#but Overwatch is fiction and it operates by its own fictional logic

[nitewrighter]

Sombra text: For the record, I refuse to get into any small submarines. Mauga text: Wouldn't it be a big submarine for you? Reaper text: Wouldn't it be a regular submarine for you? Widow text: Wouldn't it be a normal sized submarine for you? Sombra text: You all can got to hell!

Hey I think this is as topical as the next guy but I'm not South Park. Like, yeah I think it's absolutely wild to be ridiculously rich and die from catastrophic implosion at the bottom of the ocean because you're bolted into in a metal tube (THAT HASN'T BEEN ASSESSED BY ANY GOVERNING PARTIES TO MEET ANY INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS OF SEAWORTHINESS) that's controlled by a third-party knockoff xbox controller, but you're not going to see me make Overwatch characters talk about it.

[isabelita094blog-blog]

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[symbianosgames]

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

 [Video Game Deep Cuts is a weekly newsletter from curator/video game industry veteran Simon Carless, rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games, every weekend. This week's highlights include CIA board games, the art of escape rooms and The Oregon Trail's genesis.

Huzzah - have managed to get the newsletter out extra early this weekend - wonder if it helps with open rate? There's over 400 of you on this list currently, by the way, plus I tend to get 700-1,000 page views on the Gamasutra crossposted version. I'd call that a good result in today's micro-attention intellectual economy. (But I want more, of course.)

Anyhow, quite a bit happening this week - and in addition to the YouTube GDC talks I posted below, the GDC Vault is up, with 170+ free videos from the 2017 show, hundred of free slide decks - and 500+ videos in total if you were a select GDC passholder. Not linking individual lectures from there because I'll be adding the YouTube versions as they gradually get xposted over the next few months, but there's some amazing talks out there - thanks again to all our speakers.

- Simon, curator.]

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Escape to another world (Ryan Avent / The Economist 1843 Magazine) "Like millions of people of a certain age, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) had occupied a crucial place in Mullings’s childhood. It introduced him to video gaming, gave him a taste for it, made him aware of the fact that he was good at it: a “born gamer”, in his words. Yet the pixelated worlds of the Mario brothers, for all their delights, were nothing like the experiences available to gamers today."

'Witcher' Studio Boss Marcin Iwinski: 'We Had No Clue How To Make Games' (Chris Suellentrop / Glixel) ""We were small, unknown guys from Poland," Marcin Iwiński, the co-founder of CD Projekt Red, said last year when The Witcher 3 beat out games like Fallout 4, Metal Gear Solid V, and Bloodborne for the Game of the Year award at the Game Developers Choice Awards in San Francisco."

The Shrouded Isle and embracing darkness in games (Katherine Cross / Gamasutra) "PAX East’s indie offerings sometimes have unexpected themes emerge from the potpourri; a couple of years ago it was young women as detectives. This year, a subtle current among the games on offer was exploring life in cults from the inside."

Why math is strangling videogame morality (Jody Macgregor / PC Gamer) "What's disappointing is that in the 22 years since Ultima IV, the math governing most morality systems in games has gotten more complicated, but it's still math. And it's still there. When our behavior is tied to an equation we've been trained to understand over the past two decades of gaming, the exciting nuance that should lie at the heart of moral decisions tends to disappear."

The CIA uses board games to train officers—and I got to play them (Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica) "The two groups of South By Southwest attendees split up in this conference room hesitate to get up. They were testing out the weirdest training exercise the CIA has ever publicly revealed: board games. These aren't off-the-shelf games; instead, CIA officers designed and assembled these elaborate tabletop games to reflect the realities of the CIA's day-to-day operations."

Balancing survival gameplay and RPG progression in Conan Exiles (Alan Bradley / Gamasutra) "Funcom's Conan Exiles, one of the latest challengers to the throne that Minecraft built, pushes this kind of progression to the logical extreme, not only tying player’s stats -- things like strength and stamina -- to its leveling, but also locking the majority of its buildings and tools behind it."

What it’s like making games in Pakistan (Basim Usmani / Polygon) "Chappal Strike, a play on shooter Counter-Strike, is a student-made game in which the player launches chappals — Pakistani sandals — to take down army helicopters. The game is rooted in one of Pakistan's darkest moments of 2016."

Are Teenagers Replacing Drugs With Smartphones? (Matt Richtel / New York Times) "With experts in the field exploring reasons for what they describe as a clear trend, the novel notion that ever-growing phone use may be more than coincidental is gaining some traction. Dr. Volkow described interactive media as “an alternative reinforcer” to drugs, adding that “teens can get literally high when playing these games.” [SIMON'S NOTE: not really sure where this theory fits into app refreshing, games and endorphins, but flagging it as intriguing.]"

