#but from a design standpoint it's not given nearly the level of consideration that combat is

[ineskew]

played a session of d&d the other day that reminded me how much 5e isn't designed for investigation and diplomacy. it's a combat game; actual roleplay is barely supported by the rules

we spent half the session going in circles trying to convince someone to do something without knowing anything about him, and even with insight & persuasion checks to help it still took us 2+ hours to get to the heart of things. we wanted more information but couldn't figure out how to ask the right questions in character; the dm wanted to tell us but didn't know how to get us there without breaking the fourth wall. we only made a handful of rolls, and most of the session was just unstructured talking (not a bad thing, but further evidence that d&d isn't really designed for this)

i would have killed for a pbta-style "discern realities"/"read a person"/"assess the situation"/"investigate a mystery" roll to give the conversation more structure. instead of making me roll a general insight check and parceling out information my character could realistically intuit, give me the chance to ask questions directly. with the right gm, "what here is not what it appears to be?" or "how could i get your character to ___?" would have cracked that negotiation open without giving the whole game away. instead we just... kept going in circles

[roguelikeboss]

My Favorite Games of 2020 ... So Far

2020 is garbage. But video games are not garbage. And so far this year has given us quite a few great ones. Now that we are (thankfully) halfway through this nightmare, here are my top five favorite games of the year.

5. Animal Crossing New Horizons

Talk about a lifesaver. Animal Crossing arrived at the absolute perfect time in all of our lives and provided us a wonderful little escape from the terror that awaited us outside our doors. While I can nitpick it to death one hundred times over, New Horizons gets by on its charm, simplicity, and addictive nature (as all Animal Crossing games do). I may have fallen off a bit over the past few months but it’s still an absolute joy to boot up and play when I need to clear my head.

4. DOOM Eternal

Hot DAMN is DOOM Eternal good. It’s perhaps the best power fantasy ever created, and takes everything you love about 2016′s DOOM reboot and cranks that shit to 11. It’s only failing is that it might be too much of a good thing, but every aspect - combat, level design, platforming - are meticulously designed and perfectly executed. It’s also super challenging and requires you be on your toes constantly, but once you get into a rhythm this is one of the coolest and most rewarding shooters ever made.

3. Final Fantasy VII Remake

I didn’t play the original FFVII until I was in high school, so my nostalgia and love for it isn’t nearly as strong as others’. But that didn’t dampen my excitement for the remake one bit. Sure it’s goofy and somewhat uneven (especially in the ending) but the production is absolutely stellar. The combat system is simple yet deep, the story is expanded in cool and exciting ways, and the music - my GOD the music. This is everything a remake should be, and I’m beyond excited to see what they do in the second part.

2. Kentucky Route Zero

Yeah I know I’m kinda stretching here a bit. Technically, Kentucky Route Zero came out in 2013. And 2014. And 2016. And 2020. But I didn’t play any of it until this year and boy am I glad I did. This game absolutely floored me, so much so that I'm still unable to correctly express my feelings about it. Heck, I can’t really tell you what it’s all about, let alone how it made me feel. I just know that it’s unlike any other adventure game I’ve ever played and is an experience that only video games can provide.

1. The Last of Us Part II

No other game had a bigger hill to climb that this one. Like so many other people, I love the first game I felt that a sequel was completely unnecessary. Couple that with delays, reports of terrible work conditions at Naughty Dog, multiple story leaks, a massive online hate campaign in response to those leaks, and the fact that we are currently smack dab in the middle of an actual viral pandemic, my excitement began to considerably wane leading up to release. How could I handle such a heavy and depressing game? And how could it possibly compare to the first game? Thankfully all of those fears were gone within the first few hours of play. Not only is Part II impeccably made from a technical standpoint (as to be expected) but its story is the perfect companion piece to the original’s. Themes of love, hatred, obsession, revenge, and forgiveness permeate its nearly 30 hour runtime. I rolled credits on it almost a week ago and it still hasn’t left my mind. Part II can proudly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the original, and it is by far the best game I’ve played this year.

[camsblog331-blog]

Hactivism and design critical writing

Idealists, anarchists and extremists are transforming activism in the digital age for the greater good and impacting current and future design practices.

The ever-broadening spectrum of technology is engulfing us into an entirely digital age of living. Expressing your opinion online is fulfilled by the click of a button exposing your thoughts to your friends and family. People reflect a mirror of themselves on social media building an online profile with every detail of their life. “More than 90% of Americans who own a cell phone keep on their person a digital record of nearly every aspect of their lives – from the mundane to the intimate”. (Scheer, 2016, p. 95) This personal information that we freely surrender online is mostly done just out of convenience, whether it be to create friendships or to enhance a shopping experience. This data is all collected, exploited, profited from and surveilled. Hacktivists are using their voice to stand up for the people when it comes to issues like privacy and now with new technologies they are challenging international affairs (Lohrmann, 2017). They are now given convenient and powerful means to spread their messages and act globally on issues. These extremists are transforming activism for the greater good, and impacting current and future design practices with such ways as collaborating, sharing work and copyright.

