Why on Earth Are GTA Online Players Walking in Circles?

"...the environmental concern is legitimate..."

I'm confused by what you mean here.

This game sounds like a horrible grind. Considering it’s supposed to be similar to RDR2 Online, I don’t know how anyone can honestly keep playing it and buy MTs. I really don’t get it.

I think the real culprit is their brains have melted from playing gta 5 nonstop for 8 years.

Granted I do love GTA and exploring the secrets, the attachment rate of this game and some “dedication” that people have astounds me.

Noobs! Tbis kind of player are why i let gta behind. Thats why games will be pass. Whats the point of play if you dont play?! Shame.

@zupertramp Is it not because you’re leaving your system fully on for days at a time?

I guess they're technically "playing" but I don't see the enjoyment in that. Hours of this, so you can have a few moments of enjoyment buying things and flaunting them, til the next update and "new" things. Ad nauseam. But whatever. To each, their own.

Well I got tired of how it's hard to buy nice cars in GTAO and realized races seem to be my favourite modes on there so I just went ahead and bought GT Sport. Now I'm getting all them cars (super realistic and licensed ones at that) pretty easy in comparison.

@nessisonett oh is that it? I guess the way it was worded I thought it was in reference to something previously mentioned.

Either way, a few players leaving their consoles on kinda seems like a drop in the ocean to me but eh, not something I would do on the other hand.

@zupertramp The very fact it’s grindable without player input means that you can create farms for it and sell the accounts though. Like that story about the FIFA farm that was using so much power they thought it was a weed farm.

@nessisonett This is true.

So can't the other players pick cars and block these afk players? It would be hilarious

It’s kind of sad when the thing you do for enjoyment is such drudgery that you can’t bear to engage with it. Sometimes with modern games it feels like we’re all Sisyphus and there are just way too many boulders.

I'll admit it, i used to do this whilst waiting for my bunker stock to fill up way back in the Gunrunners update.

The people still playing (and paying) GTA online have killed the SP for the rest of us.

Why do people do dumb shi*?
Hint: Because the absolut majority is dumb as shi*

Master Chief Collection multiplayer matches were plagued by this almost immediately after the season grinds began in December 2019 so this happening does not surprise me in the slightest.

I miss the days before long grinds were introduced when games kept player counts high in multiplayer just by having a fun game.

@get2sammyb it’s hardly a huge issue when celebrities and influencers are city/country hopping in private jets.

Let’s not overreact 😂

This is one practice I can say I never understood. Putting aside the environmental issue. It's just...pointless like the people that join online matches and don't play just to earn XP. If you aren't going to play...then don't play!

I did the same thing to grind out xp and materials in destiny 2 😂

@get2sammyb I mean, yeah. And I actually just didn't catch the meaning of what you were saying. But while I agree in principle, and don't want to turn the comments into a debate over this, I think concern over people running their consoles for long periods of time is misplaced is all. Again, a drop in the ocean.

Plus like, so is an avid COD-for-hours-a-day gamer worse than a casual once a week type gamer? Are live service games by nature worse for the environment? Should those companies be pressured to stop making these games for environmental reasons? Is there anything in the gaming industry that even touches the energy/resource usage of Ag or Oil & Gas? Or the tech companies that have cloud server farms in the middle of the literal desert sucking up all the water so people can back up their nonsense but a comparatively small FIFA farm is somehow a bridge too far?

Just really think it's a non issue personally but I get everyone draws their line differently.

@Jacko11 This is one of my least favorite arguments; the old “let’s ignore this bad thing because this other bad thing is worse.” If my wife tells me that our kitchen is on fire, I’m not going to ignore it because the forest fires in California are so much worse. In the big scheme of things, leaving a PC or console running for days on end so that an avatar can wander in circles isn’t so bad, but there is a cost involved (beyond self-respect) that should be considered.

I do this myself my reasoning is personally I don’t like playing gta anymore but I do like owning everything and having it unlocked. so when a new update comes out I’ll hop on and buy everything then do something like this to rank up enough to unlock anything that’s locked behind certain ranks or something. Usually just tape my controller overnight while I sleep or watching TV

If one plays for X amount of hours or goes afk for X amount of hours it is still X amount of hours on line and any needed resources being consumed. The difference is that afk allows for multitasking.

@NoCode23 Well, another difference is that no one plays on their PlayStation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but if you're trying to AFK grind this you probably will. Imagine if you got £10 for every hour you leave your PlayStation running, you'd leave it on 24/7, right? That's what this is like for the people addicted to GTAO.

