Civil servants were paid to play GTA in the UK

UA team of civil servants from the British Ministry of Education were paid to play Grand Theft Auto (known as GTA) online with the public.

According to the newspaper The Telegraph the team reportedly held online discussion groups to “create an emotionally safe space” for participants, supposedly with the aim of players “experiencing the world” and then making targeted policies.

GTA, it should be noted, is one of the biggest games today, dealing with the world of crime and including scenes such as shootouts, escapes from the police, robberies and illegal driving. The British government’s experiment would have taken place in December 2024, as a way of understanding the “lived experience” of the public.

According to the British newspaper, which cites a government blog, civil servants “spent time with participants in the games they regularly played” and “experienced the world” alongside them, “observing their interactions in the game”.

Among their tasks, the team had to join conversations with other players to comment on the “missions” that had been done in GTA and which included robbing a jewelry store, detonating a bomb to kill the CEO of a large company and taking prostitutes to clients within a certain time limit.

Once the project was completed, authorities said it was useful for “revealing impactful perspectives on people’s lived experience” and “helping researchers create an emotionally safe space.” Furthermore, they stated that “meeting people virtually is especially useful for those who live in remote locations” and that the game also allowed them to experience otherwise impossible situations, “like running a successful business in the game”.

At the same time, Mike Wood, the shadow minister in the government’s cabinet, considered that “working families will not believe that their taxes are financing this nonsense”.

“It’s important that civil servants have the right skills – but playing Grand Theft Auto is not among them. The government must immediately put an end to this absurd waste of resources,” said Wood.