In response to a recent lecture I have been asked to find an example of a utopia and a dystopia from video games. My first example of a dystopia is from the game Mirror's Edge. The game is set in an urban environment that is depicted in bright and clean light where crimes are non-existent and the population is a lot more comfortable. On the surface this may not sound like a dystopia but from playing the game you will discover what goes on behind closed doors. In the game world information and postal deliveries are heavily monitored by the government, there is an illusion of democracy and any people or groups of people that rebel against the system are brutally dealt with by the police.
In game the player controls a parkour courier called a "runner" whose job is to deliver important packages without the government intercepting them and, according to the player the government is a malicious, Omni present entity. The game touches on the theme that if a certain way of life has a lot of benefits and is more efficient it doesn't necessarily mean that it's the only way to live.
