In GTA 5 Online, the roleplay scene is booming again, and especially one faction is currently more popular than ever: the police. But anyone who wants to join must work hard.
What is GTA RP? While GTA 5 in its official online mode and also in singleplayer is a real classic, a large part of the community migrated to their own private servers years ago. Among these, roleplay servers are particularly popular, where players take on the role of a character and often play this character for years.
They go to work, attend parties, meet friends, or commit various criminal acts. Accordingly, there are also special factions, including the LSPD, the police in the game, which are supposed to ensure law and order, but not everyone can just join in.
Here you can find out what our experts think about the future of GTA 6:
6-step admission process
Why can’t everyone be a cop? The roleplay servers of GTA are long-lasting, and to join a faction, one must first go through an application process like on the server Eclipse-RP. According to their statements, this process consists of six stages:
- A written application in your role via the so-called “Employment Office” of the LSPD, describing your character, motivation, and suitability
- A review by superiors who reject many applications due to unrealistic characters or rule violations
- A formal interview where your RP maturity, clarity, and communication skills are evaluated
- A complete police training where you learn radio codes, de-escalation, arrests, traffic stops, and scene control
- A probation period as a police officer where you patrol under the supervision of trainers
- Finally, the full officer status, which allows you to conduct independent patrols and reports
Especially the second step, the review of the character and rule violations, as well as the realistic character build, poses a hurdle for many players that cannot be overcome.
However, those who manage to become a police officer also receive some privileges for their new job. Players are allowed to control others, issue tickets, and of course experience full action during major operations like a bank robbery – even if they then return to their desks to write a report.
Why is roleplay so popular? Roleplay servers existed long before GTA 5, but they have gained mainstream attention with the open-world title. Big influencers have made many servers popular in Germany and boosted a boom.
Currently, the servers are more popular than ever. Looking at the player numbers of the multiplayer mod “FiveM”, one can see that on January 16, a new peak of nearly 120,000 players was reached, distributed across various servers and game modes (via steam.db)
Influencers have also attracted a younger audience, who previously had little contact with role-playing, to the servers, which in turn explains the rules that exist on the “Eclipse” server.
Roleplay has been a fixed component of GTA for years. It is so successful that it could be firmly integrated into its successor, GTA 6. How much MMO and online features are intended for the latest installment, you can find out here: GTA 6 has typical MMORPG features; it could easily become one, says an MMO developer
