Inside the Mind of the Fox: A Psychological Analysis of Aiden Pearce

“It’s impossible to say for certain what he’s really like. He masks his personality and he’s very good at it … This is a very smart man who is looking to gain the upper hand in every situation.” ~ Dr. Yolanda Mendez Fictional characters are quite odd. Though they exist solely in our minds and through creative media, they represent so much more - our aspirations, desires, resentments, and pains. Embedded in their diegeses, their experiences often derive from our own, contributing to the construction of a novel universe, one that (hopefully) is immersive, compelling, and above all else, resonant. For me, that universe was the fictionalised Chicago found in the first Watch Dogs game. I was fascinated by every inch of it: the neo-noir cinematic elements, the verisimilitude of a hustling-bustling digital microcosm, the flawed protagonist too broody for his own good. Of my decade of experience with video games, not one has had me as hooked as this one, and I quickly found myself returning to this title aga