Virtual reality allows players to experience different situations as though they were happening in real life, even if nothing is physically changing.

But this can have devastating effects, as one woman based in the US has learnt recently.

Jordan Belamire, who goes by a pseudonym to protect her privacy, was playing a virtual reality game in Redwood City, California, when another player sexually assaulted her.

Jordan Belamire was playing a game called QuiVr on her brother-in-law's HTC Vive VR system. A man testing the HTC Vive VR headset and hand controls at the Los Angeles Convention Center in January is pictured

DETAILS OF THE ASSAULT Jordan Belamire was playing a game called QuiVr on her brother-in-law's HTC Vive VR system. She had started playing in multiplayer mode when another user, called BigBro442, was shooting the walking dead alongside her. 'Suddenly, BigBro442’s disembodied helmet faced me dead-on,' she said. 'His floating hand approached my body, and he started to virtually rub my chest.' Ms Belamire felt uncomfortable and asked him to stop, but this just encouraged him, she recalls. She tried to run away but says the other player was more experienced than her so was able to chase her. He then made grabbing and pinching motions towards her chest, and shoved his hand toward her virtual crotch. Advertisement

'Last week I was groped in virtual reality — did you know that could happen?' she wrote in a blog post on Medium.

'I didn't, but now I'm all the wiser.'

Ms Belamire was playing a game called QuiVr on her brother-in-law's HTC Vive VR system.

In QuiVr, players are in a virtual world where their task is to shoot down zombies using bows and arrows.

Each avatar looks like a disembodied floating helmet.

She had started playing in multiplayer mode when another user, called BigBro442, was shooting alongside her.

In the multiplayer mode, users can communicate with each other by talking through the head set.

This means, although all avatars look the same, BigBro442 will have known Ms Belamire was female by her voice.

'Suddenly, BigBro442’s disembodied helmet faced me dead-on,' she said.

'His floating hand approached my body, and he started to virtually rub my chest.'

Ms Belamire felt uncomfortable and asked him to stop, but this just encouraged him, she recalls.

She tried to run away but says the other player was more experienced than her so was able to chase her.

He then made grabbing and pinching motions towards her chest, and shoved his hand toward her virtual crotch and began rubbing.

She said the experience felt as real as earlier in the game when her character had perched on the end of a high ledge and looked down, feeling scared of the drop.

'Of course, you’re not physically being touched, just like you’re not actually one hundred feet off the ground, but it’s still scary as hell,' she wrote.

'I've been groped in real life, once in a Starbucks in broad daylight. I know what it's like to happen in person,' Belamire, 30, told CNNMoney.

Virtual reality allows players to experience different situations as though they were happening in real life, even if nothing is physically changing. Stock headset pictured

'The shock and disgust I felt [in QuiVr] was not too far off from that.'

She described the incident as violating.

'This sounds ludicrous to anyone who hasn’t stood on that virtual reality ledge and looked down, but if you have, you might start to understand,' she wrote.