The leakage of the most awaited GTA 6 map seems to have made an enormous impact on the internet, to say the least. The first tweet by AlfaGames invited everyone to share their thoughts on the new map, and that opened the floodgates for people to express their opinions without any restraint. This whole thing has become so chaotic that one might find it quite difficult to get a clear picture of what’s going on among the public.
Let us start with the revelation regarding the map. The game appears to be set in a place that draws upon Florida for inspiration, and there is a large city (likely Vice City) featured on the map with some minor regions, vast parkland, and water areas. However, a part of the community seems to be of the opinion that there is a whole lot of nothing in the game. Particularly, the criticism is directed at the northern section of the map which is said to be deserted and not well developed.
One gamer, Leonard, took it to the extreme and gave a detailed explanation of why the map is “poorly planned and hard to get around with only three very tiny urban centers and a lot of countryside.” He feels bad that there are not enough settlements or other points of interest to visit, which perhaps is a legitimate argument? But actually a subsequent user Leku countered by saying, “I can’t understand the squealings of the large men about the tiny city. This has been the case in all GTAs.”
The struggle between those advocating for density and those advocating for size is only getting more intense. Some players are worrying that it might turn out to be another “big empty map and boring” situation like the one in GTA 5. RRDR78 stated that “better it is to have a small map that is dense, detailed, and lively like RDR2 or GTA 4 than a huge empty area.” But on the other hand, there are other players like ARavanal1 who are excited about the size but are wary of it being “underused like Red Dead Redemption 2” where the north of the map did not have much going on.
Matthew (Spiderman_Tesla) unburdened himself about the Florida representation claiming “I will be disappointed. Essentially it is just a reskin of the GTA 5 map with different organization and twice the size.” He pointed out that besides Miami, Florida has some more places like the Tampa/St. Pete area, Orlando, and others which could be used for a more authentic and credible mapping of the state. He also mentioned that despite the fact that this particular map may be wrong, the concept of showing more of Florida would surely be “the perfect representation of Florida in a GTA map.”
Next, there is the whole… um, wait what was I talking about? Oh yeah, that airport controversy. Apparently, the leaked map depicts a big airport that one French-speaking user has likened to Vice City and is asking, “Why is the airport the size of Vice City??? It makes no sense.” One might be prompted to ask, albeit from another perspective, whether this is something that could emerge as really weird.
A few gamers are predicting how Rockstar will be able to swap the map across time. Thomas wrote, “The city will expand with every update,” which actually does make sense as far as the ongoing live service features that games come with these days. In contrast memesgta6 supports the viewpoint, “it is inconceivable that they would generate such an uninhabited northern zone. There will be a lot more to experience that we haven’t yet seen in leaks or screenshots.”
The overall mood is… uh, mixed? Some gamers plainly state that if this is indeed the case, they’d be disenchanted. Nevertheless, there are also some who make an effort to be fair and reasonable about it. Migue opined, “I suppose there is a bit of city and a few villages; I don’t really think it’s so, maybe the base is that anyway…” thus permitting the chance that there might be more than what appears so.
On the other hand, there are those who simply have had enough of the whole speculation saga. Mirg00z was expressing his frustration saying “GTA ‘fans’ are intolerable, they have made such a noise about the release of the game that their impatience is causing the quiet ones waiting to be the ones suffering.” And to be honest? That’s the mood.
What is indeed fascinating is the stark division between the arguments for and against the GTA maps. Some gamers prioritize scale while others consider detail as more important. Some gamers see realistic Florida representation as essential while others are content with having fun in the playable areas. GELUX0 offered a neat summary:” I desire a map that is rich and detailed, full of small wonders; obviously, I mean a larger one than V’s, but I don’t expect it to be more than twice as large as GTA 5’s“
