Players are already upset by the economy of Red Dead Online

Red Dead OnlineThe beta version of the beta was launched this week and fans have finally been able to play Rockstar's next big online game GTA online. First impressions were generally positive, but the game economy is one aspect of the game that is very meticulous. Are the prices too high? Is it too cranky? Will it be fair for those who prefer not to spend real money on microtransactions at stake? It's too early to say, but so far the economy of Red Dead Online feels unbalanced.

Fans worry about microtransactions since before Red Dead Online launched. Some joked about "Wolf Cards", a reference to Shark division cards that can be bought in GTA online for real money. Some GTA players believe that shark cards are the reason GTAO saw the prices at stake on the new content soar. These fears are not totally unfounded: it has been proven over the past five years that prices for cars and other items have risen. GTA online.

Red Dead OnlineThe economy is different from GTA onlineEconomy in many ways. One of the first and most obvious differences concerns the prizes and rewards that players receive. Many items in the shops cost a few dollars at stake, or even less than a dollar, according to the Western West economy, where a few dollars could go very far. Many missions and activities yield only three or five dollars. In GTA onlinePayments and costs are in the thousands and millions.

The other big difference is that Red Dead Online includes two currencies. Money is the easiest way to win and is rewarded when you complete missions, play competitive mode or sell animal skins or fish. The other currency is gold, which functions more like a premium currency used in games like Rainbow Six Siege. Gold bullion is used for various things in RDO. Players can use gold bullion to buy special cosmetic items, unlock certain items faster or even reset their morality indicator, which can be useful for players who still want to be a good cowpoke or villain. cowpoke.

Gold can be bought in the future, when Rockstar opens the game shop, but we do not know what the price of the gold packs will be or how they will be sold. In the current beta, players can earn gold nuggets by completing missions, finding treasures or playing PvP modes online. Once a player has won 100 nuggets, he gets a gold bar.

Getting gold bullion is currently a difficult task. Unavailable credentials of Reddit users have calculated that it would take about eight hours for most players to earn a gold bullion. Some gaming objects and weapon modifications can only be purchased using these gold bars, and some are very expensive. For example, if you want to completely change each metal piece of the starting rifle, it will cost 30 gold bullion, which could take more than 200 hours to gain. Another gold purchase only is a horse insurance. While your first horse is insurable without gold, future horses cost five gold bullion to insure. Getting insurance on a horse allows him to heal for free and automatically when he dies; By the way, uninsured horses have a small cost and two minutes of waiting before being cured of death.

If used wisely, a premium currency can allow developers to purchase more wacky, more elaborate or unnecessary cosmetic items with these currencies, without disrupting the game's economy. GTA onlineThe lack of premium currency is one of the reasons why things started to get more expensive. All that the players have earned has earned them the only currency in the game, allowing players to grind, buy or exploit their way to high-end items. In theory, a premium currency can be a way to have special items that players have to pay while keeping items that they can win in game for free. In Red Dead Onlinearticles containing only gold, such as the insurance of horses, do not appear as useless cosmetics. They seem important for the game, and locking them behind difficult to obtain gold bullion is an inexpensive way to set up a premium currency.

Rockstar said on its website that gold bullion would be used to unlock cosmetic items, such as decorations for your camp. But in the current RDO beta There are items that can be purchased with gold, such as a fishing lure or pamphlets. These items will not break the competitive balance of a match or mission, but they are not just cosmetics. None of the items you unlock early will be a powerful weapon or unfair armor, but it is worrisome to have the functionality to unlock early gold-in-game items. They're not properly balanced, this could lead to a situation in which players wishing to shell out money to win could have an advantage over those who do not wish to engage in microtransactions.

Fans are concerned, sharing memes and messages about how Rockstar uses gold bullion Red Dead Online. The fear is that it will unbalance the game and force free players to grind for days to get the gold needed to buy some of these items.

Besides their anger about gold bars in RDOPlayers are also unhappy with the lack of well-paying missions, especially when they think that many items in the game are too expensive. The Mauser pistol, which costs $ 1,000, is particularly expensive. After about 15 hours of play, I have only $ 380 left. Missions and fighting at death tend not to cost more than five or ten dollars, and many pay much less. Hunting and fishing do not pay much until you're up to speed and you unlock better lures and rifles. Even then, the gains for perfect skins and big fish are only two to ten dollars. Players feel like the economy of Red Dead Online is broken, with fans on Reddit and GTA forums sharing their frustration. What they share is funny, like the fact that in Red Dead Online a box of beans costs more than a gold wedding ring. "We make money as in 1899 and the price is the same as in 2018," wrote a Reddit user. "God, if I wanted to deal with a salary / cost ratio of shit life, I would go through my damn door."

It is even more difficult to obtain money given the number of mundane activities that require money. In RDOyou must clean your weapons with weapon oil, buy ammunition, feed your horses and pay a fee to have a camp. These tasks require shopping, and if you can not afford them, you will be at a disadvantage, with a character whose health is worse, a horse that can not run as fast and weapons that do less damage. Some players feel obliged to look for petty cash to survive.

Of course, this is a beta version; things will definitely change. Once you have completed the few history missions available at the moment, all you have left are foreign missions, match-to-death variants and races, as well as fishing and hunting activities. . It is very possible that in the future, Rockstar adds holdings, bounty hunts, poker, and so on. These activities and events could pay better. They could even shell out gold to repair the problem of gold. It is also quite possible that Rockstar is rebalancing the economy, perhaps by lowering prices or facilitating a little more gold. Kotaku contacted Rockstar and inquired about future prices for gold and the Red Dead Online economy, but had no news at that time.

Right now, a lot Red Dead Online the players have the impression that the game is a game with little work. It's a similar feeling that many, including myself, had when GTA online first launched. Veterans of this sport will always have difficult missions like Violent Duct for hours to be able to buy an apartment. GTA online We finally added more ways to make money, but for many fans, it has also become too expensive. J & # 39; hope Red Dead Online can avoid this scenario.

Zack Zwiezen is a writer living in Kansas City, Missouri. He has written for Gamecritics, Killscreen and Entertainment Fuse.