GTA 6 Online is still very much a mystery. The multiplayer sandbox is an incredibly popular part of Rockstar’s ecosystem – which is impressive, considering GTAO is now over a decade old – so its presence in GTA 6 feels inevitable to me. But the fun doesn’t end with GTA Online itself. That’s where GTA RP comes in.

GTA RP is the game’s highly-modded roleplaying experience. Made by and for players, it takes what fans love most about the official (or vanilla) GTA Online and turns it into a brand new game mode. Being able to act out real-life scenarios in a more fluid way allows a lot more freedom than the core experience – and I think it’s a sizzling hotbed for GTA 6 inspiration.

Jobs for all

I’ll admit I haven’t played GTA Online in a while. It used to be my weekend ritual with friends, but 12 years down the line, we’ve gotten busy. Also, we got fed up with griefers. But despite GTA 6 Online being unlikely to arrive at launch, and to try and gain some insight into what the future of GTA 6 could be, I thought it would be a good idea to jump into GTA RP. Little did I know that it was going to open my eyes to something pretty special.

Joining a GTA RP server isn’t the easiest. Some servers require getting whitelisted, filling out forms and carrying out interviews to gain access. I quickly realize that GTA RP takes itself very seriously, but that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it means the players treat it with a lot more respect.

Fortunately, I found a server on the mega-mod FiveM that was happy to welcome me in with a quick Discord check and a stipulation that I must talk over my mic. I should caveat here that Rockstar acquired FiveM ahead of GTA 6, and that’s something I’ll get into shortly.

Upon entry to the GTA RP server, I immediately feel like I’m on a GTA 6 recon mission. The server wants me to join a profession. I optimistically choose to become a paramedic and spawn outside the hospital, where players dressed in medical scrubs are keen to recruit me. They take me through training, quiz me on whether I’m listening, and then tell me the strict rules for gameplay.

This ability to embark on actual careers in GTA RP is genius and my first hint at GTA 6’s potential. And while I opted to become a paramedic, I also learned that in this server, you can join a gang, become a lawyer, or even become a member of the LSPD.

When gang fights go down, real players rock up as the LSPD rather than NPCs spawning en masse like they do in GTA 5. It all feels much more organic, which could (and seems likely to) become a big part of GTA 6. After all, there’s been talk of overhauled police AI and a new dispatch system in GTA 6 – but all that is already going down in GTA RP. Yes, there’s real people becoming police, but there’s also an ingrained hierarchy that people take pretty seriously.

As a paramedic, I’m told I can’t carry a firearm, enter active gang zones, and must tend to the victor of a fight before the loser. I’m also instructed to wear a bodycam that I can use to record players if they try to do anything bad to me.

While out on patrol, I come across players that show hints of disrespect – though still within reason. They know they need me, even if they think I’ve picked a nerdy profession, so stop short of griefing me off the game like they might have in GTAO. This is just one example of how GTA RP’s cities feel more alive than the vanilla version’s. There’s more freedom here, but importantly, more respect.

Inspiration nation

The acquisition of FiveM and RedM is a big deal, and is very telling. Rockstar clearly wants to adapt aspects of GTA RP for GTA 6. The question is, in what capacity?

As reported by Rockstar Intel, there’s been a callout for console-experienced staff to make content creation tools for GTA 6. Considering GTA 6 isn’t coming to PC at launch and how these modded servers only work on PC, I wonder if the inspiration might be applied to the core game itself and not just GTA 6 Online.

These servers run on their own custom roles. They’re policed by mods. They even have their own economies, controversial as that can be. On some servers, you can even fish. It’s heavily speculated that fishing is coming to GTA 6 (there’s hints of it in the trailers), similar to the mechanic seen in 2018’s Red Dead Redemption 2. There’s also leaks that GTA 6 may adopt a weapon wheel, limiting and refining player inventories to make it so you can’t carry everything with you.

While both fishing and inventory management could be much more in-depth and realistic in GTA 6, it’s something we already have in GTA RP. A step ahead, once again.

There’s talk of a lot more enterable buildings being available in GTA 6, but you can already enter many random buildings in GTA RP that are otherwise reserved for specific missions in GTA 5. There’s hints of deeper interior customization in GTA 6, but that’s already happening in GTA RP – players can buy entire buildings and make them their own, if they want to.

GTA RP has opened up a new world to me, one I did not expect, but ultimately love. It’s certainly not without its own difficulties. There are a lot more players in GTA RP than you can get Online, and that requires a lot of moderation. It’s not built by a team of Rockstar developers, so technical issues are impossible to avoid. And there will always be people that won’t follow the rules.

But ultimately, RP servers have had a lot more fun with taking the best of GTAO and turning it into something I’ve absolutely fallen for. I just hope GTA 6 has taken notes.

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