Arcade Photographs, Arcade Comics, Arcade Tales – A Social History of the British Amusement Arcade (Alan Meades / mediaXstanford / YouTube) "Alan Meades, Senior Lecturer in New Media Theory in Canterbury Christ Church University’s Department of Media, Art and Design presents his arcade culture research project, Arcade Tales, which uses comic books as a way of communicating and capturing oral histories from British arcades, and also a selection of rare and previously unseen arcade photographs from Canterbury Christ Church University’s George Wilson Archive."

The story of Crash magazine (Graeme Mason / Eurogamer) "If, like me, you were a ZX Spectrum fan growing up in the 80s, one of its trio of passionately assembled and dedicated magazines was an indispensable read... Sinclair User was the longest serving, and had a drier tone; Your Sinclair (formerly Your Spectrum) gleefully brandished its off-the-wall humour in each issue, and is especially revered today. But for me, and many others, our magazine of choice was the appropriately-titled Crash, published by Ludlow-based Newsfield."

Choices, Episode (Emily Short / Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling) "There are several thriving brands of interactive fiction on mobile that tend not to get a huge amount of coverage in the traditional IF community, despite their large player base. They’re placing well on the app store, though, and GDC talks increasingly cover them — so I went and had a look at a couple of the main contenders. [SIMON'S NOTE: Also see How Episode became the world's biggest interactive fiction platform.]"

Board Game Design Day: The Making Of 'Pandemic Legacy' (Matt Leacock & Rob Daviau / GDC / YouTube) "In this GDC 2017 talk, 'Pandemic Legacy' creators Matt Leacock and Rob Daviau walk through the thought process of creating the popular board game, looking at the design challenges (and solutions), where the team behind Pandemic went right, and where they went wrong."

How to Make an Escape Room (Laura Hudson / Feminist Frequency) "Laura E. Hall wants you to get out; she really does. As an escape room designer, she’s created numerous live-action mysteries where teams of intrepid players sealed in a real-life room must rifle through clues and solve puzzles in hopes of getting out before time runs out."

Meet the Swedish Politician Who Streams 'Hearthstone' (Luke Winkie / Glixel) "There is a unique tranquility in watching a man calmly break down Scandinavian political policy while piloting a Beast Druid deck. So if you're like me and you're in need of a reminder that government isn't always stupid and evil, I highly recommend the Hearthstone Twitch stream of Rickard Nordin."

LawBreakers isn't trying to be an Overwatch killer (Tom Marks, Mark Paget / PC Gamer) "First-person shooters had a big year in 2016, something that wasn't necessarily expected when Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski and Boss Key Productions revealed LawBreakers in 2014. Since then, Overwatch has sort of become the de facto leader of the character-based shooter movement, but when we met up with Bleszinski at PAX East 2017, he told us that he isn't trying to make an Overwatch killer."

Prompto's Facebook: How a Buddy-AI Auto-Snapshots Your Adventure in FFXV (Prasert Prasertvithyakarn / GDC / YouTube) "In this 2017 GDC session, Square Enix designer Prasert Prasertvithyakarn describes the creation of Final Fantasy XV's photo system that allows Prompto to document your epic road trip on a quest to save the world."

Classic Game Postmortem: Oregon Trail (Don Rawitsch / GDC / YouTube) "In this GDC 2017 postmortem, Oregon Trail creator Don Rawitsch sets off on a journey to explore the development of this classic educational game that took the world by storm."

How Osiris: New Dawn calculates monster crab scuttling (Philippa Warr / RockPaperShotgun) "So I’ve played enough of Osiris to know that you’ll be minding your own business, looking at a tree, and then a crab will come and try to cave your skull in. It’s not a proper crab in the sense of earth taxonomy because it has four legs, but it has a carapace and a set of angular legs that have a very crab-ish/lobster-y aesthetic."

Dwarf Fortress creator Tarn Adams talks about simulating the most complex magic system ever (Wes Fenlon / PC Gamer) "Forget what you thought you knew about the infamous complexity of Dwarf Fortress. We haven't seen anything yet. Dwarf Fortress hasn't been updated for a year, because developers Tarn and Zach Adams have been preparing it for the most ambitious magic system ever implemented in a videogame."

