Gameplay:

This game is based around the idea of privacy and government surveillance. My project is a LARP, choice driven kind of game where I act as an official from the government to help guide the player through setting up his/her first computer. The player will be given information about their character so they can get into character such as the name, email address, country, birth date, citizenship ID, bank information, passport info etc. I, the government official will give the player a set of instructions to follow in order to complete the computer set up process. Some of these instructions include joining certain wireless devices, signing up for government websites, social media sites, setting up an online banking account, enabling settings like cookies, camera on the computer, and agreeing to terms and conditions. So for these different steps, players will be presented contracts, webpages and softwares to fill in their own given personal information to complete the steps.

The choice driven aspect kicks in when players decide whether or not to put in their real information. Players can choose to either follow the instructions, or not. With that said, in the end, players will either have their privacy breached by the government if they follow the instructions, or be put on their watch list if they don’t follow instructions.

For each step, if the player chooses to put in real information, I will present them with a “notification” from the government, complimenting the player’s action and also notify the consequences of the player’s action in a satirical way. For example, a notification for choosing to enable camera / microphone would go like “your computer mic and camera will be accessed at certain times by our safety department just so we can ensure your safety. Don’t worry, you won’t even be aware when we access your camera and microphone”. Whereas if you choose not to enable camera and mic, you will receive a notification telling you “WARNING: your computer camera and mic will not be able to be accessed by us because you disabled the feature. This way, we cannot monitor you at all times to ensure your safety. You are now on your own”. So for every step that the player takes in the instructions, they will receive a notification regarding the results of their actions. So many of these notifications have a satirical aspect to them, where they reflect on what’s going on in society today in terms of privacy on the internet. These notification cards are also a way to motivate players to perhaps go back and forth between putting in real information and putting in fake information.

There really is no win state as the game ends by me telling players how much of their privacy has been breached based on how they approached the overall set up process, and telling players how much notoriety that they have from the government. I believe this game overall serves as a reflection on what’s going on in the internet today, with privacy and government surveillance issues.

The left picture shows a step where players will be given a phone where they have to choose to download these softwares or not. The screen on the right is another step where players have to choose which wifi device to join. They can choose to join the official wifi, or other alternatives. 

Example of one of the forms that are required in the steps. So players choose to fill these parts in with real or fake info. 

The official instructions, the different steps like terms and agreement, finger scanning, picking interests and enabling cookies / notifications / location. The last picture shows the different information of the player’s character (bank card, ID, passport), and the notifications. 

Playtest:

So I playtested this game with a few people and they seemed to enjoy it, especially the notification cards that they received. I think the LARP aspect definitely brings life to this game too as we pretty much play out a scenario like in banks when you set up a bank account with an employee there. I’ve noticed that many players either went full in with filling in real info or fake info. So they don’t really go back and forth for the set up process. I think a way to fix this is to give players something to lose, so perhaps adding stats to the game. Stats like health, money, notoriety, privacy level, government watchlist level etc. And the choices that they make for each step will impact on these stats, thus motivating players to go back and forth between following and not following instructions to try to balance / prevent these stats from dropping. Perhaps I could make it so if a certain stat reaches a certain point, then the player would lose.

Artist statement:

I think my unconventional gameplay is inspired by many of the art games that we looked at in class such as September 12th, where instead of killing terrorists you actually end up killing innocent civilians. In addition to the many other games that were introduced by classmates in the indie show & tell, I think that many of the games talked about in class had significant socio cultural contexts to them. For the September 12th, it was a game criticizing the Iraq War and the controversial damages that were caused by the US military. So I really liked how this game isn’t served to entertain, but to protest against an important issue.

I think my game is also highly similar to the “Institute” that we watched in class. With players given instructions on what to do from the institute, it definitely makes the gameplay linear but also really fun and interactive, almost like a LARP. So I think my game is also very similar to that, given that it’s a LARP but also has that similar linear style gameplay to the Institute. I think the Institute screening definitely played a role behind the inspiration for this project. The idea of making things interactive in real life, by intervening certain social spaces / situations, I really wanted my game to have those elements too. My game was also highly inspired by the topics that we discussed about in regards to happenings and scores. Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit consisted many sets of instructions, guiding players to do certain things based on their own interpretations. So my work was inspired by that as you can tell, I give a set of instructions and it is up to the player on how to go about those instructions. I really liked the freedom and open to interpretation aspect to the scores created by Yoko Ono so I wanted to incorporate that into my game too.

Finally, the Dada movement in Berlin was a big inspiration for my game. Given that most of the art works made in the Berlin Dada movement was some form of protest or criticism against the government and World War 1, I wanted my game to be a work of criticism too of an issue that I’m passionate about, in this case I made it a form of criticism against privacy and government surveillance. I just really liked the idea of using art as a way to address contemporary issues because it is a great way to capture people’s attention. Hence, my game was highly based on the ideas and motivations behind the different artists that used art to criticize during the Berlin Dada movement.

Gameplay idea:

The idea for my piece would be based around the themes of privacy, censorship and government surveillance. Set in an authoritarian world, the protagonist (you) has received a new computer for his / her birthday. The protagonist is required to perform some setting up with the computer in order to be granted full access. The gameplay kicks in from here.

