Plutonian Striptease: “Terrorist Tamagotchi” Data, money and how it feels to become a terrorist

To legitimize the collection of data for purposes of surveillance, scenarios of global terrorism are created which dominate public discourses on “global future threats”. The boundaries between “suspects” and “innocent individuals” are interpreted flexibly, as potentially anyone can turn into a terrorist e.g. by acting in nonconformist ways. Concurrently, terms originating from open access culture are hijacked to fit into neoliberalist logics. As the possession of data equals power, a vivid new branch is evolving: data trade. Against this backdrop the social game “Terrorist Tamagotchi” was developed aiming at raising awareness about the uncontrollable datashadow we leave by interacting in social media environments like Facebook. Games can be seen as metaphorical reflections of society reproducing societal norms and values. But this game is designed to make the player experience the subtle mechanisms of the complex power structures and hierarchies involved in the outlined topic in a playful way instead of explaining them.