Grand Theft Auto Gamers Rewrite Code To Include Virtual Rape

It's pretty widely known that video games don't always deliver the best message. But a trend has introduced the industry to something particularly sinister: rape.

The hugely popular "Grand Theft Auto" video-game series encourages players to commit a variety of crimes, like theft and murder. But for some, it's not enough, so they've decided to rewrite its code to add rape to the list of possible offenses.

The trend has made it possible for "Grand Theft Auto V" gamers to virtually rape the avatars controlled by others playing the game online. Many have videotaped the scene and posted it onto YouTube.

These "virtual rapists" have modified the game's code to allow them to do things they otherwise could not. The players choose a naked or pantless man as their character, lock him to another player and play an animation that thrusts his pelvis back and forth.

One Reddit user with the handle "mrerkmattila" described the experience of being a virtual victim. They wrote, "You cannot kill him and there is nothing you can do about it... Worse, when he's done, you are stuck doing strip dances."

Rockstar Games, which publishes the series, has already warded off accusations that its games depict rape. Last year, a video-game blogger at PlayStation Universe thought he encountered a rape scene in "Grand Theft Auto V." When he reached out for an answer, the company insisted that the image was "meant to depict and imply cannibalism, not rape." 

Earlier this year, video-game writer Kim Correa described her own virtual sexual assault in the zombie apocalypse game "DayZ." She reported that two armed men cornered her character, made her strip, killed her and simulated having sex with her body. The players could speak to her through the video game the entire time. In an interview with TLDR, she wrote, "I definitely don't want to say what happened to be verbally is as important as if it had happened in real life. But it means something. And I'm not sure what it means."