrong, we don't hate it because the reasons you mentioned, we hate it because the writing and characters are a major downgrade from IV & SA

it's a poorly-pased hollywood blockbuster action adventure drama movie story at worst and it's a mediocre, forgottable story at best

That's a good criticism I do think GTA IV darker tone was better SA was kinda all over the place but fun but I sill think some people are just so sick of the story and characters not everyone of course.

[Algonquin Assassin]

Hopefully GTA VI course corrects the HD era to what it’s been the last 8-9 years or whatever.

 

Started off great with the almighty GTA IV.

[Lock n' Stock]

Online ruined the HD Universe lore. I hope when GTA VI comes out, none of that garbage is even acknowledged.

[Space Cowboy]

I wonder how would people feel if instead of the Doomsday heist in GTAO we got the Trevor agent-themed dlc in singleplayer. Not saying it would be identical to Doomsday, but it would surely feel very similar as we know that they shared locations, characters etc. The most outlandish GTAO dlc actually comes from cancelled SP supposedly "canon" dlc. It's quite possible that if Rockstar's plans got realised as intended, GTA V singleplayer would have been perhaps on par with the craziness in GTAO.

[D T]

Nothing in any previous GTA game is canon. Every story is self contained. Remember this. Rockstar has never once stayed consistent with anything they've said in regards to eras. It's all a crapshoot. And it's even worse now with half the original team gone. Just take each game as its own thing because at the end of the day it's just writers throwing sh*t at a wall and seeing what sticks, sprinkling in fan service however they see fit.

 

There will never be a point during the development of a story where Michael Unsworth is like "no, f*ck, we can't do this major plot point because in the GTA Online mission Potshot the mute protagonists wiped out those dealers at Braddock Farm for Trevor." I mean the writers literally resurrected Dr. Friedlander and turned him into a f*cking Disney channel villain. Nothing matters.

Edited March 31 by D T

[E Revere]

3 hours ago, D T said:

Nothing in any previous GTA game is canon. Every story is self contained. Remember this. Rockstar has never once stayed consistent with anything they've said in regards to eras. It's all a crapshoot. And it's even worse now with half the original team gone. Just take each game as its own thing because at the end of the day it's just writers throwing sh*t at a wall and seeing what sticks, sprinkling in fan service however they see fit.

 

There will never be a point during the development of a story where Michael Unsworth is like "no, f*ck, we can't do this major plot point because in the GTA Online mission Potshot the mute protagonists wiped out those dealers at Braddock Farm for Trevor." I mean the writers literally resurrected Dr. Friedlander and turned him into a f*cking Disney channel villain. Nothing matters.

Exactly! Media in general -not just video games- is like this yet people go apesh*t when they see something that violates the almighty canon. If anything, it's better that way. It's more true to life because in life things exist the way they're remembered. They don't always match up

[DubiousThiny]

On 3/31/2023 at 6:56 PM, D T said:

Nothing in any previous GTA game is canon. Every story is self contained. Remember this. Rockstar has never once stayed consistent with anything they've said in regards to eras. It's all a crapshoot. And it's even worse now with half the original team gone. Just take each game as its own thing because at the end of the day it's just writers throwing sh*t at a wall and seeing what sticks, sprinkling in fan service however they see fit.

this is brutally true to not only Video Games, but also to Books, Movies, TV shows and possibly the entire entertainment industry in general, it seems that whenever a character makes a return into a new entry the writers completely forgets how he/she was previously written and instead of revisiting the previous entry as a reference they just use their memories and imagination to fill in the plot holes hoping the fans wouldn't notice.

[Ash_735]

This is why we should've got the single player DLC, it would've split the Online up into three modes then, Normal San Andreas/Alien War San Andreas/Zombie Apocalypse San Andreas, rather than combining it all into one jumbled mess.

[cp1dell]

Yeah. It's crazy to me that the two alternate realty DLCs got recycled into what's considered mainline/canon GTAO. Like, what the f*ck?