Ubisoft researcher scouted Watch Dogs 2 by hanging out with hacktivists in SF and DefCon

Thomas Geffroyd spent about 20 years preparing to be the hacker advisor inside Ubisoft for the Watch Dogs 2 game. Well, not really. But that’s how long he has been close to the hacker community, which provides the central characters and backdrop for the sequel about hacking smart cities.

The original title was a revenge tale set in the cold and gloomy environment of Chicago. But the second game has more light-hearted “lulz,” or hacks done for the sake of humor. Ubisoft needed someone to stay in close touch with hacktivists to give the San Francisco community an authentic flavor. And that job fell to Geffroyd, who met with hacktivist author and journalist Violet Blue and spent a lot of time providing fictionalized information about hacking to the game designers.