In 2023, a study found that 75 percent of young women face harassment when playing online video games, sparking many to mute their mics and avoid all social interaction for their own wellbeing. Unfortunately, however, as Red Dead Online is proving, just playing with a female avatar is enough to incite abuse.
“The harassment against women in this game is real,” u/_Mingxia_ posted. “I changed my character to be more [conventionally] attractive and I have been harassed like crazy. Being forced into uncomfortable animations with modders, getting legendary animal carcasses spawned on me and gold chests, being hogtied and dragged to hotel rooms in towns. This community has a serious problem [with] predatory players.”
As u/Mingxia_ notes, legendary carcasses might sound nice, but hacked drops can “get you banned”.
It’s become such a problem that players like u/sayooas and u/AriaX420 have even downloaded hacks so that they can “obliterate the [people] doing it”. Others, like u/Andromedaaaa_, are taking more drastic measures, kicking these kinds of people from the server if not crashing them to desktop: “no shame I don’t care anymore I’m so sick of it”.
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Aside from downloading mods to out-hack the hackers and out-grief the griefers, some players have changed their character’s gender to try and fly under the radar, deciding that the inevitable harassment isn’t worth the headache.
I play a female character. I did have one time someone in my posse messaged me for nudes. I didn’t send them nudes, but I’m sure they appreciated my hairy a** in speedos at the pool on a family vacation — u/Grendel0075.
“It’s a big reason why my characters are male avatars and why I don’t turn my mic on unless playing with friends,” u/InkedAlchemist said. “This is why I play as a dude,” a similar comment from u/sayooas reads. “I didn’t have any issue playing as a woman on PS3 but PC is a whole different beast.”
Indeed, going by the thread, experiences vary wildly depending on platform, with PC players facing the brunt of the harassment, especially from modders. But even then, some have shared similar anecdotes from console lobbies, like u/Nuru_0, who said that they have been “given shi* treatment” just for being a woman, getting lassoed and dragged into hotel rooms.
Moving platforms, changing your toon’s gender, downloading hacks, joining a posse — they’re all band-aid solutions to a much bigger problem in gaming, so it’s hardly surprising that some people simply quit the game.
We’re unlikely to hear from these players on Red Dead Online’s dedicated subreddit, but two players, u/Proud_Parsley_6447 and u/angeldolllogic, are still lurking, and revealed that they left the Wild West behind years ago because it was “insufferable”.
Red Dead Online
- Released
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May 14, 2019
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
- Engine
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Rockstar Advanced Game Engine
- Multiplayer
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Online Co-Op, Online Multiplayer
