Red Dead Online's Trader And Collector Roles Need More Content

Back in September of this year, Rockstar added roles to Red Dead Online. These roles greatly improved the game, giving players something to work towards and also offered players new content and abilities to unlock while earning some in-game cash. But these roles haven’t received equal amounts of love and this has some community members, including myself, feeling disappointed and worried.

Red Dead Online has gotten a lot better over the last year thanks to numerous big updates from Rockstar. The biggest and best update added careers to the game. There are three roles currently available. Players can become a trader and hunt animals for their pelts. Or players can become a collector, searching around the map of Red Dead Online for trinkets and treasures. And for players looking to serve some justice, there is the bounty hunter role which lets players capture criminals and turn them in for a reward.

Now since these roles were added, the game has continued to receive updates and over the last two months, these updates have added new weekly legendary bounties to the game. These legendary bounties are essentially big missions, complete with cutscenes and action set pieces. They are currently some of the best content in Red Dead Online and it has made the bounty hunter role feel more fleshed out and satisfying. Meanwhile, the other two roles have yet to receive similar content.

At first, I thought this was simply a situation where we, the players, would need to just be patient and wait for similar legendary content for the other roles. But then Rockstar announced a new role, moonshiner, is coming to the game soon. The new moonshiner role sounds great and I can’t wait to run my own bar and start making some booze. Yet it feels like this news means the other roles, trader and collector, are going to be left behind and not get the same amount of attention that the bounty hunter role received.

Players have been wanting big, new and exciting things for the other roles for months now. A lot of players want rare animals to hunt as traders or new missions for collectors to discover while out hunting for treasure. And while many are excited about a new role, there’s no doubt many will feel ignored as it seems Rockstar is moving on to new roles without really building up the older roles.

This isn’t the first time Rockstar has added something cool to one of their online games, only to move on and never really do anything more with the new feature or mode. The number of Grand Theft Auto Online modes that were added and never updated again is large. There are also numerous GTA Online businesses that were added, like biker clubs, that never got more content added to them later on.

Rockstar has gone back occasionally and updated old modes with new content. Back in October, Rockstar updated GTA Online and added new survivals to the game after years of not doing anything with the mode. This isn’t very common and more often than not, it seems Rockstar moves on, leaving old modes and ideas to gain dust.

I hope I’m wrong. I hope Rockstar comes back in a few months and gives traders new, rare animals to hunt, for example. Not just because these roles feel less fleshed out, but because certain roles appeal to certain people. I know a lot of people who don’t do much bounty hunting because they don’t have a lot of friends to posse up with or because they don’t like the combat in RDO. Some people prefer to explore the world collecting stuff or go out into the woods and hunt some critters. These roles are great for solo players and offer a different way to experience the world of Red Dead Online. And it would be a shame to not support that more, by adding new content or mechanics.

Yet, it seems, at least for now, that Rockstar is moving forward to new roles, leaving many players frustrated and disappointed.