Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6), a game made by Rockstar Games, is one of the most highly anticipated games to ever be released. This anticipation has also brought on a lot of criticism. Some have pushed back on elements of the game design, the characters, and the controversial all-digital release. But one area of pushback many fans did not anticipate is that people are now breaking up over GTA 6. 

After the extended look trailer was released on Netflix and then YouTube, gamers were introduced to the dynamic between the two protagonists, Jason and Lucia, who have an optional romantic relationship depending on player choice. This romantic pairing has caused many people to encourage women not to “let your boyfriend or fiancé or husband play Grand Theft Auto VI.”

Many women have claimed that men who not only choose to partake in the relationship but also simply buy the game in general are “cheating.” One of the features the game offers players is the ability to maintain or destroy Jason and Lucia’s relationship, where going to strip clubs, not answering text, or not spending time together will diminish their bond and doing the contrary will make their connection stronger.

This information sparked concern among women that their boyfriends or husbands will treat a video game girlfriend better than their real-life relationship. Some are even “banning” their partners from playing the game, with one TikToker saying: 

“In absolutely no human way is my fiancé playing GTA VI. You literally have to maintain a relationship with a girl in the video game and text her, and she’ll get mad if you don’t text her back. You have to take her on dates, and you can have [sex] with her.”

Meanwhile, others are calling this attitude absurd and saying that people who do this are in very fragile relationships if a video game is enough to destroy it. Many are bringing up the fact that Lucia is a fake human who players do not even have to romance in the game if they do not want to. Others note that people are taking one of the game’s main characters and reducing her role to nothing more than a romance option and a threat to their own relationships. 

In retaliation, some men are drafting relationship contracts that let them play GTA 6 as much as they want without their girlfriend or wife getting angry. Others are mocking their partners about how well they are going to treat Lucia. 

Ultimately, the whole situation does not seem very healthy for either side. Men should not be bragging to their partners about romancing Lucia, and women should not feel the need to be insecure about a fictional character. Of course, girlfriends are allowed to be uncomfortable with their boyfriends playing a game where they go to strip clubs and partake in borderline pornographic material. Still, if people genuinely worry they will lose their relationship over a game, maybe that’s a relationship not worth having in the first place. 

But this controversy does beg the question: if romancing Lucia is cheating, then is enjoying other forms of media also cheating? There are plenty of dating video games, as well as a whole industry built off of romance novels and movies. Is engaging with any form of romantic media while in a relationship cheating? And if it isn’t for those things, then why does this idea apply to GTA? 

Ultimately, there is a difference between fiction and reality, and many are forgetting the fact that Grand Theft Auto is a series about robbery and crime. It was never meant to promote moral behavior. And if those who say that having a relationship with Lucia plants the seed for cheating, do they also believe that playing the game will plant the seed for their partner to become a crime lord too?  

It is not unreasonable to criticize GTA 6 for promoting immorality. Still, the whole situation does harken back to the old days of parents berating the games industry, falsely insisting that video games caused players to become violent in the real world. 

People who ultimately worry that their partners will love their pixelated girlfriend more than them say far more about the state of their personal relationship than about any issue with the game itself. Every relationship is different, but being unable to differentiate between fact and fiction is unhealthy in any case. Because, after all, at the end of the day, it is just a game.