Who watches the watch dogs?
Who watches the watch dogs?

How Watch Dogs 2 represents hacker culture and hacktivism

Summary/Abstract: In Watch Dogs 2, players team up with a collective of hackers to expose the dangers of the city-wide online infrastructure and the company behind it. Hacktivists in the physical world subvert computer systems to protect the public’s digital privacy and agency against private interests. While hacktivists often disregard the law, they hack in disruptive yet nonviolent ways to encourage social changes. While hacking is a common gameplay mechanic in many mainstream games, there is relatively little research investigating games about hacking. This textual analysis examines how Watch Dogs 2 succeeds and fails in representing hacktivism. Watch Dogs 2 lovingly embraces the attitudes and values of hacktivists. Through its simulation of hacking, the game helps players understand what makes hacking so enthralling. However, the ethical argument the game makes for hacktivism is threatened by story and gameplay decisions made to keep the game appealing to the audiences of the game’s publisher, Ubisoft.

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