Electric Eye
This is sick (via GamePolitics). Great Britain will be awarding “players” points for watching the CCTV network if they alert authorities to a crime or suspected crime. This idea cannot possibly lead anywhere good. Catch your neighbor letting his dog take a dump on the sidewalk? How about a random passer-by flipping off the camera? You can report them to the authorities from the comfort of your own PC for fun and profit!
According to the article, private camera operators such as shop owners may eventually be able to tie their CCTV systems into the game for a fee. Does anyone believe that the police are going to use this to investigate violent crimes? Of course not. They can’t be bothered to investigate a dangerous situation when someone dials 999 while the crime is in progress. This is going to be used to issue citations to harmless citizens for non-violent crimes.
I think I’m going to be ill.
October 9th, 2009 at 16:36
If I could type up incomprehensible gibberish, you would be seeing it here.
When I was a child, I used to think that Orwell and Huxley and Rand and all the rest were cautionary tales, and something to be guarded against… Unfortunately, being the naive nerd I was, I did not realize that there were other sorts of folks who viewed such things as bloody instruction manuals. God help us.