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a polygon sort of polyamory
You can blow up planes with an RPG, rob drug-filled warehouses owned by mobsters, and plough a truck through a pedestrianised shopping district, but the absolute most dangerous thing you can do is engage in sexy time with the other half of the game’s protagonist duo.
Unfortunately, we live in an age where the prospect of virtual infidelity in Grand Theft Auto VI is enough to spark heated debate and, worse still, warrant a headline in a newsletter written by a schmuck like me.
And we’re not talking about messing around on Jason or Lucia in the streets of Vice City, either. Plenty of real-life people are getting heated about the thought of their other half engaging in the game’s relationship dynamics, and the word ‘cheating’ is being thrown around with more vigour than the junk of a strip club NPC.
All we know for sure is that the relationship of Lucia and Jason is central to the overarching narrative, and there have been reports that the connection can be nurtured or diminished through taking certain in-game actions. Rockstar hasn’t spoken in depth about any mechanics, though, and yet moral implications are popping off like assault rifle rounds.
The hypotheticals have proved divisive enough to prompt a whole ass YouGov survey involving more than 4,000 British adults. Six percent said they’d consider their partner pursuing a romantic relationship with a game character to be cheating, while 19% said they wouldn’t use that word, but wouldn’t be comfortable with it either.
Women were less forgiving than men, too, with 24% saying it isn’t technically cheating but is out of order, compared to 13% of men. Whether that’s a reflection of differing attitudes towards fidelity or simply the fact that more men have spent their evenings trying to shag fictional characters is anyone’s guess.
When it comes to this aspect of immersive gaming, it’s a funny one. Somehow people aren’t concerned that their partner is throwing haymakers at pensioners, or stealing ambulances, and the same level of concern never existed when Mass Effect players were shagging aliens, housewives were messing around on The Sims, or a select few Baldur’s Gate players were getting jiggy with bears (maybe there should have been).
It just goes to show that Grand Theft Auto is in a league of its own, once again. There’s so much hype surrounding the realism and recreational aspects of the game – not to mention the fact that everyone will be playing it – that the line between fictional gameplay and real-world intent are blurred for some.
If your partner walked in on you laughing at hexagonal butt cheeks in a San Andreas strip club back in the day, you’d have both shamelessly chuckled. Recreate that scene in November 2026 with ray tracing and photorealistic character models, and the reaction from both parties will probably be different. Particularly, the hue of the player’s face.
It’s mad to think that Grand Theft Auto VI could genuinely cause trouble in paradise for some solid couples, but the technological leap this game represents is clearly stirring up the same insecurities around virtual intimacy that we’ve already seen from studies on AI chatbots.
Maybe this is the test your relationship needs. Just make sure to trade quick resume for the hard reset routine.
