Red Dead Online is a slower and more relaxed game than GTA Online, but that doesn’t mean griefers and trolls haven’t found ways to ruin players’ days. How bad trolling is in Red Dead Online’s free roam is hard to say, with many different opinions and stories being currently shared in the community. Whether or not griefing is a widespread problem, many players who’ve experienced it have suggestions for what could be improved.
My personal experience with other players in Red Dead Online has been almost entirely positive. I’ve only been killed maybe four times for no reason. I’ve never been lassoed while fishing or attacked while doing a side mission. Some of my friends have had similarly peaceful experiences. This has made the game more enjoyable than GTA Online, with its kill-happy trolls. In fact, I barely even worry about other RDO players. Most wave at me as I ride by or even fish next to me if they see me.
Other RDO players are reporting similar experiences and sharing stories of only shooting other players if they attack first. One player says they met random folks in saloons and had a drink together, then set up a mock fight club. Another player shared a story of running into a posse calling itself “The Lancaster Bandits,” and after his horse died they gave it a 21 gun salute.
Some of my favourite stories of friendly players helping each other are the moments when someone falls off a cliff or a waterfall and nearby helpful players use their lasso skills to save the day.
While many players, including myself, are enjoying a Red Dead Online experience that is mostly peaceful and chill, other players aren’t so lucky. One friend of mine had a completely different first few minutes with RDO than I had. He was lassoed and killed multiple times the moment he left the tutorial and entered Blackwater. He ended up leaving that session and joining mine, where he was left alone. On Reddit, the GTA Forums and Twitter, players are sharing similar stories of griefers.
Players have different theories as to why some folks are finding trolls in Red Dead Online while others are meeting nice cowpokes who only want to wave and whistle. One theory is that different platforms have different communities, with some wondering if the Xbox One player base is the nicest. Others wonder if more players joining the beta means more trolls. I think it has more to do with luck than anything else. Some players might just be getting unlucky and placed in sessions with less friendly players. But regardless of the scope of the problem, there are certainly some players who are having very negative experiences in the game, and some players have ideas about how to fix it.
One request from the community has been the removal of player dots on the map. Many players believe that always having others marked on the map makes it easier for other players to hunt them down. Another feature many fans are asking for is private sessions.
GTA Online had private sessions, which allow players to mess around in free roam without being interrupted or trolled by strangers. But GTA Online limited what players could do in private sessions, such as not allowing players to start business or CEO missions. It is unclear if similar restrictions would be placed on Red Dead Online private servers if they are implemented.
Many players want a passive mode, like the one in GTA Online, to be added into RDO. Passive mode in GTA Online let players become immune to damage from others, but it also disabled guns and explosives. While passive mode prevented some griefing, players could still troll others by killing them repeatedly and then going passive so the victim had no way to retaliate. Others feel that Red Dead Online is supposed to be the wild west and some danger around other players needs to exist.
I would love to see a bounty feature added into Red Dead Online, like the one suggested by Reddit user LuckyDucky636 that would put a price on players who killed others. This would allow players to still freely attack and kill random players, while also giving players a way to fight back against griefers and maybe make some cash too. It could be interesting to see a system that allowed players to capture their bounties alive and bring them back to a jail cell, similar to Sea of Thieves’ brig.
While players have suggestions, they aren’t waiting on Rockstar to fix the problems with griefing. Many Red Dead Online fans are asking friendly players to whistle when they see each other, hoping to make it easier to quickly figure out who is a friend or foe.
GTA Online never really fixed its griefing problem; in fact, many would argue it got worse as the game added more powerful vehicles. Hopefully Rockstar won’t repeat history with RDO. We know Rockstar has a few updates already planned for Red Dead Online, and certainly things will change over time. Hopefully future updates will lessen the frustration some players are feeling after dying to trolls or give players more ways to combat them.
Comments
13 responses to “Red Dead Online Players Are Split Over Griefing”
Griefers – lets just call them what they are: sad, insecure bullies.
Not an disagreement with your point. More a point for thought.
This is a game, if the rules of the game allow it then its not against the rules and if its not against the rules it’s in the scope of play and if all the previous statements are true then can it be Bullying?
I’ve run into people looking for a fight in a town, but I’ve just ridden to another town to turn my pelts in.
Even if someone is out to grief, you respawn near by and often get the drop on them after that.
All I know is every time I tried to go hunting, I got shot in the head, and didn’t even realize I was losing money every time until someone else brought it up later (I just thought I was starting poor and staying poor). Combined with the entire thing being a 100x more tedious grind to gain any semblance of progress (unless you join in on the lobbies! Forced PVP yeah!), I’m out.
It’s clearly a competitive-focused activity, and that’s not for me. It’s a shame and a wasted opportunity, and it sure would be nice if I could have the single-player experience with one or two people alongside for the ride, but that’s clearly anathema to god damn near every developer and publisher in gaming right now, so I’ll just content myself with single-player.
Its not even a competive experience without free aim lobbies. RDO is a joke without free aim. Aiming is apparently a lost art.
I think they need to have PVE servers & PVP servers that would be great.
Have hardly had a problem with griefing, avoid areas with a high player count. Also I tend to shoot anybody who comes to close when I’m out hunting, or fishing. Once you have killed a troll a few times they tend to look for easier targets.
Yeah I think I’m of the same mind, although more on the grind than griefing.
I just don’t see Rockstar doing anything about it – it never happened with GTAV over the years, they just don’t seem interested. Such a shame.
I haven’t touched online since it launched. I wont touch it until private lobbies are implemented. Almost every time i try to missions there is always someone camping the quest givers just to kill people trying to do it or coming out of a mission.
I enjoyed it for a week but I’ve done all there is to do in it’s current stage. Got my guns, my horse and my outfits.
Performance (on OG PS4 at least) is atrocious and the world just feels dead and empty. Back to my boah Arthur for now. If there are substantial improvements I’ll be keen to check it out again on PC or when it’s inevitably remastered on the next gen of consoles.
Bounties are so much a part of Western law and meta I’m amazed they weren’t in there from launch.
Please Rockstar, do this!
But how will bounties increase shareholder revenue?
Only reason why people kill others in RDO is because 1 the stupid lock on aim makes every noob feel like a king and 2 there’s almost nothing to do. Hunting and fishing for money, buying guns and outfits, going back to hunting.. It gets old so quick its not funny. I know its only a beta but why not add co op train or bank robberies from day one? Not only would it take away the ridiculous grind but it would actually be fun to play. Right now, its not. Maybe thats just me, but I’ve literally fallen asleep with the controller in my hand waiting for a fish to bite…
Lets be real here, rockstar made so much god damn money off the greifer problem, you got greifers killing you with rocket bikes? Buy your own rocket bike
Gta5 made so much money in cash cards with the arms race it promoted with its insane vehicles
I very much doubt red dead online isnt going to be the same, itll release overpowered bullshit for griefers to use and then make you fork out real cash to match their firepower in another rockstar arms race