Ubisoftâs latest open world game, Watch Dogs, lets players assume the role of a hacker named Aiden Pearce. Pearce uses a cellphone app to learn more about the strangers roaming Watch Dogsâ version of Chicagoâand some players are using this information to kill digital minorities.
If youâve seen screenshots or footage of Watch Dogs, then you already know what sorts of information Pearce cellphone app, the Profiler, tells the player. Hereâs one example:
Youâll note that the Profiler tells you a characterâs name, their age, their occupation (and sometimes their income), as well as one random fact about the character. The fact can be anything, from interests and hobbies to sexual preferences and everything in-between. It might not seem like much, but this information is genuinely changing the way people play and think about the game.
This was apparent before the game even officially out. Back when the game had leaked ahead of its release, Kotaku received an email about players who hunted down certain characters in Watch Dogs. Most footage of this nature was taken down by the time we caught wind of it, but there were still at least one screenshot floating around that purported to show characters that players targetedâŠ
It wasnât long until more footage like this popped up, though. Hereâs an unsettling video titled âMaking the World a Better Place,â which was uploaded by user Moopoke. It shows players gunning down characters based on the information the Profiler displays:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC83kY3rywE
Of course, not everyone is playing Watch Dogs like this. In fact, most people probably arenât. And just like a gay character might become a target for players like this, so might characters who play video games or watch hentai. I donât sincerely believe that a player that would do this sort of thing is always, without question, actually hateful towards certain groups of people in real life. But just because some part of the whole thing seems to be in jest, or perhaps a ploy to seek attention, doesnât make the âjokeâ any less unnerving.
Call me cynical, but the fact some players would do things like this doesnât surprise me. I doubt it surprises Ubisoft, either. Open-world games are highly popular in part because players use massive worlds as playgrounds to cause havoc in, and NPCs have always suffered at the hands of jerk players. Thereâs no way Ubisoft couldnât anticipate that players would go on rampages. This predilection for havoc makes it hard to give kudos to Ubisoft for including underrepresented characters. Sure, theyâre includedâbut at best the most they can be is potential victims, not interesting or complex characters.
More recently, Ethan James Petty, a scriptwriter on Watch Dogs, tweeted that he âcanât wait to see how you guys abuse our poor npcs in #WatchDogs . Be sure to take screenshots!â When confronted by game developer David Gallant about the fact that players were using the Profiler in disgusting ways, Petty seemed to shrug it off. â[Thatâs the] sick reality we live in â peopleâs privacy reduced to facts,â he explained. âProfiler at its core *should* be offensive to everyone.â
Petty went on to note that the Profiler also opened up the option of letting players protect minorities from crimes, and that the game actively punished players for killing civiliansâthough the latter fact is hardly reassuring. Itâs not like âthe cops might come after meâ really stops someone from committing crimes in an open-world game; part of the thrill, Iâd say, is figuring out how to deal with the consequences of breaking the law.
In that sense, what weâre seeing in Watch Dogs isnât entirely new: some people still approach open world games with an unhinged attitude. The difference now is that the characters/victims can be actively profiled, and that can make certain kills in the game more disturbing than theyâd be if the character was just a nameless NPC.
It is worth noting that, in general, players seem to use the information for âgoodââor at least, as defined by their own moral system. Mike Williams of US Gamer, for instance, has written about how the Profiler influences what sorts of things he does in the game:
That NPC is an investment advisor making over $100,000 who just got back from vacation; Iâm fine skimming a bit off the top of their bank account. Is that thug an animal lover making under $25,000? Iâll just knock him out instead of putting a bullet in his head. Hey, thatâs a nice car and you donât believe in evolution; Iâll take that $500 off your hands. Thereâs whole sections virtual Chicago where I try commit no crimes: the high-poverty Wards and the blue collar Brandon Docks. I figure they have enough issues, without me taking their money, vehicles, and lives.
In an informal Twitter poll, people liked to tell me about the ways the Profiler allowed them to âRobin Hoodâ the game, as it made it easier for players to tell what characters âdeservedâ to be robbed/killed/hacked.
Youâll probably hear a lot about the moral ways that people use the Profiler. Just donât be surprised if you occasionally hear about the unsettling ways people use it, too.
To contact the author of this post, write to [email protected] or find her on Twitter @patriciaxh.
