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I bet my game is watched by the NSA

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McKee McKee's picture
I bet my game is watched by the NSA
I run a VERY intermintant Supers game for a couple of guys that I went to school with. The game has been around for more than ten years, and we have all since scattered to the four corners of the known world its now an online game. Its set in the present day, and revolves around the super cleche premise of evil super secret government department hunting and killing supers, conspiracy, bio weapons, and the like. I find myself googling all kinds of things like... CDC+Army bioweapsons depot... I just wonder if there's some piece of software watching my comupter or such. Does anyone else worry about such things?
We the unwilling, lead by the unknowing, have done so much with so little for so long that we can now do anything with nothing.
7thSeaLord 7thSeaLord's picture
Re: I bet my game is watched by the NSA
The bunch I game with had its beginnings in the University of New South Wales nearly thirty years ago. Many years ago, one of the sub-groups was in a spies'n'mercenaries-style campaign and, in one scenario, was trying to "de-stabilize" a foreign government. The Players had an extended brainstorm and planning session which, for reasons unclear to me, mutated into an extended round of "How could we overthrow the NSW Government?". It is worth noting that a couple of groupmembers were members of the Defense Force Reserves, one worked in the railways, and a few others were in various branches of the State Public Service. More innocent times, of course, but these guys worked up a lengthy list of vulnerabilties within the Sydney metropolitan area. Such as the ease with which railways and certain utilities could be knocked out, the level of security around the Army's main armouries, and so on, and so on. All of which added up to "... OK, maybe we can't take over the Government for sure, but we'd have a good try and WOULD make life b###dy hard for them ...". The really funny thing is that, while nobody knew it until later, there was one new guy there who worked for the Australian Federal Police (our equivalent of the FBI). He was studying for a degree at UNSW, and had been asked by his superiors to also report on some of the groups there. Thankfully, he had sense enough to understand what was going on, and made a lot of notes about what had been turned up. This became the focus of an especially interesting report to his superiors, which led to many of the vulnerabilities talked about being fixed up very quickly indeed. Postscript: Years later, the AFP guy was still a gamer, and remained on friendly terms with various members of that group. Just before the Sydney Olympics, he did the rounds of various individuals and groups to find out any other vulnerabilities and problems. He picked up enough data this way for another report and security shake-up. ***** Thinking about all the stuff that gamers and SF fans routinely talk via phone and e-mail, or google, or mention on 'Net forums, any spook trying to sift through all this would probably end up banging his/her head on the desktop.
"Do it? ... Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago." Ozymandias, The Watchmen
puke puke's picture
Re: I bet my game is watched by the NSA
we were playing an investigative game (cant remember what, but something like Delta Green problaby) in a pub one afternoon. At a nearby table there were a couple of plainclothesmen, who could overhear us as easily as we could hear them. they left after a while, but a few minutes later one of them came back in to ask us if we were conducting some kind of training excercise. The thing that actually sticks out most in my memory about that game, is that one of the players just didnt "get it". we were supposed to be covering up / killing a conspriacy or some sort of existential-threat, and he kept trying to explore it and investigate, exposing more and more people to the danger. I can imagine the same problem with gamers playing firewall agents, if theyre used to exploration / discovery themed games. he was some sort of professor in real life, but my mind kind of boggled at his lack of critical thinking skills.
jackgraham jackgraham's picture
Re: I bet my game is watched by the NSA
Very interesting. The U.S. government did actually assemble some sci-fi writers in a temporary think tank to speculate on potential terrorist threats. I forget how long ago I saw this news item, but it was within the last few years and definitely sponsored by Homeland Security. Anyone else remember this?
J A C K   G R A H A M :: Hooray for Earth!   http://eclipsephase.com :: twitter @jackgraham @faketsr :: Google+Jack Graham
7thSeaLord 7thSeaLord's picture
Re: I bet my game is watched by the NSA
If true, it is one of the very few things done by U.S. Homeland Security that is even vaguely intelligent.
"Do it? ... Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago." Ozymandias, The Watchmen
Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture
Re: I bet my game is watched by the NSA
You mean the JASON Defense Advisory Group? Yes, they exist and sometimes produce useful reports (I really enjoyed one of their recent reports on predicting very rare events, which essentially concluded that, no, it can't be done in general, and in particular trying to protect specific targets from terrorism is a mistake). Another sf writer who has worked for military scenariobuilding is Karl Schroeder; see http://www.kschroeder.com/foresight-consulting/crisis-in-zefra Incidentally, I just saw the NSA building on the way to my hotel. If they are not watching me they are not doing their job - some of the stuff my work and campaigns makes me research (hydrogen bomb neutron flux, obscure federal departments, select bioagents, power grid topology...) *should* ring warning bells. But don't worry, I'm one of the good guys! Trust me.
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