I think it was a bug or some kind of resource saving technique. The original did all online servers, AFAIK they were hosted by Rockstar. So I would be in a new game I started as “friends only” and after a while (I imagine, alternatively, if their servers got busy, IDK), it would just transparently merge your current session into another session. Suddenly I would live join a populated public server.
IMO, it was an effort to limit their resource use. When someone was solo in a game, it would just merge your online session into another one that’s populated to consolidate resources. Ignoring any game settings for friends/invite only or whatever.
I gave up on it quickly afterwards, because people insisted on being trolls and griefing anyone they could. Not everyone, I’m sure, but they’re was plenty of it going around.
They may have changed away from a server/client model, to a more peer-to-peer model, I don’t know. I lost interest in everything GTA after I finished the GTA5 campaign and tried to play online.
I don’t know if I’ll return to GTA when 6 comes out. At this point, I’m leaning towards not doing that. I might just wait for a sale and pick it up to play the campaign, but I’m done with their online gameplay.
I think it was a bug or some kind of resource saving technique. The original did all online servers, AFAIK they were hosted by Rockstar. So I would be in a new game I started as “friends only” and after a while (I imagine, alternatively, if their servers got busy, IDK), it would just transparently merge your current session into another session. Suddenly I would live join a populated public server.
IMO, it was an effort to limit their resource use. When someone was solo in a game, it would just merge your online session into another one that’s populated to consolidate resources. Ignoring any game settings for friends/invite only or whatever.
I gave up on it quickly afterwards, because people insisted on being trolls and griefing anyone they could. Not everyone, I’m sure, but they’re was plenty of it going around.
They may have changed away from a server/client model, to a more peer-to-peer model, I don’t know. I lost interest in everything GTA after I finished the GTA5 campaign and tried to play online.
I don’t know if I’ll return to GTA when 6 comes out. At this point, I’m leaning towards not doing that. I might just wait for a sale and pick it up to play the campaign, but I’m done with their online gameplay.