Will you ever trust GTA Online with microtransactions?

I know many of us probably did not plan to partake in the "GTA bucks" system that allows you to purchase in-game currency. But this question popped into my head this morning, after spending several hours last night reading angry--and, in some cases, violent--tweets and forums posts aimed at Rockstar. So I thought I would post it here and get your thoughts.

It is clear to me that Rockstar engineered the economy in GTA Online such that it encourages people to undertake microtransactions and buy the "cash cards" that grant in-game currency. Given the slow rate at which players accrue money (aside from spamming Violent Duct and partaking in similar explorts), how expensive it is simply to die, and how expensive many of the items are in the game, I think Rockstar was hoping that players would see GTA$ as a quick way to get the cars, homes and gear that they desperately want.

But with the horrendous performance of GTA Online and how widespread the issues with game save data and connectivity have been, I can't imagine that anyone would ever conduct a financial transaction through a Rockstar product any time soon. Even if they get all of the issues with GTA Online fixed and promise up and down that their system and servers are now entirely reliable, would anyone really trust them to securely process and retain our financial information as well as in-game currency? Would any of you still participate in microtransactions through GTA Online?

I am genuinely not "fishing" for an answer here. This is not a loaded question. I considered trying out the cash card system early on just to see how it works. But now I can't honestly foresee myself spending money or storing credits through their system. How do y'all feel?

They took it out due to the problems with GTA online, In my opinion they should not bring it back but i am not too bothered with it.

Rockstar doesn't even trust themselves with microtransaction right now, so right not the answer is no. But in the future maybe, but then I wonder if the game will be relevant anymore by then.

For me I don't care whether they have it or not.

I think Rockstar was banking on the potential for GTA Online to become the premier replayable experience of the end of this console generation. Their window for doing so is closing with their difficulties, however, and the prospect of any microtransaction-driven profits is going to go away with that. If it takes much longer for them to get their shit together, it doesn't seem like it'd be worth the investment.

I don't really have a comment on the idea of trusting them with microtransactions (I'll buy quality DLC for game I like, but never microtransactions), but I don't how the microtranactions would be attractive to anyone in this game. After 20 or so hours of play, I was finally able to afford the 200k apartment, and after buying it my desire to play kind of evaporated.

My goal for the majority of my time playing GTA Online was to make enough money to buy that apartment, and now that I have it there isn't anything driving me to continue playing. I'll probably get the itch again within a couple days, but I guess it just isn't quite engaging enough to keep my interest without some sort of self set in-game goal.

The point I'm trying to make is that if you could just spend money and have all the big ticket items immediately, I don't see any reason to keep playing with nothing to strive for. It's not as though the content is super compelling. I mean, the co-op missions are fun, but they unlock at such a slow rate that you wind up doing each several times.

Well, that got a little off topic, but... I don't know, if you're spending money on microtransactions in a full retail game, you need to reevaluate yourself.

I am totally fine with it being there, but I don't intend to play all that much of it so I wouldn't feel good spending additional money on it. I spent additional money to get the special edition of the single player of the game, but not the multiplayer.

I'm probably never going to play GTA online...so no?

You mean Rockstar, right?
GTA, No.. It would probably rob me of my money, give it back to me and then rob me again.

Rockstar? .. Maybe, I don't know.
It's not like their system was hacked or anything like that, when that happens then I'm probably more careful about putting real money towards fake money.

Besides, as far as I could tell the lowest prices wasn't really anything to worry about if you wanted to throw in a bit of money.
As a working man (or woman) you could probably buy 10000000000 fake GTA dollars and not have to worry about taking up a second job because your work already paid you enough to pay for that thing because you just showed up for work for a few seconds

No, but then I'm not interested in the online part of this game at all.

I think they are smart enough not to bring them back until everything is bulletproof. They were certainly smart enough to keep them out so far. I actually didn't find money too hard to make, so I likely won't need to buy any cash, but I can see it being a wildly successful money making venture if they can get things under control soon.

I don't trust anyone with microtransactions.

Worst trend in gaming.

I'm fine with it being there. Doesn't bother me.

I'd be willing to spend a bit of cash to by a nice apartment. It is silly, but I'd rather just pay a few bucks to a cool little apartment. If I do that I can use the cash I earn "in game" for cars, cloths, guns, etc.

This is the first Rockstar game where I have played any online component for a significant amount of time And it was fun. I was looking forward to sharing it with my friends. For some reason, I became obsessed with decking out a vehicle that was befitting to my character. I had named my guy Trevor Jr., and he was decked out in flip-flops, blue jogging pants, a wife-beater, and a hockey mask. So naturally I wanted him driving a jacked-up heavy-duty pickup with all the trimmings... (Like I said, no explanation.) So THAT is what I was focused on unlocking. That was to be my reward, and that was my reason for playing the game. So I was investing all of my time into that stuff because, in the end, I wanted to be proud of my ostentatious pickup truck...

That said, everything else was secondary: my house, my clothes, my weapons... I needed that stuff but had no interest in spending the time to unlock it all. So I totally would have spent real money (maybe as much as twenty dollars) on unlocking a condo/garage, all the weapons I needed, and maybe some new sweat pants. Just so long as I could get back to building my truck...

But now... No thanks. If I put $20 in to that game's online system, who's to say it would be there tomorrow? Or that the things I purchased with it would still be there? So, in my mind, that is money that Rockstar has lost. I hope they weren't banking on GTA$ being a big cash cow. I think the problems with Online are going to end up costing them.

I mean I really don't feel like I'm going to buy any "GTA bucks" at any point, but if I was I'd consider Rockstar secure enough to trust with my details. There's a big difference between having server connectivity issues and not securely storing peoples' payment data.

The possibility of microtransactions doesn't bother me. If you have more money than time or patience go for it.

At this point, after having lost $40,000 over the weekend due to server issues, there's no way I'd buy any GTA$. I'm not confident that it would still be there the next time I logged in.

I never would have anyway, money be tight for your boy. But it seems pretty easy to come by money regardless; I've gone from $11,000 to nearly $50,000 in under two hours just running regular races and death matches with some missions peppered in.

This game might be my personal World of Warcraft, though. The tension in every mode is palpable for me, and I just love the sight of 16 player characters bumbling their way through a Los Santos street race.

Also, the scenery and skyboxes for most of these races have been fucking AMAZING.

I'd gladly grind my way up the laddder rather than pay.

I actually just find the idea of their being micro-transactions in a game that made over a billion dollars on the base game alone offensive, to be honest.

I would not from principle ... this type of milking the online with currency trend needs to stop from non F2P games , period. Anyone supporting this is a bad dude in my eyes.

Hell no. At this point I don't even trust them to save my character. Why would I want to pay for fake money that might disappear along with all my progress? Their support is a joke. I've been trying to get them to restore my shit all weekend and all I get is an automated response and no action on their part to fix my situation. You just can't be like that if you're running an MMO. They need to be "investigating" this stuff on a case by case basis, but they aren't. They're treating it like they can just patch this stuff away when they should have game admins with tools that can solve these kinds of problems.