![]() In the election-related mission called “Power to the Sheeple,” Ubisoft correctly anticipated that hackers would try to interrupt the fair elections process. But Watch Dogs 2 doesn’t hold back in casting a wide net of satire at the tech industry, and it goes after tech companies that aren’t in Silicon Valley as well. Of course, Ubisoft changed the names of the companies to avoid being sued for slander. ![]() They took liberties like squeezing the Presidio and Golden Gate Park into the same giant park.īut the fictionalized companies were even more interesting, as they allowed Ubisoft’s game designers to make a commentary on the behavior of these companies. Not everything is accurate, as the Ubisoft designers found they couldn’t squeeze all of the city in. I also passed by Ubisoft’s headquarters and went for a stroll in South Park. I walked by the Transbay transportation center, which isn’t yet finished in real life. I marveled as I wandered through the game, seeing so many familiar places in San Francisco and the surrounding area. The counterforce to the tech companies is DedSec, the hacktivist group modeled on Anonymous and other hacking groups that operate in the shadows and try to use the processing power of their followers to expose the truth. Rather, it is to pay attention to those who are trying to exploit us purely for profit, rather than the common good. The solution is not simply to distrust the facts and news and the government on everything. The message isn’t simply to distrust all technology, as so many Luddites would be happy to do outside of Silicon Valley. If you’ve got some time over the holidays, I recommend you play the game on the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One or the PC. presidential election through a mission in the game where a candidate for Congress teams up with a company to create fake election news and polls, only to be foiled by intervening hackers. And it gets really close to reality of our U.S. The creators of the game are far from California at Ubisoft’s Montreal office, but they managed to deliver a scorching criticism of Silicon Valley and its leading tech companies for their alleged attempts to get rich by betraying the public’s trust and invading our privacy. It took me a while to get through it, but I highly recommend that you play Watch Dogs 2 as part of your civic duty. Missed the GamesBeat Summit excitement? Don't worry! Tune in now to catch all of the live and virtual sessions here.īy choosing to set Watch Dogs 2 in the smart city of San Francisco, Ubisoft’s game creators were able to sharpen their criticism of the nation’s tech companies and how they are undermining freedom and abetting criminal behavior through their monopolistic practices and weak security.
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