How This Watch Dogs Legion Algorithm Can Go Spectacularly Wrong

Published 11/02/2020, 4:25 AM EST

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Following the success of the first two installments in the Watch Dogs series, the gaming community had high expectations from Watch Dogs Legion as well. The biggest highlight in the game is its ‘play as anyone’ feature, and fans were really hyped to try it out. The game finally released on October 29, but the players have discovered some prominent problems in the game. Apparently, the procedural generation algorithm in Watch Dogs Legion can create some very controversial characters.

Andy Borjas tweeted an image that pointed out exactly how this could go wrong.

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Watch Dogs Legion algorithm accidentally creates a pedophile pediatrician

Being an open-world game, Watch Dogs Legion has a lot of characters with unique identities. To generate so many characters at once, games use procedural generation. In the gaming industry, it is a very common technique to create textures and 3-D models. With the help of some human-generated assets, the computer randomly mixes up and generates information.

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A similar process in Watch Dogs Legion led to the formation of a very controversial character. Named Shannon Dickey, this character is a pediatrician and her bio reads, “Ended personal relationship with patient.”

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Yes, you read it right.

Is Ubisoft at fault here?

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Although the code randomly generates people’s bios, it is a colossal blunder on Ubisoft’s part. If other players also encounter such characters frequently, it might turn into an enormous problem for the company.

Fans around the world have had mixed reactions towards the new installment in Watch Dogs series. Some are enjoying it while others feel that the latest title is a step back from Watch Dogs 2 because of its long loading times and an innovative, yet dull game meta.

The ‘play as anyone’ feature has been a disappointment because every character in the game has a similar play style. As a result, there seems to be no interesting reason for the players to switch between these characters.

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PlayStation 5: Ubisoft Retracts List of Games that Won’t Support Backwards Compatibility

With the upcoming next-gen consoles, fans might witness a better performance from Watch Dogs Legion. As for now, the game might create some unwanted anxiety for Ubisoft.

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Written by:

Aakrit Sharma

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Aakrit Sharma is an eSports author at EssentiallySports, and has written over 600 articles for their eSports division. He is an undergradate student at Delhi University. From getting chased by The Dahaka while playing Prince of Persia Warrior Within, to sweating his way up in ranked Apex Legends matches, he developed his consuming passion for the massive world of gaming and now writes about it with the same enthusiasm.
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