For the longest time, Rockstar Games' 2013 blockbuster has continued to break sales records and player numbers. Shortly after Grand Theft Auto 5 released, Rockstar Games introduced a simple-but-fun online mode titled Grand Theft Auto Online. Many theorized this would be the start of a serious expansion of multiplayer for the game, and after a short period of lacking multiplayer content, suddenly Grand Theft Auto Online exploded in popularity. Gameplay features like heists and office management added a ton of depth and complexity to the game. However, more recently, Grand Theft Auto "roleplay" has been the most popular offering for GTA 5.
Supported largely by community efforts and the mode's insane popularity on Twitch, roleplay servers like NoPixel and Eclipse RP have become huge. Even though Grand Theft Auto Online proper is still incredibly popular among the majority of the game's fanbase, PC players have been enjoying roleplay a lot more in recent years. Players apply and jump into these modded custom servers for roleplay, pick and choose what character they'd like to be, and then they jump in. It's a surprisingly varied and deep gameplay experience that's caught a lot of fans' attention. Rockstar Games in particular has virtually no connection to roleplay, though it'd be interesting if it did.
GTA Online Has Come A Long Way, In Its Own Right
Firstly, by no means does Grand Theft Auto Online roleplay need to replace or supplant the current foundation or model of Grand Theft Auto Online. From its humble beginnings, the Grand Theft Auto Online multiplayer experience has burgeoned into something far more complex than anything in its predecessor. All of a sudden, with the release of offices, clubs, heists, apartments, and various other collectibles and activities, progression in Grand Theft Auto Online started resembling an MMO. Players started organizing teams for heists, micro-managing shipments for businesses, among the many other sub-activities available throughout the game.
Other than pre-Heist content, Grand Theft Auto Online has had a consistently rising playerbase and community. Even after the last big casino update for the game, players have stuck around for all of the new content additions. As recently as this winter, Grand Theft Auto Online received the first ever map expansion in the game's long-running history with the Cayo Perico Heist, bringing with it a slew of new missions on the new island. For a game nearing eight years old to still be going strong after all this time is nearly unprecedented, save for examples like World of Warcraft. Then again, that game is actually an MMO, but Grand Theft Auto Online isn't too dissimilar.
How Roleplay Changes Grand Theft Auto Online
However, while first-party updates to Grand Theft Auto helped build the game's massive playerbase, "RP" has arguably helped cultivate an even larger playerbase. The many roleplay mod servers available for Grand Theft Auto Online, like NoPixel and Eclipse RP, have arguably extended Grand Theft Auto Online's capabilities farther beyond anything Rockstar Games implemented. Browsing Twitch under the Grand Theft Auto 5 category will show that nearly all of the top channels are streamers playing in the aforementioned roleplay servers. Various Twitch personalities are donning Grand Theft Auto personas, all fulfilling a small role in the huge RP game worlds.
Obviously, none of this is supported, financed, or actually designed by Rockstar Games: Roleplay mods for Grand Theft Auto Online are entirely community-driven efforts that have since exploded in popularity. Even Red Dead Redemption 2 fans are beta-testing several roleplay servers, though it's not even close to the quality and sheer amount of content in Grand Theft Auto Online RP servers. Rockstar Games is likely fully aware of roleplay servers like NoPixel and Eclipse RP, and they probably don't condone playing in them either, but it's hard not to imagine what a first-party/Rockstar-supported roleplay offering would be like in Grand theft Auto Online.
Imagining Rockstar-Supported GTA Roleplay
By no stretch of the imagination are roleplay servers rudimentary or lacking without Rockstar Games' support. For such a community-driven server infrastructure, roleplay in Grand Theft Auto Online is insanely rich with features. Everyone gets to pick their role in the game's microcosmic society, with a variety of different gameplay options and functionality to help realize the immersion of roleplay. Grand Theft Auto roleplay servers are effectively like becoming a more detailed version of the base game's NPCs, with players living out their lives as they see fit. Rockstar Games could even help expand these servers over time as an official offering.
Rockstar Games has to understand that a large amount of its playerbase now utilizes these mods. The company doesn't even need to necessarily make their own version of roleplay, but should at least create some options for the highly modded servers to become legitimate. Whether that's through simply opening up a partnership with the developers of the modded servers, or taking a far more proactive approach. That could range anywhere from Rockstar being more lenient on roleplaying and bans, or even Rockstar itself implementing roleplay servers for all platforms, including consoles. Roleplay has become a big part of Grand Theft Auto, and Rockstar should embrace it.
Grand Theft Auto Online is available now on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.