A lot of bizarre things have happened in Grand Theft Auto Online, the latest strange trend is lobbies full of players walking around in circles. Their characters move mechanically, walking in a loop repeatedly for hours on end. For those players that are out of the loop, it might be hard to figure out why this is happening. It also might come as a surprise to learn that this isn't a glitch or bug, players are doing this of their own volition. The reason for this weird behavior has to do with the most recent Los Santos Tuners update.
Los Santos Tuners is all about cars, giving Grand Theft Auto Online players new ways to earn rewards. Many of these rewards include outfits for their characters or customization options for vehicles. As such, it's no surprise that players want to get everything. The catch is that this would take a long time, and that's where walking in circles comes in.
As part of the update, players have access to a new progression bar that has 1,000 tiers to it. Each tier unlocked gives players new rewards, and there are many ways to level up this bar. Rather than participate in races or test drive cars, players can earn points simply for spending time in and around the LS Car Meet. Players can't just leave their character AFK in the area though, as the game will kick them for inactivity after around 15 minutes. Crafty players instead have started using rubber bands or tape on their controllers to keep their character moving. In this way, players can level up this 1,000 level progress bar even while they're away from home.
Of course, not all players are thrilled about this. Using this strategy in a public lobby can cause a few issues. For starters, these AFK players are taking up space in the lobby, as each GTA Online lobby can only hold 30 people. What's more, having this many players walk circles around the LS Car Meet can affect the framerate of the game for others. Twitter user Silent-Hamish combats this by pushing these AFK players up against a wall, causing their characters to stop and eventually get kicked for inactivity.
Players planning on using this method themselves should be sure to do so in private lobbies. It doesn't make any difference whether players are in a private or public lobby in terms of experience gain, but doing it in a private GTA Online lobby will avoid the aforementioned complications. The effectiveness of this method drops off severely after reaching rank 100 in the Los Santos Tuners event, so players might have to figure something else out later.
Grand Theft Auto Online is available now on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.