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Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You (PC) Status: Playing I started playing this game on Friday 18 August, 2023
Current opinion of this game
No comment, yet.
August 28, 2023 09:09:10 PM
In this game you perform the work of a government surveillance agent - investigating people suspected of certain crimes (or possible crimes). The name of the series definitely gives away where this game is coming from (a critique/examination of the surveillance state). As far as games go it's straightforward in that there's (at least in the two episodes/chapters I've played so far) plenty of scaffolding, even handholding, in terms of getting you to find the info you need to make progress in the game. However, I only recently realized (through some experimentation) that the game is more flexible in its design than I though: (1) The game's UI highlights when there are nuggets of information you can find (and then send to your bosses) - I first played as a "completionist" assuming that you had to locate ALL the nuggets and send them along...but, it turns out you don't have to! (2) You can occasionally send bad/wrong info along as well - normally by sending it for association with the wrong person. The first time I did this (by mistake) the game alerted me...and then I realized I could (purposefully?) muddy the database/information - it's sort of like intentionally polluting the "truth" the system knows. I'm guessing there are dangerous ramifications to this some times and I'm guessing there's also something interesting to be said for adding noise to a system - I wonder if I'll see effects of this? (e.g. wrong person accused because I fed something factually incorrect into the system) (3) Going off of (1) above, I've been wondering what it means to play such that you intentionally feed as little info as you can? This isn't a game where you can "take down the system from within" (I think), but it does feel interesting to purposefully NOT feed information to the system just because you can and it's there. Over the last few years I've re-evaluated my relationship towards sites/services that make use of my input in agreggate (e.g. reviewing something) and I'm much less willing to, say, write an Amazon review. My default is "no", I'm just making it easier for you to make more money with no benefit/reward for myself. So, why should I? When I do - it's because I want to directly support someone (e.g. writing a review for a book I enjoyed and want to support the author). And, this game feels similar? Why should I feed the system more info than it needs? More info can be good (more context, etc.) but also bad (more ways to screw people over).

Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You (PC)