@Kidfried that's a pretty unfair way to put it. We're talking about dudes walking in a circle in a video game. If we're going to treat everything with the same level of seriousness than is gaming itself irresponsible? Burning up the electricity grid for play time? Doesn't sound like a wise use of resources to me.

I guess I'm just like if there's someone on here who rides a bike to work, eats vegan, has solar panels and a windmill back home then sure, get pressed over maybe a couple thousand people using a console a few extra hours than other gamers but otherwise I personally have no idea what these players' overall footprints are in relation to my own so I'mma avoid getting too alarmed over this.

Last thing... Is thinking we should address the largest problems first and then work our way down really that inflammatory? Like let's rein in the manufacturing in China (of which we're a large part of) and maybe stop putting petroleum in every piece of packaging in the entire supermarket and maybe cut back on factory farming (all things that will probably never happen in my lifetime) and then I'll be on board for pressuring Rockstar to stop letting dudes walk in circles AFK.

@Amnesiac give over pal, it ain’t that deep

@Kidfried really? Take a look at the air pollution levels of actual factual scientific evidence produced during peak covid when flights where grounded across the world. Of which was when more people where playing than ever on consoles and PC.

GG bud.

Only GTA could spark a discussion about a greener environment.

@Jacko11 Ok, let's keep it shallow. Setting up your character to walk around in circles for hours on end isn't just silly, it's also a bit wasteful.

While Jacob the favorite one receives a huge update with 1000 Lvs, Esau the hated one receives a half a**ed blood money update.
Maybe it's me. I'm on the loosing army.

I wish we were waiting for GTA7 at this point in time instead of GTA6.

As a gamer, it sucks so bad.

@Kidfried I mean, for the record that's why I originally bowed out with a conciliatory "this is true" in response to @nessisonett. I really don't love arguing with people I basically agree with. But @get2sammyb brought it back up and I couldn't not say something.

But I'm not really reducing it to a singular person. (Well, it's part of the argument but not the whole) Thing is... Sony makes a console that cosumes energy. Samsung makes the TV. Netgear the router. Arris the modem. Rockstar the game and on and on... A whole web of companies making devices out of all kinds of conflict minerals, all requiring something to turn the generators that produce electricity just so people can play video games and all of that is kosher until someone goes AFK. Sorry but what?

I guess I'm uncomfortable saying it's okay for a company to let me waste resources the way I want but the way others might do it is wrong. Especially when we aren't talking about the major contributors to begin with.

And as far as tempting players, well, yes but that's what I was getting at with live service. They are all tempting players to engage with the game for as long as possible. Is that wrong from an environmental standpoint? Or what about attempts by Sony to create a first party lineup that attracts new people to console gaming? Is that wrong? I don't get where we draw the line, even if we're just talking about the incentives the companies put in place.

@Amnesiac majority of people with the Platinum in Rocket League did the same with the elastic band strategy, so guess they’re wasteful too. Still, it ain’t that deep

@Kidfried flights = bigger issue
Consoles and PC’s = not

Check yourself sport

@Kidfried imagine the porridge your nan makes. Pure whataboutism

@Kidfried sorry it's just my whataboutism in this case stems from the fact that closing this tiny insignificant afk walking loophole changes absolutely nothing about our situation. That's all. It's scapegoating low hanging fruit in the same way Twitter leftists think they're making the world a better place by vetting Jeopardy guest hosts. It's theater.

Anyway it's cool though, really. I think "farming" and "playing the game" can be one in the same; you disagree. No worries. Besides I don't even play GTA lol.

And honestly, to answer your explicit question, there's really nothing wrong with taking small steps. So there. 😛 And it's not as if Sammy was making a huge deal out of it. It's one, off-hand line in an entire article which I first just misunderstood, then remarked how I personally am not too worried about it. I'm not exactly trying to campaign on behalf of this farming exploit either though. Fwiw.

Developers kinda suck these days, stop making gaming so damn grindy. Most of us are too old and dont have the time for your crap lol

Kifflom desert flashback intensifies

This isn't new to be honest, I was doing this well before Tuner Updated came out since the ps3. I only did it to bypass the 15 minutes before it kick me out of the server as I need to go some where within my house either make myself food or a drink or other things else. I never had a rubber band on hand so I used old phone or headphones cables round the thumb sticks but now I use spring loaded side cutter like the modelling kit tool size.

I've heard of rubber banding in games, but this stretches things to a whole new level.

Oldest trick in the book.