Countless players were overjoyed when Rockstar recently officially announced that they will be bringing a biker themed DLC to GTA Online. Bikers, as it has been officially titled, answers the oldest calls for a specific content update the community has sounded. Players even organised a petition which ended up achieving major popularity — and seemingly proving that as opposed to what most people believe, petitions do work. Sometimes.
However, while we're all ecstatic about the news of Bikers coming soon, the official announcement didn't reveal too much beyond that fact. What we do know is that players will be able to form Motorcycle Clubs with up to 8 members; distribute various titles and ranks among the members; maintain a clubhouse and other new properties related to various businesses; and to engage in new forms of criminal activity to rack up cash.
One of the most exciting aspects was a tease of a personal motorcycle mechanic who will help you upgrade and customize your bikes. What we're hoping this means is that we get a Benny's Original Motorworks-like special upgrade shop for bikes, providing as much or even more customization options to turn our two-wheel companion truly into our own.
New clothing and tattoos will also be added which will allow players to look the part when they ride, as well a new weapons, which we assume will also somehow fit the biker persona. However, that's just about everything the short teaser of the DLC has confirmed and revealed.
However, the GTA Online community being what it is, speculation has already begun regarding some of the specifics of the DLC, and players have been coming up with suggestions and solutions to possible issues that might pop up based on experience from previous updates.
One major concern among players is how Rockstar will keep bikers on their bikes. Reddit user MiketheDick (shut up) voiced his concern about this, as it is likely that given the opportunity, some players will form MCs in order to unlock the new missions, and then proceed in Hydras and armored Kurumas simply because it's easier that way.
He raises an interesting point with this. While Bikers has been long anticipated by the community, meaning those who are interested in MC culture would stick to bikes, there are those players who would game the system for the easy win. Bikes offer the least protection among all vehicles in GTA Online, and are also among the hardest to handle.
However, players swiftly offered suggestions on how this exploit could be countered. Time Trials in GTA Online require players to be in the vehicle to which it is set in order to begin. As such, in the new missions to be added with Bikers, Rockstar could impose a starting requirement of being on a bike, and getting off the bike would either instantly result in a fail, or it would turn on a "Get back on your bike!" timer. Alternately, missions with on-foot sections would allow you to leave the bike behind, but getting into another, non-bike vehicle would result in failure.
Another, infinitely simple suggestion was that when playing a special MC biker mission, the ability to enter other vehicles would be simply disabled. When approaching a vehicle that isn't a bike, your character would simply refuse to get in when you press the button. Overall, these suggestions all solve the issue, but do so in rather heavy-handed ways.
Some players suggested a different route: instead of forcing players onto the bikes, Rockstar would add incentives to use the steeds. Riding a bike in formation with your MC should provide RP rewards and stacking buffs, but would require full cooperation. If one player is ruining it for the others, the troublemaker would simply be booted.
Other questions have arisen regarding the new business ventures in Bikers. The second screenshot in the teaser showed what was either a money laundering outfit or a seedy drug lab. In both cases we're probably talking about new ways to make cash in GTA Online by owning illegal businesses. However how will these businesses compare to the existing ways of making money?
If the seedy, clandestine dealings in Bikers offers great new ways of making cash that are better than the existing methods, things would become a tad unrealistic. While cooking and manufacturing drugs and laundering dirty money are both lucrative criminal activities, they don't quite measure up to basically running the entire black market. GTA Online's crate missions available to CEOs are extremely lucrative, and surpassing them with a tacked-together meth-lab in some shed would be more than a little immersion breaking.
However, if running the businesses added in Bikers is less efficient and rewarding than running heists or crate missions, why should you do it at all? Will they be easier than the other two methods, allowing lower level GTA Online players a shot at a bigger income? Rockstar should tread with care lest the businesses in Bikers succumb to the same fate as Adversary Modes. Most Modes are not popular due to the low payouts.
The best solution for this would be going the same route as when balancing Heists and Further Adventures in Finance and Felony. Crate missions, in the long run, are competitive in their rewards with heists, which have been the long standing "best way to make money" in GTA Online. Heists are pretty difficult and one troll player leaving or messing things up on purpose is all it takes to fail — however, they pay well instantly. Crates pay more often but in smaller batches, however they require large investments and a Hydra griefer can cause you to lose big.
In the end, they both pay more-or-less the same and have their risks. If Rockstar took this path for balancing the new businesses in Bikers, they could take things further with the same concept as in crates. Make money laundering/drug cooking pay pretty often, but smaller amounts. These businesses would provide a secure and steady stream of income, but would not be too risky. Businesses would sometimes be attacked by NPCs or sniffed out by the FIB, and rival MCs might be given missions to sabotage your operations.
Either way, we're slated to find out soon enough how Rockstar intends to tackle these potential issues with their newest DLC. Bikers has no release date yet, we simply know that it will be coming to GTA Online "soon" — but don't hold your breath for a September release. Many players are simply happy that the most wanted update for the game is finally on its way.
Now, if only players would bring together a poll for GTA 5 story DLC, maybe Rockstar would give it a try too! Our recent poll, which sought to investigate which of the three most plausible projects (Grand Theft Auto 6, Red Dead 3 and Grand Theft Auto 5 story DLC) players want the most. While GTA 6 won by far, story DLC came in second place, proving that players are still interested in some single-player content for the game.
What features do you hope GTA Online: Bikers will have upon launch? What are your biggest questions about the update?
