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 city’s infrastructure, as well as its citizens. Watch Dogs 2’s hacker troupe, DedSec, is a combination of the witty irreverence of LulzSec and the dedicated activism of Anonymous. Hacktivists are everyone from anywhere, and no one at all. They are the disenfranchised, the original online social justice warriors, long before it became a pejorative term. They are pirates, artists, activists, script kiddies and hackers. They are internet standards pioneers, champions of net neutrality, and innovators of every sort.
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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. 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. Unlike most games that incorporate hacking as a mechanic, Watch Dogs 2 peels back the complexity and invites lateral thinking to solve puzzles. Watch Dogs 2 is an irreverent, effervescent nod to modern hacktivism, both with its storytelling and its gameplay. The sequel, Watch Dogs 2, manages to tread the line between the gravitas of hacktivism and the loud iconoclastic roots of hacker culture. Marcus, Watch Dogs 2’s protagonist, is proving a point: no corporation is above accountability Credit: ubisoft Watch Dogs was a lacklustre revenge story with a dour, unlikeable protagonist and fell woefully short of what hacktivism really is. The original Watch Dogs captured an aspect of hacking as a narrative tool, but didn’t demonstrate any understanding of hacker culture. It wasn’t until Ubisoft introduced us to the Watch Dogs franchise in 2014 that audiences got a real taste for what hacktivism was (and wasn’t). Hacking, and therefore hacktivism, is still a daunting socio-technological concept that requires quite a bit of nuance to explore effectively. Technology as a tool for social change isn’t new. When a MegaCorp comes sniffing around, eager to exploit the bounties of the Salish-Shidhe, they aren’t afraid to drive them back with everything they have, including technomancy.Įven Inside, with its sinister, faceless regime converting humans into pliable meat-puppets, uses the power of technology to challenge (and ultimately overthrow) the authorities. 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.
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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 game’s world. Though the gameplay focuses on infiltration, technology is how Jensen pulls apart the Illuminati, byte by byte. The Deus Ex games, most notably Mankind: Divided, focused on technology as a way to subvert power structures and ultimately overthrow the corrupt establishment. By contrast, hacktivism - the intersection of hacking and social activism - has gone relatively unexplored in gaming. Hacking is well-known in gaming, indicative of a predilection for hacker culture but often without the culture itself.