History Fridge / WatchDogs

* It's more sad than scary, but there is really a ctOS operating in Malaysia. They can provide businesses and banks your financial history, whether you're a bankrupt, and even your criminal records for the last two years. They have the power to determine whether your loan for a new house goes through, or even if you can get a job at a particular company. Sad times indeed.

* It's more sad than scary, but there is really a ctOS operating in Malaysia. They can provide businesses and banks your financial history, whether you're a bankrupt, and even your criminal records for the last two years. They have the power to determine whether your loan for a new house goes through, or even if you can get a job. Sad times indeed.

!Fridge Logic
* The reasons ctOS has nothing on Aiden are either he hacked it or his outfit: his hat and neck gaiter screw up ctOS' facial recognition.
** It seems more than likely that he hacked it, every time you view him from a camera his entire body is pixelated except for the sequence where [[spoiler: he is in jail]], and during those times it identifies him as "Joe Smith".
** It's revealed in the book Dark Clouds that the phone itself has a program that distorts just the person holding it.
** There is a camera in Nicky's house that ids him as Aiden Pearce, but it registers an error for his age, occupation, and details. I just assumed it was tied to a facial recognition error. In Nicky's house he never wore his full face covering gear.
* Aiden can track pretty much any human being with an electronic device, explode city streets with reckless abandon, and even [[spoiler:shut down an old man's pacemaker]], but he can't [[spoiler:call Clara to let her know she doesn't have to die to save his sister?]]
** She didn't pick up because she figured he was angry at him. Or she put her phone on silent because she was going to a cemetery. Also, she wasn't planning to die, she was just going to put flowers on the grave, and got ambushed.
** It doesn't occur to Aiden that Clara would still be trying to make amends after her role in Lena's death was exposed, and the time between Aiden getting Nicky out of Chicago and storming the Merlaut is presumably, about how long it takes to drive from the Motel in Pawnee to the Merlaut, so, since he hasn't heard from Clara since Default's attack, he doesn't think to update her.
* The KarmaMeter will fluctuate even if you do things that no one should ever suspect you of (like hacking a conduit to burst when you're innocuously standing off to the side.
** ctOS probably can detect it, and civilian phones or tablets probably take some effect. Otherwise? GameplayAndStorySegregation
* How on Earth can Nicky not know Aiden is the vigilante? They say his full name in radio broadcasts and his name isn't exactly common.
** Story-wise they actually only start saying Aiden's name after she gets kidnapped, so she wouldn't have heard those broadcasts. However broadcasts relating to Aiden's reputation can be heard anytime, which is likely an oversight/expectation by Ubisoft that the player wouldn't have maxed out their reputation bar to hear them before Act 1. Or maybe Nicky just doesn't watch the news.

** More chillingly, was this Blume jumping on an opportunity... or did they create it? We already know they used Bellwether not just to rig elections, but to directly manipulate Rushmore and Rose into getting together, and presumably they had a hand in pushing them towards the argument that killed her. Whose to say some of the events that led to Aiden releasing Iraq's blackmail wasn't the result of Bellwether suggestions... whose to say that all of it, all the way back to the Merlaut job, wasn't?

* There are three ways you can think about Aiden's lack of personality: either the writers were lazy, or he is a VanillaProtagonist, or he is camouflaging himself. Keep in mind he wants to have no identity anywhere so he could be deliberately keeping himself as plain as possible so there is nothing that can be picked up about him. By contrast, the civilian's profiles are filled with little titbits and trivia about their lives and personalities (read more about it [[http://the3headedmonkey.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/sociology-of-short-facts-watch-dogs-and.html here]]). It is their different personalities that makes them unique and they form a huge part of their identity both in real life and in the digital world. In other words, Aiden might be deliberately suppressing his personality to hide in plain sight as only 'characterless' people like him get to live unnoticed by ctOS for so long. We need to have a personality to have individualism and an identity after all.

