I found this post online, and it was pretty illuminating/dissapointing/slightly disturbing. Though I've enjoyed the game, and love the attention to detail in the single-player portion of the game, this game has truly become the epitome of greed and exploitation.

"HAppY_KrAToS • 13 hours ago

so, basically, 500'000 or 750'000 represent... a $50 shark pack, or a $90 shark pack. is this bad for take2/Rockstar? of course not. this alone will give the devs an extra 50 or 100 million dollars, in just 2 or 3 months.

why are they allowing this 'unfair' weapon ? because, well, it is so unfair, that the guy that gets nuked will want to revenge.

let me guess: when a particular user is being targeted, he has no way to know it is coming...but i am sure, i would bet 1 testicle that, once a guy gets killed, he will get a nice prompt at the screen 'you have been nuked with the fantastic weapon you can buy, called 'orbital bomb', by the user 'ILuvNuKiNoObS123'.

what will happen when you get nuked, while you are selling stuff, and lose all your items ? yeah, exactly: you will want to BUY the same weapon, to be able to nuke the guy that just nuked you. revenge. and revenge = $90 shark purchase.

no wonder why they already made between 5 and 10 billions, with gta online alone.

my nephew alone (yeah, he is only 13 but has been playing gta online since he was 11... because most of his school buddies were also playing it, mostly because they watched their 18+ yo brother playing it and found it cool, and basically, most guys that have a ps4 or xbox1, at school, 80% are playing gta online.... and my nephew, every time he receives like 50 bucks, he buys those fking shark packs, because 'hey, uncle, they just released a new dlc, where you need to buy a bunker, a mounted gun, a buggy, an office, a boat...it all costs above 1 million sharks.... so, the kids/gamers, are basically forced to spend 100 bucks, if they want to be able to play the full game.

of course, take2/Rockstar AND sony know there are at least 40-50% of people playing gta online... under 18. there are a ton under 15...13... even 10yo kids are playing it.

damn, i already watched youtube/twitch videos, i would swear the players were only 8 yo.

so, the myth that only 'whales', or the rich guys, only they buy microtransactions and spend tons of money, it is totally false.

there are tons of gamers, tons, dads, mums, etc, who have destroyed their family, because they can't stop playing some games and buying microtransactions and loot boxes, with all the little money they can find, even if their kids have no food or milk.

there are tons, and by tons, i mean MILLIONS of 10-17yo kids that play gta online (dads can't forbid, because some parents let their younger ones play with the older brother), and these kids always manage to convince dad to add another 50 bucks to the psn account, so they can buy the latest gta online items.

these games are like a cancer ? sure they are.

any little item will cost like 2500 or 5'000 credits. any car, boat, yatch, appartement, etc, can easily cost 50k, 100k, 500k credits...

unless a gamer is playing 18 hours a day, and being the team chief, and winning, and doing that 50 days in a row...he will never even get 100k credits, let alone 500'000p or more, required to buy an office, appartement...

ex, if a guy goes race against other players with a standard car: he has ZERO chances to win, as all the other cars are much faster. the only way to expect to win is buying a 200'000 car. but that's like the chiken and egg thing. you need a car to win races, and you need credits to buy a car. only choice left: buying it with real money.

i wonder how many hundreds thousands divorces happened because he/she had become ill, after spending all the money on loot boxes and other shark credits.

funny, alcohol is forbidden unless you are 21, because of the addiction, etc. casinos are forbidden as well. drugs too. but letting a young 18yo kid destroy himself, because of a video game that allow him to spend 100 fking dollars to buy 9 million virtual credits, to ve able to buy a virtual apartment for 700'000 credits, which are just a bunch of polygons on a server, 700'000 that represent like 65 REAL dollars... that, THAT, is perfectly legal.

the most funny thing is, these companies have absolutely no problem to grab 10, 100, or even 50'000 dollars from a single gamer, never will they prompt at the gamer screen 'hey, gamer,we remind you that you already spent $650 on virtual items, in just one week. are you sure you want to proceed and spend another $500 ? ' . but whenever a hack allows a dozen gamers to buy a few virtual items without spending any money, for a total of $1, there they come with an army of 300 lawyers, because, hey, not making that extra $1 is a big deal."

Reference: http://dispatches.cheatcc.com/3396

What do you guys think? Please drop some comments below.