My piece would be a digital game, in which you follow a set of instructions published by the government where you have to browse through different sections of the webpage (kind of like the internet feature on GTA 4), and do different things like setting up accounts, joining wifi devices. It is up to the player whether to follow the instructions or not. The decisions and choices made will have an impact on the final results for the player. The overall objective of the game is to see who follows the instructions and who doesn’t, and the end result will show how much of the privacy of the players have been breached by the government.

Inspiration:

I’m inspired by many of the art games that we’ve seen in class that are related to contemporary issues such as the September 12th game where you have to bomb terrorists but actually also end up bombing innocent civilians, thus bringing up the many controversies that arose from the Iraq War. I like how the gameplay is totally different in that game because to win, players must not drop any bombs, unlike in normal games where killing is always the answer. I feel like my piece would have this unconventional aspect to the gameplay as well, because players can decide for themselves, and decide whether or not to follow instructions. I’m also inspired by the Dada movement in Berlin, where many of the art pieces were directly criticising the government and the Great War. My piece is similar to the ideas and motivation behind the Berlin Dada movement too, because I believe that my piece is also a form of criticism against the government and their breach of privacy. Privacy and government surveillance are becoming an issue these days, especially with the recent problem of net neutrality. I want to address this issue through this game and hopefully raise awareness about the importance of internet freedom and privacy.

Documentation video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IA4mTWYg0QFPF5tKLfvWFbRjr9A03Ksc/view?usp=sharing

About the Intervention:

So my intervention piece is based in the online world of GTA 5. In a world full of killers, robbers, explosions, lootings, street races, I decided to become a law abiding citizen for a while on a GTA online server. With that said, I drove my car around the city following the traffic laws. So I stopped when the light was red, I looked at the sides before cutting lanes, I got stuck in traffic, and most importantly I didn’t speed. Without any weapons to defend myself, I was left with the middle finger to give to players who followed me. Some of the players that followed me ended up killing me and destroying my car. I also walked around the streets, smoking cigarettes and drinking. I didn’t make my character run at all. Some players walked with me, but again some players just ended up killing me numerous times. Finally, after a few tries, I decided to drive to the airport and fly a plane like an actual pilot, following real world procedures. With that said, after my smooth departure, I ended up being shot down by other players. After flying, I decided to go on a long road trip down the highways of Los Santos with my truck. I ended the journey by parking at a diner and enjoying a nice meal there.

I thought this intervention was very interesting because in a world where all this violence happens, I decided to put some neutrality to that. I decided to play against the game rules and the game mechanics, to see how others would react, and to see what other gameplay experience I’d get out of that. It was certainly an interesting experience, a different one. I enjoyed it because of how others reacted. Some people laughed, some people didn’t care, and some people just followed along. Overall, I feel that this intervention was successful, because I was able to take this virtual world and modify it in a way.

Inspiration:

I was inspired by many of the videos that we watched in class, such as the Youtube channel Improv Everywhere, and the use of the chat system in America’s Army. I thought it was really interesting to see how people would react to their interventions such as freezing in public, or lining up for a fake Apple store, or dressing up as BestBuy employees. By taking the usual everyday scenario and changing it, people were often shocked and confused, which was really funny to watch.

I was also inspired by the Youtube channels of LSPDFR and GTA Flight Crew. For LSPDFR, they enact different kinds of environments in the game with other players, such as escorting the president to the airport, cruising the city as police and fighting crime etc. They take the existing gameplay of GTA and modify it to give a different experience, thus really inspiring me to do my intervention. GTA Flight Crew is a channel that does realistic flying tips in GTA 5 with the planes in the airport. They follow real world procedures and try to implement those procedures in the world of GTA. Instead of flying like crazy, they fly professionally, thus bringing another experience to the aviation aspect of the game. Other games that have inspired by to do this intervention is Euro Truck Simulator, where you are required to drive to different destinations following proper road laws. So you could get fined for speeding, crashing, crossing red light etc. This game takes the conventions of driving in video games and takes it to another level. Finally, the mod of Atlas Life in Arma 3 was also a huge inspiration for mine. It is a mod that intervenes the combat gameplay of Arma 3. You play as a civillian and you can do all kinds of things like working, growing plants to sell, selling drugs, or joining law enforcement. Rather than shooting enemies, this mod brings a way different experience to Arma 3. Players live normal lives in the world, with laws to follow, in which they can get arrested and put in jail by other players if they break those laws. So the main inspiration for my intervention piece was how all these different examples intervene the existing gameplay, and modifying them to give different experiences to players.

I feel like many of Yoko Ono’s work, especially her scores in Grapefruit really create different kinds of interventions and have played a big role in the inspiration for my piece too. By instructing people to do what they wouldn’t usually do, things that were out of the norm, it really made her work unique forms of interventions. I think a good example is her “Walking Piece” in 1964, by asking the person to walk in the footsteps of the person in front in different places, it again really breaks the social norm and really changes the existing everyday scenario of walking on the streets into something fun. That piece is one of the many that inspired me to break the norm of GTA Online, to see how people would react, to see what experience I would get out of that intervention.