Maximal Effort for Minimal Rewards: Addressing GTA Onlines Broken Economy

When news broke out that Rockstar released an update that effectively halved the pay out when you replay missions, I was upset and it discouraged me to continue playing Grand Theft Auto: Online.

It’s no secret that the online economy in the game is flawed. Numerous reviews have cited that there is an imbalance in the economy. Your payout from missions and robberies are disproportionate to the exorbitant price tags of clothes, vehicles, weapons and upgrades. It’s difficult and time consuming to even earn the money to buy the cheapest property in the game.

I once played a mission with a friend that lasted nearly an hour. We were tasked to pick-up a briefcase and deliver it to a specific location while another team would try to steal it from us to make the delivery themselves. In the end, the team my friend and I were on won but the payout was only $2000.

On the other hand, race missions were more generous. If I’m not mistaken, if you won the race you would get $7000, then $5000 for second place, and $3000 for third place. Those are rough numbers, but it was close to that range. I was happy at first since I won the first race I ever joined. However, I quickly realized that I got lucky and racing wasn’t my thing.

The sad thing was I didn’t get any payout at all if I was below third or fourth place. I don’t think you get any “consolation” money from any mission if you lost. Therefore, I would keep trying the missions I was terrible in repeatedly to get the maximum payout. After a number of tries, I would eventually win at some point and get dough to buy some stuff for my character.

Unfortunately, I walked into a store to buy clothes and found that clothes were worth nearly thousands of dollars. Changing the paint job of my car cost $5000, and that’s more than half of what I earned from my last mission. If I remember correctly, the cheapest property in Los Santos is priced roughly around $20,000.

      

In order to even afford all of these luxuries, my character would have to settle with wearing one outfit for an extended period of time.

It’s annoying how you could lose in a mission you invested so much of your time in and end up with virtually nothing. Earning money from missions ends up becoming a game of chance. Robbing stores seems like a more viable option. You only get more or less a $1,000 dollars, but with minimal effort. All you need to do is evade the cops. It’s quick and you’re guaranteed to get the cash most of the time.

In addition, I also end up playing missions that required players to work together as opposed to death match scenarios.

Everybody wins right? Not quite. There’s still a chance everyone could die and fail the mission. Not one with a single dollar of payout. However, it’s a very small chance and you could easily set the difficulty of the mission and get the same payout. The only difference would be how much points or experience everyone would earn.

          

My friend and I ended up replaying these missions to earn more money since we knew we were terrible at the others. Hearing about the latest update makes me feel like it’s making the game less enjoyable for players like me.

Sure, Rockstar had to do this because there are determined players who grind these missions for XP and cash. I’m sure these players have a lot of time on their hands and probably have the whole day to play GTA Online. How about players who are busy and can only play when they can?

This is one thing I hate about online games. It’s hard to jump in and fully immerse yourself if you don’t dedicate your whole life to it. I hoped that GTA Online wouldn’t alienate players by making it difficult to enjoy the game even if you could only devote a few hours per day to it.

Thankfully, Rockstar is known to listen to fan feedback. In their latest patch, they’ve reduced the death penalty fee to $500. They are also working on making NPC missions replayable. It’s not much to work with, but at least it’s a start.  

They still have a long way to go. The whole economy needs to be fixed and balanced by making payouts and price tags proportionate to one another. I’m sure that they are working on that now as they’ve mentioned numerous times on their website.

For now, the $500,000 stimulus package would probably be enough dough to keep players at bay until they get everything sorted out. I may have my criticisms, but I only want the game to be better in the end. I love it and I can forgive the nuances, but I would have to pack my bags eventually and leave Los Santos if things don’t change

GTA Online was released on October 1^st on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.