“The Internet is our shared space. It helps us connect. It spreads opportunity. It enables us to learn. It gives us a voice. It makes us stronger and safer together. To keep the internet strong, we need to keep it secure. “- Mark Zuckerberg (Scheer, 2016)

The Internet has revolutionised connection and communication, creating a borderless virtual world where almost anything is possible. How do people retain copyright on their work once it is shared on the internet? Hacktivists have sparked a major distrust in people’s opinion of staying safe online “Groups such as Anonymous, WikiLeaks and DC Leaks shaping the news and impacting global dialogue, while undermining trust in digitally stored information.” (Lohrmann, 2017). With each new hack, out to expose someone or some corporation people are ever losing faith in privacy on the internet. Just recently French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s (now elected) campaign was subjected to a massive computer hack that dumped its emails online, just over 24 hours before voters went to the polls to choose between the centrist and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen (Jazeera, 2017). This type of hacktivism is becoming ever present right before a big public decision is about to happen "Hack into their email, release the contents, and if there is embarrassing information there, it may very well cause a swing in the election." (Al Jazeera, 2017). As you can see the main point of focus was to disrupt the voting process by someone or some organisation who was clearly in favour of the other candidate. In my standpoint, I believe this type of intrusion can be detrimental to both sides. People would have been scouring through the emails for some incriminating evidence or even something just said out of line to abuse and belittle him for it. However, it also reveals more about the people in favour of the other candidate. They show no remorse for the highly illegal activity they took part in, why should people take their opinion into consideration for the ruler of a country? Are these anarchists that cause this damage normalising hacking and illegal activity? Research by Xiao Wang was done into the immorality of illegal downloading and how people reacted emotionally to illegally downloading. The study showed that “college students generally felt a low level of anticipated guilt toward illegal downloading” (Wang & McClung, 2012). With digital design becoming wide spread choice for design because of efficiency and speed, students will generally illegally download required software’s for free use instead of paying for them. The low level of anticipated guilt reveals that the “social condemnation of digital piracy is not strongly felt” (Wang & McClung, 2012). Because the act of torrenting has become so widespread throughout the world it has almost normalised it and made people believe that it is not a very big issue. Digital privacy is a difficult issue in which designers need to take caution with. In older times if a designer was to hand craft a chair, it would be very hard to replicate this chair with exact precision. There would be differences. This issue is not the case anymore with technology. Digital designs can very easily be replicated, copied and shared around the world. The question arises of how does a designer keep ownership and copyright of a certain digital design in the current age? When people read and hear about how the French presidential candidate’s emails were hacked and leaked, how secure does that make them feel about sharing their work online?

 Design activism vs Hacktivism

Traditionally design activism uses design thinking to create products, environments, solutions or services that enhance quality or to show awareness of an ongoing issue throughout the world. Now with digital design becoming a big player in design, it has evolved some of the methods of getting the message across to the people of the world. No longer does a physical piece of artwork or a vandalised billboard pack the biggest punch for activists to spread a politically motivated message to society. Technology has enabled convenience in communication and with the majority of people these days being connected to the internet, it has become the most efficient way to gather the most attention. “Hacking for a cause is set to explode into a complex set of state and local government challenges.” (Lohrmann, 2017). The dramatic rise in hacktivism over the past few years is shaping way for a future where hackers are shaping the “global dialog” in the same way protesters have done in the past. Banksy once stated how he started using stencils for his graffiti work because it cut down the time produce his artwork and therefore he could get away without being caught. This relates well to the idea of hacktivism on the internet, a big factor is anonymity. People and groups orchestrating hacktivism online are mostly always subject to anonymity. It protects them and gives them an invisible shield to do and say what they want with little fear of backlash against them. My belief is that people feel they can be truthful when they are wearing a mask. “Anonymity lifts inhibitions and can lead to unusual acts of kindness or generosity, or it can lead to misbehaviour, such as harsh or rude language and acts that are illegal or harmful.” (Kang, Brown, & Kiesler). It is this anonymity that is at stake for the public however. At this moment, the government is unlawfully collecting data on everyone with a device connected to the internet. This is destroying privacy and is no longer making people anonymous. Hacktivism is helping to create more awareness to people throughout the world who may not know this or know the full extent of the issue. With the internet connecting everyone it proves to be the fastest way for people to find out new information in such topics and therefore vital for such people like design activists to spread their artwork/ politically motivated thoughts. How will this affect future design practices in terms of activism?

