“Los Santos is a beautiful place,” says Liam, 20, who goes by Penguin, and has spent, by his estimation, many hundreds of hours in the city since Grand Theft Auto V was released in 2013. The game has sold at least 135 million copies worldwide to date, giving the in-game city a potential population seven times bigger than the Greater Los Angeles area on which it is based. “I actually live in LA so I feel right at home.” For the hundreds of thousands logging in to play each month, the game has accomplished something remarkable. Seven years in, the city of Los Santos has pivoted from being a single-player sandbox for crime, to constantly refreshed environment for groups of up to 30 people to play together creatively. “I, myself, couldn’t get bored of GTA ,” Liam adds. Debuting back in 2013, the city was designed to host both the scripted single player story mode and ill-defined multiplayer matches with various money drop services . Now recognised as two games tha...