Video Game in the Era of Surveillance: From Society of Control, Simulation to Individuation

This extended abstract, presented at the Chinese DiGRA 2018 conference, examines the relationship between video games and surveillance by combining Gilles Deleuze's theory of societies of control with Gilbert Simondon's philosophy of individuation. Its central argument is that games are not merely thematic vehicles for surveillance but operate as systems that stage, experience, and reenact control, and that the relation between games and surveillance can be understood as a genesis in which tensions and incompatibilities are resolved into new individuations rather than as an arbitrary connection.

The paper's analysis rests on two independent titles, Orwell (2016) and Paper, Please (2013). The author argues that these games correspond respectively to Michel Foucault's disciplinary model and Deleuze's model of control. Drawing on Ian Bogost's procedural rhetoric and the concept of the "possibility space," the paper contends that simulation allows players to understand the messages embedded in a game's mechanics, to experience the horror of surveillance and power, and to exercise power themselves. The Ubisoft franchise Watch_Dogs (2014 and 2016) is cited as a mainstream example of surveillance as a game theme, though the primary case studies are the two smaller independent works.

Methodologically, the paper is a conceptual and theoretical inquiry rather than an empirical study. It involves no survey, sample, or quantitative data; its contribution lies in philosophical reflection that revisits Deleuze's 1992 "Postscript on the Societies of Control" and applies Simondon's notion of modulation, which opposes hylomorphism by describing individuation as a continuous process. The scope is therefore conceptual and game-focused, with the aim of establishing a relational framework for thinking about video games as systems of tension, problematics, and incompatibility in an era of computational surveillance.