** It doesn't occur to Aiden that Clara would still be trying to make amends after her role in Lena's death was exposed, and the time between Aiden getting Nicky out of Chicago and storming the Merlaut is presumably, about how long ittakes to drive from the Motel in Pawnee to the Merlaut, so, since he hasn't heard from Clara since Default's attack, he doesn't think to update her.

* Aiden's [[UnderStatement overprotective]] behavior makes sense when you look at his backstory, His family fled Ireland to get away from his abusive father. Many kids in abusive homes tend to gain complexes when they get older, some become abusers themselves, Aiden however, became protective of what family he has, to the point of vengeful if even one of them is harmed.

* Much of the game's backstory revolves around blackmail. So when Aiden [[spoiler:decides to blackmail Bedbug to get him to infiltrate Rossi-Fremont]], it shows he really is NotSoDifferent from the people he's fighting against.

** Speaking of the Alone digital trip, pay attention to the voiceover, it's Nicky's voice viciously attacking Aiden, including saying YouShouldveDiedInstead in regards to the accident that killed Lena. Why would Emperor Rat have put that in? He didn't. Remember, these are, in effect, drug trips, dredging up stuff from Aiden's mind, it may be Nicky's voice, but these are things Aiden are thinking.

** And not very well at that. Aiden's TheStoic, but somebody else could suffer some serious trauma from failing that.

** During the end of the game, [[spoiler: Clare dies]], and immediately afterward Aiden is in Focus mode unloading on the attackers. If he'd reacted sooner, he would've prevented it, but could he actually have reacted sooner? In gameplay, Focus mode needs to be turned on-and-off, and he's specifically stated to have picked it up playing chess, which often has similar 'focus' in thinking/planning of moves. So basically, Aiden does ''not'' have those reflexes all the time; [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration he literally has to go into that special state-of-mind to do so.]]

* There are three ways you can think about Aiden's lack of personality: either the writers were lazy, or he is a VanillaProtagonist, or he is camouflaging himself. Keep in mind he wants to have no identity anywhere so he could be deliberately keeping himself as plain as possible so there is nothing that can be picked up about him. By contrast, the civilian's profiles are filled with little titbits and trivia about their lives and personalities (read more about it [[http://the3headedmonkey.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/sociology-of-short-facts-watch-dogs-and.html here]]). It is their different personalities that makes them unique and they form a huge part of their identity both in real life and in the digital world. In other words, Aiden might be deliberately suppressing his personality to hide in plain sight as only 'characterless' people like him get to live unnoticed by cTOS for so long. We need to have a personality to have individualism and an identity after all.

* There are three ways you can think about Aiden's lack of personality: either the writers were lazy, or he is a VanillaProtagonist, or he is camouflaging himself. Keep in mind he wants to have no identity anywhere so he could be deliberately keeping himself as plain as possible so there is nothing that can be picked up about him. By contrast, the civilian's profiles are filled with little titbits and trivia about their lives and personalities (read more about it [[http://the3headedmonkey.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/sociology-of-short-facts-watch-dogs-and.html here]]). It is their different personalities that makes them unique and they form a huge part of their identity both in real life and in the digital world. In other words, Aiden is either deliberately suppressing his personality to hide in plain sight, or only people like him get to live unnoticed by cTOS for so long. We need to have a personality to have individualism and an identity after all.

* There are three ways you can think about Aiden's lack of personality: either the writers were lazy, or he is a VanillaProtagonist, or he is camouflaging himself. Keep in mind he wants to have no identity anywhere so he deliberately keeps himself as plain as possible so there is nothing that can be picked up about him. By contrast, the civilian's profiles are filled with little titbits and trivia about their lives and personalities (read more about it [[http://the3headedmonkey.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/sociology-of-short-facts-watch-dogs-and.html here]]). It is their different personalities that makes them unique and they form a huge part of their identity both in real life and in the digital world. In other words, Aiden is deliberately suppressing his personality to hide in plain sight. We need to have a personality to have individualism and an identity after all.