Orwell (Video Game)
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Orwell is an episodic series of video games developed by German indie developer Osmotic Studios[1] which released its first episode on October 20, 2016. In Orwell, the player assumes the role of an operator of the Orwell surveillance system where together with a handler you solve who organized the recent terrorist bombing of the Freedom Plaza. The Orwell surveillance system is able to create and store profiles for persons of interest and builds these profiles by collecting information about them online. The Orwell system is also able to tap into online messaging and phone calls and collect information on the targets that way. It may also access computers and phones and collect information gathered from the files on these devices. As the operator of the Orwell system is it your job to look at all these pieces of information and figure out which pieces of information you want to upload to the system for your handler to look at. Your handler is unable to access any of the information you see and is only able to see the things which you upload to the system which drives the choices the player has to make of whether the information is relevant to the case or is needless snooping.
Plot
Keeping an Eye on You
Episode 1
Following the recent bombing of the Freedom plaza you are introduced to your handler, Symes, who instructs you on your
Reception
The game is generally favorably rated and received a 77/100 on Metacritic and a 9/10 on Steam.
Ethical Issues
This game evokes many problems with surveillance and how it can be used to spy on innocent people. The ending chapter asks you to name the person who is currently acting as the head of the organization responsible for the planning the series of bombings at populated centers in the city. The game misdirects you to make it seem like the hot-blooded revolutionary character is the current leader of Thought when in fact it's actually another character who was portrayed as the reasonable one who was the pulling the strings. This led to many people
The ending of the third episode where Syme's gets doxed is a very real issue that happens with modern internet culture. In 2014 after the Boston Marathon tragedy, certain groups in Reddit became convinced that Sunil Tripathi was one of the Boston Bombers. This turned out to be false after further investigations by legal authorities but it was already too late as the damage was already done and Tripathi was found to have committed suicide after having his reputation ruined by the internet.[2]. This act of vigilante doxing directly led to the death of an innocent person. Another case of when doxing led to the death of an innocent person was in the 2017 Wichita swatting incident. Swatting is the harassment tactic when someone calls local law enforcement claiming that there is a situation which requires immediate police action often at the house of the person of a doxed person.
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