How this GTA V RP Mod Helps Female Gamers File Real-Life Police Reports

The roleplaying servers on Grand Theft Auto V’s multiplayer mode have taken the gaming community by storm in the last few years, but with the freedom of an open world and relative anonymity in-game comes the sadly all-too-familiar online trolls, bullies and abusers.

To counter this in Brazil, the NGO and global ecosystem for female inclusion in tech, Wonder Women Tech (WWT), has partnered with Brazilian creative agency AlmapBBDO to connect the 'E-Police Stations' in the game with real-life police stations, allowing players to make official police reports. 

Importantly, Brazil has police stations across the country dedicated specifically for women, so the beta tool is currently implemented into the popular ‘Brasil Capital’ GTA V RP server. However, it is open-source, meaning admins around the world can install the code into their own servers today, providing women a shortcut to report incidents of harassment, threats, and other forms of violence - all without clicking out of the game.

To find out how this innovative concept was brought into action, LBB’s Ben Conway spoke to some of the AlmapBBDO creatives behind the project: copywriter Aline Fucs, art director Ingryd Cruz, and creative director Deborah Vasques.

LBB> Tell us how this idea came about! What insights from Wonder Women Tech (WWT) inspired the campaign?

Aline> Wonder Women Tech is dedicated to creating a more egalitarian, safe and respectful environment in the gaming world. They want to get the word out that the era of silence is over - and it was about time. In-game harassment makes women stop playing, it drives them to depression; some even consider taking their own lives. So we asked ourselves, why are the victims bearing all the real-life consequences of harassment, while their aggressors are getting off scot-free? It became clear to us that we needed a tool to bring real consequences for in-game harassment. And a tool that would work in the game itself, where the harassment takes place. 

LBB> What did you learn about the GTA RP and wider gaming community - both bad and good - while researching and working on this project?

Ingryd> It’s a really amazing world. But it can also be extremely toxic and dangerous if you’re a woman. We watched live streams and gameplay, spoke at length with the folks at Wonder Women Tech and heard all sorts of experiences. That all made a few things clear. 

First of all, we were able to understand just how involved people get. It’s far more than just a game. These people’s lives are intertwined with the in-game experience – and we’re not just talking about professional gamers. When we grasped that, we saw clearly how in-game violence can destroy a person’s life outside the game. One study showed that 1 in 10 women who suffered in-game violence wound up having suicidal thoughts. 

Moreover, the research process showed us beyond a shadow of a doubt that sexism is endemic to online gaming. That came through not only in the data, but also in the stories we heard from streamers, gamers and women who play in their free time. 

The GTA V RP community is deeply involved in the game. Part of that comes from it being a roleplaying game. Based on the experiences of the people we heard, it seemed that sexist attacks in that context had an even more severe impact.

One word kept coming up: impunity. GTA V RP is a phenomenon across the world, but especially so in Brazil. And since it’s played by so many people, and streamed by so many people, it becomes a hub for predatory behaviour.

LBB> How do you develop a mod like the e-Police station and integrate it into GTA V RP servers?

Deborah> It’s a lot of work. And it involves people from a number of different fields. We thought, ‘is that even possible?’, and the creative duo, Igor Pontes and Felipe Paganoti - who have a ton of experience with games - envisioned a path forward. Then we involved the head of development and founder of Brand Gaming, Rafael Nunes, with our special projects team, with Júlia Newman and Marília Alves, plus the digital production team of Lilian Cavallini and Luan Henriques, and everyone learned a ton with him. 

It took months of development, programming, and tests – not only to arrive at the final product we were looking for, but also to make it open-source. Speaking of which: if any programmer wants to download the code to implement it, just head to the project landing page. 

To sum the process up as simply as possible: what we did was create a ‘blip’ within the game that opens an HTML link. Blips are a function that’s already active within GTA RP. [It’s] an interactive tool. The challenge for the programmers was to develop the screen that pops up, the HTML within the game, and then they had to ‘sync’ that mechanism with local police websites. 

Contextual note: in Brazil, there are police stations set aside specifically for women. They’re run by state governments. So within the tool, you choose your state, and it redirects you to the correct women’s police station for your area.

LBB> What sort of behavior can people report to the e-Police station?

Ingryd> Any and all sexist actions that are crimes in the real world. If a guy threatens to beat you up when you’re walking down the street, or curses you out, or makes threats of sexual violence… You’d think about filing a police report, right? So why not do that inside the game? 

Psychological or sexual violence, harassment, threats. They’re all crimes. What we did was build an unprecedented bridge between the game and the real world. Now it’s easier, simpler and faster for women to report what happens to them. 

LBB> How can players find and choose the server(s) with this tool?

Deborah> Right now, as we’re rolling out, the ‘e-Police Station’ is live on Brasil Capital, which is a popular server in Brazil. Soon, other GTA RP servers will be rolling out their own e-Police Stations. 

It’s an open-source initiative - any server administrator can download the code from the project’s landing page and install it. And from day one, multiple servers got in touch asking about how to implement it. We’ll also be reaching out to more servers to present the initiative and encourage them to get on board. The more e-Police Stations in the gaming world, the greater the chances that offenders won’t get off lightly. 

To find the station, all you have to do is access FIVEM [the GTA V multiplayer mod launcher] and select Brasil Capital. 

LBB> The complaints filed in the game become real-life police reports - how does that work?

Deborah> It’s simple: the e-Police Station connects an in-game police station to a number of different real-life stations. It’s a shortcut for women to file official online police reports – they can do it without even clicking out of the game. 

A player’s character can access a tablet inside the e-Police Station. From there, all she has to do is select her state of residence to be redirected to her local women’s police station. There, she can fill out an incident report and provide evidence – all the information that goes in a normal police report, because this is, after all, an official document. 

During our research, we discovered that many women were hesitant or even afraid to report what was happening to them. We believe that the e-Police Station, and the anonymity provided by the police investigation process, can help change that. 

And that’s not all. The e-Police Station helps women see that harassment isn’t part of the game. And it sends a clear message to offenders: from now on, harassment can trigger real charges, and harassers won’t be able to hide behind their anonymity any longer.

LBB> How will the real-life police investigate these complaints, especially as many online gamers use a fake identity, and multiple accounts? 

Deborah> We’re encouraging participants to gather as much evidence as possible of the crimes committed against them, from screenshots to recordings. Since lots of people stream their gameplay, that makes it easier to register. The official investigation will follow standard Brazilian police procedure; these offenses will be investigated like any other online crimes. 

The e-Police Station isn’t creating a new field of action, or even a new tool for the (real-life) police. What it provides is a bridge between what goes on in the game and what the police need to kick off an investigation, and to bring charges. 

The role of the e-Police Station is to get people to speak out. To file incident reports. And from there on, the police will do their job. 

LBB> How is the e-Police Station designed to encourage people to report the abuse? What has the response been like so far?

Aline> To start, players or streamers don’t have to stop playing to file a report. Before, victims would have to leave the game and head down to a real-life police station, or click out of the game and go to the police website. And that, for harassers, is a victory: it means taking a woman out of the game.

Not only does it make things that much simpler, the e-Police Station also explains the process in easy-to-understand language and brings the issue to the forefront. By getting a conversation started among streamers and players, we’re also encouraging more reporting and more initiatives to fight back against harassment, threats, and other sexist practices. 

So far, we’ve gotten a great response from the community. Lots of female streamers and gamers are talking about the issue, and are eager to take part. Many of them make a point of saying that they haven’t been paid to boost the campaign – they’re talking about it because they really believe in it. Plus, we have multiple servers wanting to implement the e-Police Station.

It's just a start, of course – but it’s a very promising one.