The Problem With Money in GTA Games

Maybe, but in GTA Online you really need money for everything

You're not wrong, we only use it when the game asks us to. Either than that, we spend it on Armor & Ammo.

By the way, In GTA IV Niko ONLY came to Liberty City for revenge because the person who betrayed him during the war resided in LC. He was only disappointed by the "American Dream" but that was not his main goal.

Even gta online money feels worthless when people can just mod billions of dollars outta nowhere

I think the Scarface video game actually had a good balance of earning cash and also spending it. Largely because you could actually customize your mansion and your businesses.

i like how san andreas handled the money. if you don't care that much about money, you can still continue with the story. however, if you want to complete the game 100%, then you'll need tons of money. so basically, san andreas gives us two totally different options regarding the importance of money in the game world

I remember being so disappointed that the stock market in GTA V wasn't actually usable. The only major changes in stock value are tied to the missions, its almost useless outside of that

GTA never really left its arcade roots from the top down games, hence money didn't transition fully from being a 'high score' to essential currency and resource in the game (as the in-game economy is not fully designed for this - there would need to be higher, more varied & realistic expenses).

It's because chasing after money makes sense as motivation for the characters story-wise, but having to work a 9 to 5 for several months of in-game time to buy a single rocket for the rocket launcher wouldn't make for a very fun gaming experience. It's like that time when some guy started arguing with me in the comments when I said that Interstellar was a movie about advanced astrophysics. Yes, he was right that it wasn't accurate physics-wise, but on the other hand, all the main characters getting shredded in act 1 wouldn't make for an enjoyable movie...

Money isn't the problem in GTA 5 specifically the online game. You have plenty of things to spend it on. The problem is the economy is hyper inflated. Everything cost so damn much you need millions in your bank account just to purchase cars, guns, properties, and clothing items. This is the reason getting money is not difficult. Rockstar had to make it easy to earn money so that players didn't have to wait several months before they have enough to buy stuff. I think the economy in GTA 6 will be less inflated and money will be more difficult (slower) to earn. That way items can be priced reasonably. There won't be daily sunken treasure chests and other easily obtained money caches. You'll have to rob convenience stores and banks or work a job. There will be less heists if any. Basically, it will be the way GTA Online was in 2013. The mistake Rockstar made was adding too many businesses/heists to the game.

GTA Online is the only one that money isn't useless, but it is a pain in the ass to get.

Gta 3 handled it the worst because most missions pay alot of money with little to spend it on aside from pay n spray and buying guns, Vice city fixed it by adding properties for sale but still didn't do enough to put stuff like buying clothes or putting upgrades to certain businesses, San andreas improved on it by letting us buy clothes and even more properties but it kinda broke the way money is handled, you can simply make billions by going to any betting shops and get filthy rich, Gta lcs went down the same gta 3 route i wish we had business properties that way we can see how the leones handle businesses but because it was rockstar's first take on the psp it's kinda forgivable, Gta vcs fixed the issue that lcs had and combined both vc and san andreas elements like the business empires, Gta chinatown wars made a perfect balance of handling money i hope gta 6 gets the same treatment, I love gta 4 as much as the next guy but money just didn't matter in it since in one of the endings the game spoon feeds you that you messed up letting roman die and got rich with nothing to spend it on apart from clothes and guns, Gta 5 kinda fixed gta 4's money issue but didn't improve on it, sure you can buy properties, clothes, cars/customization but after completing the story there's no incentive to grind since you're already rich, For gta 6 i hope it improves on handling money and maybe add safe house customization like saints row Sorry for the long comment 😅

I personally enjoy the empire building aspects of GTA online. I often spend a few hours a day just going around maintaining all of my businesses in private mode and watching my money grow and the dopamine hit I get from investing some of that hard wanted money into upgrades for the businesses and watching that money get returned back to me even faster is honestly great. The game has a million issues and the economy is broken and the amount of time it takes me to even grind that money together to make those investments is pretty abused but I can't lie I do enjoy it alot. A few months ago I started a whole new online career and started with just the acid business, I grinded and upgraded it to full warning potential and used the profits to open an auto shop , then a MC garage , than a scrapyard, after a while it started to feel like my character actually had a specific specialty in as a career criminal. It basically felt like my guy was a mechanic who had various illegal income streams flowing through those businesses and the fact that I started out as an acid dealer just makes it that much better lol. I didn't buy any shark cards either. I just took my time, didn't buy anything that wasn't a business investment and within 2 months or so of gameplay I now have over 30 million and like 6 different businesses that make me constant passive income. The reason it took me years to even get nearly this far in my original character is because I never read any sense of direction I just purchased all the new properties when they came out without knowing if i actually liked them. New content is new content after all and who doesn't wanna rush to the next batch of content ? But now with complete hind sight and knowledge of what each business consists of, I am totally glad I restarted my online even if I did leave 10 years of progress and a level 490 character behind....

I've finished gta5 with 1 billion $ on each character and guess what ? I have stopped to play, it's booooring after complete all main missions, so money is at this point useless. In gta4 Nico has so few expenses : not much clothes to buy, not much weapons and no properties, except the repeatedly appointments with Roman and bowling so money for Nico isn't the goal to reach

love these videos, keep it up!

you can break san andreas before the first mission by doing side missions like the paramedic or firetruck minigames to get money for a safehouse, then just savescum on digital horseraces betting all your money on the lowest odds horse. rinse and repeat until you have more money than the hud can display.

More generally, EVERY open world games fail with the economy imo. (Except FarCry games imo) Games are generally wayyy to gentle with how you earn money, that's the problem, even Saints Row 2, this game is featuring a lot of customization (more than any GTA games released to this day) and despite that it was still pretty easy to earn money, making the game felt a bit too easy, starting from a dirty underground place, to strippers poles and beautiful mansions, a tons of clothes and customized vehicles in less than ~2 hours if you play at a normal rate.

This is the one of the biggest problems i have with these types of games there is know real incentive to make money other than just playing to see the story unfold ive played every gta, saint's row, mafia and all of those games and in single player ive literally bought EVERYTHING the games have for you to buy it's like the freedom you have actually limits you

San Andreas spoiled me with HESOYAM

For me? Having SIDEKICKS was useless for me during some missions, they weren’t very bright neither efficacious, they were more of a liability as I could always just complete missions on my own, having back up was a joke and a pain in the ass when you needed to keep one of these dummies alive or fail the mission