While fans eagerly wait Grand Theft Auto 6players still get plenty of benefits from the game’s predecessor. Rockstar continues to provide official updates GTA Onlineand players build their own RPG servers set in San Andreas. Players on these servers build their own culture by implementing home-grown mechanics and novel ways of roleplaying. One such server is PurpleRP, which recently released update 1.0 this includes racing and boosting systems, housing and real estate, agriculture, drugs and turf systems. The server currently serves hundreds of players every day.
GTA Online allows players to play in several professions, from a humble taxi driver to a prestigious nightclub owner. However, neither of these lifestyles provide much depth; they are basically just an excuse to take on novel missions. On RPG servers, the player’s career is of paramount importance: cops go on patrol with their partners, criminals join gangs to plan robberies or go to war with a rival syndicate, and various citizens work in stores, run agencies, and start their own companies.
PurpleRP offers unique mechanics for medical services, justice, car mechanics and other professions. This version of San Andreas also has custom NPCs hanging around, giving passing players tasks such as washing nearby cars or completing racing challenges.
These custom servers offer a completely different experience than GTA Onlinewith an emphasis on player ownership, original expression and building a progressive narrative. They look like broader versions of The Sims, with a lot of transports to the land of cops and robbers. While there is of course the abstract role-playing you would expect on such servers, there are also mechanics taken from action RPGs.
While the popular FiveM mod serves as a broad framework, developers can write their own scripts and develop their own internal systems. For example, players can earn profession points that allow them to excel in a specific field, such as scavenging, hunting, cooking, or carpentry. Criminals start with diminutive crimes but slowly gain experience to gain access to larger heists. Players can rent apartments and slowly save up money to buy novel homes, which they can then decorate and employ as a backdrop for household role-playing.
Although we can expect it Grand Theft Auto 6 coming later this year, and volunteer developers and the gaming community continue to invest their time in ongoing experiences like PurpleRP. These worlds have taken on a life of their own and are becoming more and more sophisticated.
Rockstar clearly sees a future in RPG servers, as in 2023 the company acquired FiveM, a mod that allows players to run their own RPG servers. We don’t know what the future of this deal will look like, but fan developers are already building their own versions of large-scale role-playing environments, and it seems likely that Rockstar will draw inspiration from these lively communities.