'Nier: Automata' Director Taro Yoko Doesn't Envision a Happy Ending for Humanity (Matthew Walden / Glixel) "Nier: Automata has finally thrust the reclusive Yoko into the spotlight, with its impeccably polished action offering a more accessible entry point to his fascinating universe filled with heartbreak and introspection. Recently, Yoko has become equally recognized for the grinning, skeletal mask he dons in public, as well as his cryptic and playful answers to interview questions. So it's a particular treat to have a candid conversation with him about his career and legacy so far."

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[REMINDER: you can sign up to receive this newsletter every weekend at http://ift.tt/2dUXrva we crosspost to Gamasutra later on Sunday, but get it first via newsletter! Story tips and comments can be emailed to vgdeepcuts@simoncarless.com. MINI-DISCLOSURE: Simon is one of the organizers of GDC and Gamasutra, so you may sometimes see links from those entities in his picks. Or not!]

[viralhottopics]

‘Watch Dogs 2s’ representation of hactivism is more relevant than ever

Hacking is well-known in gaming, indicative of a predilection for hacker culture but often without the culture itself. By contrast, hacktivism the intersection of hacking and social activism has gone relatively unexplored in gaming.

Hacking as gameplay

The Deus Ex games, most notably Mankind: Divided, focused on technology as a way to subvert power structures and ultimately overthrow the corrupt establishment. Though the gameplay focuses on infiltration, technology is how Jensen pulls apart the Illuminati, byte by byte.

Shadowrun used hacking (or in the Shadowrun vernacular, decking) and technomancy (decking through use of magic) as a tool for stealing from and embarrassing the handful of MegaCorps that run the games world. Some deckers, namely the environmental hacktivists from the fictional Salish-Shidhe region (formerly British Columbia), see technomancy as a necessity to ensure the future survival of their land. When a MegaCorp comes sniffing around, eager to exploit the bounties of the Salish-Shidhe, they arent afraid to drive them back with everything they have, including technomancy.

Even Inside, with its sinister, faceless regime converting humans into pliable meat-puppets, uses the power of technology to challenge (and ultimately overthrow) the authorities. Technology as a tool for social change isnt new. Hacking, and therefore hacktivism, is still a daunting socio-technological concept that requires quite a bit of nuance to explore effectively.

It wasnt until Ubisoft introduced us to the Watch Dogs franchise in 2014 that audiences got a real taste for what hacktivism was (and wasnt). The original Watch Dogs captured an aspect of hacking as a narrative tool, but didnt demonstrate any understanding of hacker culture. Watch Dogs was a lacklustre revenge story with a dour, unlikeable protagonist and fell woefully short of what hacktivism really is.

Marcus, Watch Dogs 2s protagonist, is proving a point: no corporation is above accountability

Image: ubisoft

The sequel, Watch Dogs 2, manages to tread the line between the gravitas of hacktivism and the loud iconoclastic roots of hacker culture. Watch Dogs 2 is an irreverent, effervescent nod to modern hacktivism, both with its storytelling and its gameplay. Unlike most games that incorporate hacking as a mechanic, Watch Dogs 2 peels back the complexity and invites lateral thinking to solve puzzles. Much like how modern hacktivists use a variety of tools to achieve their political ends, Watch Dogs 2 encourages playfulness and creativity when tearing down the powers that be.

Hacktivists are everywhere

The modern internet was built by hacktivists, fueled by idealists and optimists who wanted information to be free and data to be protected from government interference. They are internet standards pioneers, champions of net neutrality, and innovators of every sort. They are pirates, artists, activists, script kiddies and hackers. They are the disenfranchised, the original online social justice warriors, long before it became a pejorative term.

Hacktivists are everyone from anywhere, and no one at all.

Watch Dogs 2s hacker troupe, DedSec, is a combination of the witty irreverence of LulzSec and the dedicated activism of Anonymous. Their major players use a wide array of tools in order to take down Blume, the architect of ctOS a central operating system used in major cities to monitor and control the citys infrastructure, as well as its citizens. Your in-game contact and hacker friend Sitara uses art and distinctive branding to bring the DedSec community together, similar to how Anonymous reaches out to hacktivists and regular people through their own flavour of recruitment videos.

DedSec is much less ominous than Anon

Image: ubisoft

DedSec prefers the amicable join us to Anonymous expect us, indicative of its real-world inspiration from the now defunct LulzSec. LulzSec was a splintered cell of Anonymous that took embarrassing the establishment from private corporations, like Sony, to the US government to the next level for no reason other than, well, lulz. As much as the spin would have the public believing that LulzSec and Anonymous are (or have been) cyberterrorists seeking to cause permanent harm to individuals or groups of individuals hacktivism stops short of that as a matter of principle.

