I'm having a fairly sour evening as I'm coming to realize: GTA Online just isn't fun (for me). At all. Hasn't really been for quite some time.
And that's particularly troubling since it is clearly R*'s cash cow. I mean, from a business perspective, I get it; selling Shark Cards to kiddies is a hella lot more profitable than selling a $60 game every couple years to someone like me.
Still, seems like there ought to be some kind of happy medium. A huge part of the appeal for the GTA series used to be that it was readily picked up by the casual gamer. Sit down for 30 mins, create a little mayhem, get on with your life.
Anymore, the GTA universe revolves around the next DLC, the next vehicle pack, the next kill-the-guy-next-to-you mode. And it falls flat. This isn't what brought me here.
I don't want to spend hours upon hours grinding missions to make imaginary money just to be competitive in a race, or whatever goofy adversarial mode comes down the pike. As a consumer, I don't want this.
I don't want to be pwned in public lobbies by 13 year old kids who spend hours upon hours honing their virtual skills to feast upon the fresh meat that is me. I'm not particularly good at most of these game modes, but - and here's the kicker - I don't want to HAVE to be particularly good. I just want to play. And lately, it doesn't feel like play. It feels like work, and it blows, and it's depressing.
Where has the fun gone?
Am I the only one?