But this virtual world seems to erase central aspects of being a hacker: interactions with other human beings, ingenuity to produce clever hacks, and the time and labor required to prove oneself as a respectable hacker. (See this Human Revolution parody that compares the game’s hacking to fake typing on printers in an electronics store.) That said, it does incorporate other important aspects, including resistance to authority, strategic thinking, and—simply put—fun. True to early hacker Richard Stallman’s (RMS) definition of “hack value” as imbued with “playfulness, cleverness, and exploration,” video game hacking relies less on technical accuracy and more on spirited and strategic exploration.

While video games can’t recreate all the thrills of real-life hacking, players get to operate in a fantastical space. As media theorist Stephen Duncombe puts it using the example of Grand Theft Auto: “[Y]ou have a lot of people vicariously acting out a spectacular fantasy. More important, you have a lot of desires and dreams begging to be addressed.” Grand Theft Auto lets you experience, well, grand theft auto and other crimes; World of Warcraft lets you raid and pillage; and Animal Crossing lets you build an island home while befriending cute anthropomorphic animals. In Human Revolution, you embody a different self who is free and able to sidestep the law—all while exploring a future cyberpunk world, guns blazing. You get to choose among alternate personas who can move around freely, speak their truth, hurt some people, and help others. A Human Revolution player jokes, “I’m not so much stealthy, non-lethal hacker as a cowardly, non-lethal guy who runs away a lot. With sunglasses embedded in my forehead.” But it’s the choice to be lethal or non-lethal, stealthy or clumsy, brave or cowardly that makes video games enticing, especially for those with limited mobility, choice, or freedom outside the virtual world.

Human Revolution and other hacking-simulating games join the growing number of hacking representations in popular culture that have the potential to incite curiosity. This ranges from the 1983 film WarGames, famous for inspiring many hackers to get into the craft, to Watch Dogs, a video game about a grey hat hacker. (The latter prompted someone to ask, “Is this game gonna inspire people to become hackers?” The answer seemed to be no.) Others have gamified hacking to teach newcomers, such as Hacknet and its simulated terminal. Even if they might not produce new hackers, the act of hacking comes into plain sight. It is video games’ combination of immersion and physicality that prompts the viewer to experiment as a doer.

The relationship between hacking and gaming goes beyond video games with hacking or hackers gaming. Both inspire self-expression, strategic thinking (even in the form of hacking into video games), speculations of technological and political futures, and public critique. As Milburn argues in Respawn: Gamers, Hackers, and Technogenic Life, video games such as Deus Ex are not merely virtual playgrounds but also arenas where hackers—groups like Anonymous—engage in activism and imagine alternative futures. In open-ended games like Human Revolution, a player’s freedom to do (almost) anything is a simultaneous reminder of and a potential solution to the limits of hacking. Whether the game is hacker-approved, though, probably differs from person to person. And if it is approved, it’s likely not for accurately depicting the craft but rather for rendering a world of spectacular possibilities.