A Villain’s guide to social media and interactive digital storytelling

Abstract

If we have not yet achieved planetary super-villainy on the desktop, it may be feasible to fit it into a suburban office suite. The familiar perils of fiction and deceit can now be augmented by mass customization, allowing powerful malefactors to shape perceived reality to suit their preferences. Social media permit the modern villain to deploy traditional cruelties to great and surprising effect. Interactive digital storytelling lets us exploit weakness and illness for profit and help us normalize wickedness. Because the impact of villainous techniques is radically asymmetric, our fetid plots are difficult and costly to foil.