Anuska Ikra is dating a player.
But her beau isn’t some wannabe Romeo, wooing and doing every cutie from Soho to the Upper East Side.
Instead, the Queens native is smitten with Moe, a 20-something NYC salesman, whose fondness for high-octane video games — such as Rockstar Games’ highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI (or GTA 6), out November 19 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S — far outweighs his interest in chasing skirts.
Still, Ikra says the forthcoming game, starring heroine Lucia Caminos as the smokeshow sidekick to hunky protagonist, Jason Duval, could serve as a virtual breeding ground for in-real-life cheating.
And the no-nonsense New Yorker is not alone.
Miffed girlfriends, fiancées and wives across the internet are now vowing to “ban” their fellas from partaking in the game, owing to its optional relationship component.
The feature reportedly allows human players to engage in a steamy affair with the ever-lusty Lucia, exchanging flirty texts, going out on dates, hand-holding and possibly more.
Representatives for Rockstar did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment regarding the controversy.
But in the era of artificial intelligence, when falling in love with a pixelated paramour is a mere keyboard click away, flesh-and-blood gals are not pleased with the spicy gameplay.
“If you’re playing it normally, then that’s fine. But if you’re specifically romanticizing and sexualizing [Lucia] so much that you’re treating her better than your actual real life girlfriend, that’s where it gets weird,” Ikra, 26, a legal analyst from Astoria, tells The Post.
She, like hundreds of women on social media, raised an eyebrow — with some raising literal hell — in concern after the recent release of GTA 6’s extended trailer on Netflix and YouTube.
The vexing visuals, a 27-minute mini movie, follow Jason and Lucia, who’s as bootylicious as she is bada–, as a modern-day Bonnie-and-Clyde joining forces on everything from small-scale crimes to high-stakes heists and risqué rendezvous.
The too-close-for-comfort twosome dukes it out against the police, drug lords and crooks throughout the fictional metropolis of Vice City until they finally reach the climax of their crime-fueled mission. It’s a bloody, bawdy adventure that’s said to take roughly 80 hours to complete.
And lady-naysayers are wasting no time putting the kibosh on the revelry.
Shelby Haas, a blunt bride-to be, declared, “In absolutely no human way is my fiancé playing GTA 6 after I just saw that 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 — and take her on dates and can have sex with her,” in a video garnering over 5 million views.
“Don’t let your boyfriend, fiancé or husband play GTA 6. Absolutely not.”
The blonde‘s betrothed, Alex Eubanks, is begrudgingly forgoing the fun.
“Do I want to play GTA 6? A thousand percent,” he said on Instagram. “But if it bothers my woman and I’m supposed to sacrificially serve her, and she does have some good points, then I will do so…That is why I won’t be playing [GTA 6].”
Ella Michelle, a content creator, echoed similar sentiments to those of Haas, writing, “Playing GTA 6 is cheating,” in the closed caption of her own social media post.
Ikra separately agreed, saying, “It’s cheating if he has a girlfriend in GTA 6” in a clip that’s amassed an audience of more than 600,000.
But nurturing a romance with Lucia, who straddles the backs of motorcycles in crop tops and clinging jeans, and blasts her gun in skimpy dresses while infiltrating crack dens, nightclubs and strip joints, isn’t crucial to the gamer’s experience, a Rockstar executive said in a statement.
“I have to say it feels great — if you are into it as a concept. Don’t bother with it if you aren’t. Up to you,” Rob Nelson, the head of development and co-studio head at Rockstar North, told IGN of the relationship element.
Nelson, however, did not confirm whether sex with Lucia will be an actual capability.
“For anybody that wants to play around with the idea of role playing their relationship, it’s amazing,” he said, noting the strong bond players can expect to form with a virtual vixen. “Physical intimacy is a huge part of a relationship, and so it has to be done right.”
Doing it with a video game character, while a thorn-in-the-side to some prohibitive women, is, apparently, no big deal to the more permissive sweethearts online.
“Whoever says playing GTA 6 is cheating…it’s a fictional f- -king video game, get [the f- -k] over it,” spat Kendall, a whistleblower, in a TikTok bulletin.
“I have no problem with my [boyfriend] playing the game and neither should y’all. But if your boyfriend is treating a video game character better than you, then that’s when it becomes a problem…Grow [the f- -k] up and stop being immature.”
Becca, a newly engaged 30-something, also weighed in with her GTA 6 support, admitting that she’s dabbled a bit in digitized hanky-panky with faux men in games such as Sims 4.
The life-simulation platform permits players to get freaky with characters via WickedWhims — an adult modification that introduces fully animated sexual interactions, detailed nudity and anatomical customization to the game.
“One time I downloaded a [modification] that meant that I could romance, literally, every single character,” said Becca in a snippet. “And did I, you bet [your] f- -king a- – I did…Not because I want to cheat on my partner, but because I f- -king wanted to. It’s fun.”
Ikra, unlike most of her cohorts who consider GTA 6 cheating, told The Post that she doesn’t plan on banning Moe from the game. But the Gothamite is implementing one golden rule ahead of its release this fall.
“If he wants to partake in the romantic component of the game, that’s fine,” said Ikra, a Grand Theft Auto enthusiast, who’s previously explored the fake world of AI-powered affections herself. “But he’s gotta keep it PG-13.”
“That’s the standard.”
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