Hacktivism didnt start with Anonymous. The term was coined in 2001 by the Cult of the Dead Cow long before social media, the 24-hour news cycle and the smartphone. Their manifesto, the Hacktivism Manifesto, was meant as a call to action for hackers with a social conscience. It called for hackers to band together and fight to keep data free. This Manifesto gave birth to a new era of online social activism through hacker culture: hacktivism as we know it today.

Anonymous has been willing to get its collective hands dirty in order to achieve their political ends. Members often put their personal freedom on the line, especially if their identities are revealed, so that others may have a voice. Anonymous is responsible for keeping the internet going during the Arab Spring in 2011, bringing to light the myriad of issues taking place across the Middle East.

While DedSecs motivations are far closer to home, tied to American cities and American citizens, their dedication to hacktivisms core purpose embarrassing power players by exposing whatever skeletons are in their corporate (or government) closets is undeniable. Marcus, the protagonist in the game, creates legally questionable mischief wherever he goes, throwing power structures into upheaval more often than not. Nothing like airing a corporate executives dirty laundry over the internet, live and uncensored, for the world to see. Or stealing an iconic vehicle from an upcoming film just to screw with film execs for not getting hacker culture right.

This is what happens when youre a scumbag exec DedSec takes you down

Image: ubisoft

Several missions gave a firm nod to Anonymous and LulzSec operations, including the parallel between the Church of New Dawn and the Church of Scientology. Anonymous notoriously harassed the Church of Scientology in 2008 (dubbed Project Chanology) by clogging up phone lines as a virtual sit-in, overloading their faxes with garbled messages (known as black faxes), and a distributed denial of service (DDoS). Watch Dogs 2 requires much more hands-on time with their version of the church the final mission in the arc is a heck of a challenge if you arent sneaky and subversive the whole way through but there are obvious parallels in DedSecs motivations, right down to the celebrity element.

Effective hacktivism isnt limited to code

Watch Dogs 2 reinforces that hacking isnt just about code, nor is it about the method of delivery; its about the motivation behind it. Hackers existed long before the advent of the internet, or even personal computing. Hacking was (and is) about innovative mischief. And DedSec uses every bit of innovative mischief to make their political points. Deface property? Only if it embarrasses Blume. Steal a car? Only if it deters dirtbag movie execs from making terrible movies about hacker culture. Socially engineer your way into a company, just to sabotage it from the inside? Only if it makes people sit up and listen to your warnings about Big Data.

The global political climate has become rather chilly over the last five years. The unrest, the violence, the upheaval we are collectively walking down an unlit path in Central Park at two oclock in the morning and it is mighty dangerous out there. While the activists are on the ground, doing the big work in meatspace, hacktivists are behind the scenes, quietly subverting the establishment. And when governments seek to destroy intellectualism, hacktivists siphon research and protect it for the future.

You cannot arrest an idea. – Jake Topiary Davi

Hacktivism in games is a nascent narrative. Watch Dogs 2 has done a marvellous job of capturing the bombastic qualities of hacker culture without relying on the clandestine, shadowy hacker trope. Games have a number of opportunities to take hacktivism in new and interesting directions. Crafting stories that explore the power of community in fighting injustice, rather than focusing on a single hero character, for example, would be a great way to demonstrate one of hacktivisms major tenets. While hacking is an important part of hacktivism, its not all about code. Consider social engineering, which weve seen integrated into a number of espionage-centric games (such as Tom Clancys Splinter Cell), as the basis of a hacktivism narrative. Leave the code to the black-hats, while a protagonist infiltrates and subverts power structures in a social capacity. Clandestine, Logic Artists cooperative action-strategy game where players play a hacker and a spy, started to touch on this, but was far more James Bond in heels than Anonymous.

Watch Dogs 2 gave us a peek at what neon-powered, socially conscious (albeit slightly shallow) hacktivism could look like under a certain lens with certain lighting. Its real power, and beauty, is in driving home the same message that the Cult of the Dead Cow has been espousing since 2001: we see you, we hear you, and we wont stop subverting your influence, even if you threaten our freedoms. Were stronger together.

Amanda Farough has been writing about video and tabletop games for a number of years. Her tastes are eclectic and varied, with a love for strategy and action. You can find her on Twitter at @amandafarough, where she is likely shipping her Overwatch main, D. Va, and Lucio. You can also find her previous work at her personal site.

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from ‘Watch Dogs 2s’ representation of hactivism is more relevant than ever