Rockstar Games confirmed that active development on Red Dead Online never reached its full potential, with its GTA sibling benefiting from more attention and frequent updates, it shows a different path forward for GTA 6's multiplayer - one that's less erratic in approach, and with a more diverse player eco-system.
When it launched in beta in 2018, Red Dead Online was not in a great state. There was little to do, and earning money quickly became a repetitive grind. It wouldn't be until 2019, with the Frontier Pursuits update, that Red Dead Online found its footing, introducing three new player roles for players to immerse themselves in. Players could build their own careers as bounty hunters, traders, or collectors, and these Specialist Roles were eventually updated to add Moonshiners and Naturalists to RDO. However, hinted additions to the game's roleplaying system - such as owning properties, or being able to progress from a bounty hunter to an actual lawman - never materialized, leaving RDO in its current state frustratingly just shy of greatness.
Despite its shortcomings though, Red Dead Online shows what GTA 6's multiplayer should be like. GTA Online has gotten more and more ridiculous with each of its updates, and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, exploring Los Santos in a public lobby is likely to get a player griefed by bloodthirsty players on hover bikes. GTA Online today is different than the GTA Online of 2015, and some would argue that its steady progression into sci-fi territory - combined with its Shark Card-based inflated economy and grindy moneymaking mechanics - has made it worse. GTA 6 can take GTAO back to basics however, by adopting the slower pace of Red Dead Online, and utilizing similar roleplaying systems to make open-world gameplay more satisfying.
RDO's Specialist Roles Would Make GTA 6 Online Better
The current iteration of GTA Online allows players to pursue several different business opportunities that aid in roleplaying, ranging from biker gangs to big criminal enterprises. However, these businesses largely function the same way; players purchase illicit goods with their own cash, engage in missions to procure said goods, and then sell them for a profit after repeating the process a set amount of times. GTA Online's heists DLC also gives players the option of being a professional thief, earning vast sums of money for pulling off elaborate bank jobs and even assaults on private islands. However, these roles don't feel especially distinct. Players are open to explore a specific path in GTA Online, but owning and running a business is largely the same whether you're a biker or a big criminal executive.
GTA 6 can improve in this area, though, by taking inspiration from Red Dead Online's roles. While not perfect, Rockstar has already provided a blueprint for immersive, open-world gameplay where players interact with each other in ways other than blowing up their vehicle with a homing missile. If you're a criminal in Red Dead Online and rack up a bounty, then a high-level bounty hunter may choose to track you down for an (ittedly disappointing) reward. Rockstar teased enhancements to this system in an interview with VG247 back in 2019, discussing how the evolution of Frontier Pursuits could one day incorporate a "dishonorable path", but that never came to fruition. GTA 6's multiplayer could deliver on an expanded Frontier Pursuits system however, one where players had more options than running drugs or just owning their own business.
Potential roles in GTA 6's multiplayer could span a range of different playstyles. Given the heist-based nature of the series' gameplay, it would be interesting to see roles that specialized in a different aspect of a heist. Getaway drivers, explosives experts, pilots and maybe even hackers could have their own roles, but Rockstar needn't limit itself to just the criminal path. GTA Online's roleplaying servers have seen players assume all kinds of roles, from taxi drivers to cops and everything in between. The end goal of every player shouldn't be to just own their own business; there should be different paths that players can take to reach their own desired goals, which is something Red Dead Online started, but annoyingly seems not to have finished.
GTA 6 Must Avoid Red Dead Online's Mistakes
And this is the biggest thing that GTA 6 must learn from Red Dead Online: don't introduce something exciting and then not complete it - or at least don't leave the player base in the dark over future content. Red Dead Redemption 2's multiplayer is still an enjoyable experience worth playing in 2022, but most long-term players have seen all that Red Dead Online's Specialist Roles have to offer, and have been remarkably patient when it comes to the game's lack of updates. Rockstar isn't one for conventional communication, but this can prove problematic in a multiplayer space, especially one that involves microtransactions. It's an industry standard for most live-service titles to have some kind of roap or ongoing dialogue between developer and player, but RDO hasn't had that, which has made its content drought in 2021 doubly frustrating. Despite Rockstar's lofty ambitions with Frontier Pursuits, RDO's roleplaying system is - as it stands - incomplete, and with no word on future updates, it's possible it will now remain that way.
It's crucial that such a thing doesn't happen with GTA 6. Although unlikely, given the extent of GTA Online's popularity and how much money it makes, Rockstar would still do well to adopt a greater level of transparency with its communities. Studios have implemented content roaps now as a way of showing what players are investing in, both in of their time and sometimes money. Without that level of information, players could essentially be gambling as to whether or not they'll see a return on their investment with ongoing or content. Red Dead Online's player base has essentially been existing in limbo since Blood Money dropped in July 2021, with only a few new cosmetics arriving in the months since. GTA will never have to worry about a similar lack of investment, but it's fair to say that Rockstar has made mistakes in managing RDO's community, and that lessons can be applied to GTA 6 in order to make sure players feel like their is being heard.
GTA 6's release date is probably still a while off, and it's possible that players won't see the multiplayer evolution of GTA Online until months after the single-player launches if Rockstar follows the model it did with GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2. Still, there are both positives and negatives the studio can draw from Red Dead Online as it eventually starts crafting GTA 6's multiplayer. RDO has shown that a more thoughtful version of GTA Online is possible, and though it may not have achieved its ambitions, Grand Theft Auto 6 could be the perfect platform to make it happen.
Source: VG247
