Roleplay (or RP) in GTA Online has suddenly exploded to a semi-niche streamer fixation to a massive hit online, with world-famous celebrities like Lebron James, Travis Scott, and Kevin Durant all joining in on the fun. Role-playing games are no longer a niche hobby, with the popularity of the sub-genre reaching perhaps its highest point yet.
GTA Online roleplay servers, such as EclipseRP and MafiaCity, are places where players live virtual lives as if they were real, with additional mods that enhance the RP experience often being used. Players take on the role of a character, either their own design or according to a server's theme, and act out the lives of these characters with other players. These kinds of gameplay servers have long been around in online gaming, but the sheer amount of realism available in GTA Online and the active modding community have long made it one of the best places for in-depth RP ranging from serious to chaotic.
It seems that even popular musicians, sports stars and actors are all getting involved in GTA Online RP now, Dexerto reports. There are even videos of these stars recording themselves and their friends messing around in servers such as these, even getting other players online to play along. Kevin Durant, famed NBA player for the Brooklyn Nets, posted an image on his Twitter looking to recruit more members for his RP gang (as well as rivals).
The popularity of these RP servers is bringing in a whole new slew of players to the highly successful sandbox game. While GTA Online is constantly being updated, it was originally released back in 2013, dating the game a fair amount. While PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of GTA V and Online are on their way, even that won't do much to scratch players' growing itch for something truly new to do in Los Santos.
There are only so many times someone can fly through the streets of Los Santos with the entire military on their backs while pulling off a spectacular pinpoint landing on the Maze Bank Tower. An audience will always find ways to have fun, it’s up to the creators of the medium to embrace this behavior. If Rockstar is paying attention to the sudden explosion in GTA RP hype, Grand Theft Auto VI may just be influenced by this newfound popularity for the GTA RP community.
GTA Online is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Source: Dexerto, Kevin Durant