A scene from Grand Theft Auto V.
As Grand Theft Auto V Online hackers get better at modifying the game's code to do their bidding, instances of nude avatars running around naked raping others in vineyards are on the up.
Several players have reported others coming up to them in-game, locking themselves to their characters and
initiating pelvic thrust animations from which there is no escape, with videos of the online 'attacks' being uploaded to YouTube.
The trend was labelled "disturbing" by The Huffington Post and the videos "too inappropriate" to embed by The Telegraph, but in a gaming series that has for years seen players gleefully maim, decapitate and bludgeon each other, is this outrage justified?
Rape is certainly a problem which occupies a different space and is a more real threat than the cartoon violence of the game, but when committed virtually is problematic.
On one hand the fact that the majority of the 'attacks' are committed against female avatars is an unsettling insight into the psyche of some gamers, but on the other, the vague suggestion that what might occur in game will affect real life is tantamount to the 'video games breed murderers' headlines that scream from the pages of conservative newspapers.
