Fight the burn: GTA Online needs Destiny's dailies and weeklies
GTA Online needs more reasons to log-in every day other than "do some jobs". Rockstar should take some lessons from Destiny, says Patrick Garratt.
You'd log-in every day, right? I honestly don't know why Rockstar isn't doing this, especially given the popularity of its double RP weekends.
I've been playing Destiny again (I stopped in the autumn), and reimmersion has been as painless and as generally anesthetised dental surgery. Bungie giving me a purple weapon for Christmas only added to the forgotten pleasures of Destiny's dailies and weeklies. You boot the game, there's something to do. You crank up the difficulty, smash through the Daily Heroic and get rewarded with Vanguard Marks and something ascendant. You're progressing. You're killing. You're winning. Beat the weekly strike and get strange coins. Got enough boom-boom to beat the Nightfall and you're going to be looking forward to Xur's next visit. Destiny dangles many carrots, whether or not you're levelling alts. Turning it on every day is extremely easy.
Rockstar needs to take a leaf out of Bungie's book with GTA Online. After the excitement of the new-gen launches, a familiar lethargy's settling in. We forgot about the apparently unfixable loading times because we were all looking at the new trees, but now normality's resurfaced we've been reminded that the grind is most certainly real. Even Matt, our irrepressible GTA fanboy, is feeling the burn. Once you've nabbed the gold RPG, what remains in life?
Offering extras and daily goals keeps any online community together, and endless possibilities for everyday challenges exist in a world as diverse at GTA Online. How about this?
- Monday: Play any deathmatch (double RP)
- Tuesday: Finish top three in any land race (stupid t-shirt)
- Wednesday: Get more than $2,000 from jobs (free $2,000)
- Thursday: Hold up a liquor store (free ammo)
- Friday: Complete any co-op mission on hard (double RP, double cash)
- Saturday: Play any LTS (double RP)
- Sunday: Come first in any air race ($10,000)
- Weekly challenge: Accumulate more than 300 JP over the week ($100,000).
You'd log-in every day, right? I would.
I honestly don't know why Rockstar isn't doing this, especially given how easily GTA Online's lobbies choke up with those looking for an easy score on double RP weekends. Destiny's dailies don't just exist to keep people playing (they're essential in terms of gathering upgrade materials), but they're a major pull factor. Daily and weekly events are a tried and tested draw to games like World of Warcraft. Burned out players, with hundreds of hours in the bank, don't want to boot up and just sit there saying, "What now?" Give people rewards and they turn up.
Destiny's dailies and weeklies have become an intrinsic part of the game. They were built in from the start, and removing them would be unthinkable. Even if you decide you don't want to play, most players will at least check to see what's on offer. GTA Online's double RP events prove the community is looking for an extra reason to play other than just grinding out jobs and staring at the floating picture for ten minutes while the game tries to find a session. Give it to us, Rockstar. Hard. Every day. Add dailies and weeklies. Conquer. Profit.