 Designing technologies to fight back

A big issue with designing means to create freedom is that people are going up against their own government. Edward Snowden said himself during an interview growing up he thought everything the government said must be true because “Why would they possibly lie to us?” (Scheer, 2016). These hacks and leaks such as Snowden revealed are paving way for a differently designed future, with hacktivists at the forefront of this change. Currently there is several organisations out there already taking a stand for privacy, designing new technologies to combat tracking and enforcing digital privacy. An example is the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a leading non-profit organisation that helps defend privacy in the digital realm. The EFF had a victory against the secret service establishing that “it is illegal for law enforcement to access and read private electronic mail without a warrant”. Even though the EFF has been around since the early internet days, stepping up into the private sector against privacy has only recently come about. (Scheer, 2016).

The Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), another organisation which supports free speech against government secrecy, boasts members such as Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden. The FPF have developed encryption tech such as SecureDrop which is an open source platform that allows whistle-blowers and journalists to securely transmit documents (Scheer, 2016). These platforms are helping to make government snooping on data increasingly more difficult and more expensive.

These current platforms boast way for a more a collaborative outlook when designing new technologies in the future. The foundations mentioned above took a collaborative effort for them to take off and develop technology. Current designers need to take points from how the efforts of many combine for a solution. It is my standpoint to believe we are living at a technological crossroads, with the internet being the defining factor of how the future is being shaped. To collaborate is to stand together and push forward with an idea or ideas.

 Hacktivism is an expression of art

Social justice in the past has been expressed through many different mediums to orchestrate their points. A common and bold way to do this was with spray-paint. Graffiti artists would spray a wall with their message pertaining to certain crisis that was currently happening at the time. This blatant form of activism is a visual art based way of voicing their opinion. These days hacktivism is showing clear links to the graffiti artists way of talking about injustice. “GlobalHell, a group of hackers from the 1990s, hacked the websites of the White House and the US Post, they were in a way working as graffiti artists. Sprawling “Global hell will not die” on the American army website invited comparisons to spray paint.” (Is hacktivism art?, 2016). Can we call hacktivism a form of art altering our current perceptions of how messages are spread and recognised? “Prior to Snowden and the other leaks, a fiction had developed that only bad guys and bad governments abuse the freedom of the internet to invade the privacy, and hence the freedom, of its citizens”. (Scheer, 2016, p. 193). What we are seeing now is average people take a stand to deliver their voice through the most dominant way of purveying news, the internet. This in turn is social justice impacting current and future methods of conveying art and messages, breaking virtual barriers to do so. The visual element of anything conveyed to an audience has to be clear and bold to attract attention. People will not be interested in reading a long article but rather a short concise sentence which sums up the message that is being addressed. This is why hacktivism takes characteristics from art and design, and to impact the most people they must draw the people in first.

 “Even if you trust the government today, what happens when you get an individual who says: you know what, lets flip that switch” – Edward Snowden

 To conclude the idealists, anarchists and extremists are clearly promoting change throughout the world. History often tells people to cast aside the outliers and the radical thinkers but these Hacktivists are the ones people should listen to and learn from. To promote change often it needs something extraordinary done, like a whistle-blower leaking private information. Current design practices are directly impacted by the ricochets of hacking because design is currently being consumed by technology and the tools the internet provides. Designers keeping authenticity of their own work without fear of it being fabricated and copied online need to learn from failed mistakes in the past. Future design practices will be an evolution of today’s cracks in the system, designers taking note of the steps to increase privacy will be creating methods to obtain the complete right to anonymity.

 2017 words.

  Bibliography

Greenberg, A. (2013). This machine kills secrets: Julian Assange, the cypherpunks, and their fight to empower whistleblowers. New York: Plume.

Is hacktivism art? (2016, August 24). The Economist.

Al Jazeera. (2017, May 6). #MacronLeaks: Macron's campaign hit by hacking attack. Al Jazeera.

Kang, R., Brown, S., & Kiesler, S. (n.d.). Why Do People Seek Anonymity on the Internet? Informing Policy and Design.

Lohrmann, D. (2017, February 22). The dramatic rise in hacktivism. Techcrunch.

Scheer, R. (2016). They know everything about you: how data -collecting corporations and snooping … government agencies are destroying democracy. Nation books.

Wang, X., & McClung, S. R. (2012). The immorality of illegal downloading: The role of anticipated guilt and general emotions. Computers in Human Behavior, 153–159.