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If you went to a public school then there was definitely a phase that your year group went through of creating gangs that pastiched the local Mongrel Mob, Bandidos, Hells Angels or whatever bad-assery you could mimic. That is, until a teacher sent a letter home and you got your PlayStation confiscated. In the same vein, and on the platform of Grand Theft Auto V, instead of the playground, The Reaper Lords are an online motorcycle club that ride around Los Santos in 16-pack formations and mess up other players who challenge them.

Founded by ‘LordKingGod’, The Reapers are a fully tiered organisation of players that was “created for the simple purposes of giving other players an environment to play and ride with like-minded people.”

Their Vice President ‘Brandless’ describes the typical gaming day as being dependent or your role in the gang. Speaking with Kotaku, he said:

“Each day is different. In general, we meet up, either educate and evaluate prospects, or we can go into other crew-hunting sessions. This is also a practical way to test our prospects on combat skills, a lot of the time we ride around the city, country in formation, and chat,” Brandless explained.

“Sometimes it can be a shut up and listen type of day, or it can be totally different. Some days we dedicate to recruiting, others we dedicate to riding, and combat training.”

These dudes clearly take this shit seriously, they even undergo training (see gallery) to further their newb-whipping skills. But, with the majority of the gang being 18 or over, and some of them being bikers in real life, the whole ‘this is just a video game’ spiel is still recognised.

“The goal is, and always has been to have fun, turf is digital, and unfortunately cannot be claimed. As much as we enjoy tearing apart other Clubs, and crews—that isn’t our main motive. Every Lord is different, some are in it purely to ride and relax, others want to battle it out, that’s the beauty of it”.

They also don’t really like the term ‘gang’:

“We don’t view ourselves as a gang, we’re a club,” Brandless said. “We’re a Motorcycle club. Before all of the violence, and digital ‘crimes’ we’re an organised, structured society of motorcycle enthusiasts…when I think of the word gang, I think of a bunch of unorganized, immature folk. When I say we’re not a gang, we’re a (fictional) motorcycle club, I mean that the key characteristics that define an motorcycle club are what set us apart from the generic “gang” culture.”

While it may not be full-on bloodlust yet, here’s hoping that it’s the frontier for a digital Warriors-type gang war that’s a whole lot cooler than your average band of level-80 Paladins waiting for a dungeon to open.

[Via.]

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