GTA Online, for all its popularity, has a horrendous reputation for toxicity. For the most part, you could argue this to be true of any online game - you know there are always going to be a couple of idiots and their constant presence is just something you have to deal with while doing your own thing. GTA Online is a whole other ball game.

I’d heard of problems surrounding GTA Online in the past but brushed them off as standard fare for a game of this type. They were a few bad run-ins. They’d never happen to me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Even though this was my first time ever playing the game, it felt like the community was waiting to scare me off for good.

As a fan of the GTA series, I went into this online world with high hopes, but alas, my enthusiasm was short-lived. While minding my own business and trying - the operative word here being trying - to complete my tutorial missions, I was repeatedly attacked and targeted by a single griefing player. In a lobby filled with other users, this one person decided I, and only I, was going to be the focus of their game today. I could understand the animosity if I had attacked them first, but I was just an innocent bystander trying to find my way in Los Santos. I did nothing wrong.

RELATED: I Wasn't Convinced By 3D Audio On PS5 Until I Used Sony's Official HeadsetThe effort this person went through to track me down every time I respawned was staggering - surely they would have been better off doing literally anything else After about my fourth death, I stopped to ask myself what they could possibly be trying to achieve - due to the absurdity of the scenario, I expectedly came up empty.

GTA Online Character Entering Los Santos

As a newcomer to GTA Online I had limited funds, no car, zero weapons, and precious few assets to my name, meaning my griefer was evidently gaining little to nothing from repeatedly killing me. It soon became alarmingly clear, then, that all they wanted to do was harass me - to make my time in the game a misery before I’d even properly started. This is one of the many things that need to be improved in the game.

Clearly, this was just someone with nothing better to do. I switched to a different public lobby, glad to see the back of my online harasser. Problem solved, right? Wrong. Within minutes of entering this new lobby I was once again being stalked by a veteran player hellbent on ruining my day.

GTA Online Character heading for race start

While Rockstar does give you the option to report players, it doesn't stop you from being targeted by them again and again. The only way to escape these individuals is to leave the lobby altogether, and even then, there are clearly so many griefers out there that nowhere is truly safe. If you can be thrown out of a Casino for breaking the rules then why not elsewhere?

Other online communities like Apex Legends and Red Dead Online all have large player bases, but toxicity is relatively low in comparison. While RDO struggles with griefers, they don’t target new players so religiously. If other games can do it, surely one of the biggest properties in the world should be able to as well. The thing is, it’s not all down to Rockstar. The solution is simple: Don’t be that person. Don’t be the online equivalent of someone who puts chewing gum on a public handrail.

Perhaps if I was in a crew of friends and we had our own little squad going, it wouldn't be so bad and I wouldn’t have stood out as a target. For now, though, this will stand as my first and only foray into GTA Online - I can’t blame others for feeling the same if things don’t change soon.

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