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Disaffected Puts Gamers Into Real Life
The Guardian Gamesblog writes of a new Persuasive Games game called 'Disaffected'. The title puts you into the shoes of a Kinkos employee to discover why real-life minimum-wage employees are often so miserable. From the article: "It presents a very simplistic premise, and one which may offend both Kinkos and the employees themselves. As a casual game, it can't get as deep into the sociohistorical aspects that dog underpaid, under-trained and often under-age employees of US national corporations that Eric Schlosser's books Fast Food Nation or Reefer Madness expose, but it's an interesting scat on the seemingly pervasive branded advergames that have taken over."
The only reason I can think of is to allow those who might have forgotten what it was like (Management types) to gain a little perspective. Of course, I am optimistic, and this will probably only be played with by bored college students living off their parents salaries.
-- Game summary from the official website:
Disaffected! - a videogame parody of the Kinko's copy store, a source of frustration from its patrons. Disaffected! puts the player in the role of employees forced to service customers under the particular incompetences common to a Kinko's store. From a new series of persuasive games we call anti- advergames.
-- I find it interesting that they parody themelves. Persuasive Games seems to have started with a Howard Dean sponsored game a few years back. They've also made games for the GOP of Illinois, Chrysler, and Jeep.
Other games from Persuasive Games:
Airport Insecurity - a game about inconvenience and the tradeoffs between security and rights in American airports. While the government wants you to believe that increased protection and reduced rights are necessary to protect you from terrorism, the effectiveness of airport security practices is uncertain.
Stone City - Cold Stone Creamery, Inc. - Cold Stone commissioned an employee training game to focus on the issue portion sizes and their relationship to profitability.
Elemental - An educational game to help teach junior high school students learn Chemistry.
PT Cruiser Cube Excape - THE stealth office game of 2006. Released as part of an integrated advertising campaign in support of the 2006 PT Cruiser.
Xtreme Errands - Xtreme Errands coincides with the North American launch of the Jeep Commander and challenges players to complete tasks utilizing the unique features of this vehicle.
Activism, The Public Policy Game - Sponsored by the DCCC and released during the height of the 2004 general election, players are challenged to balance six public policy issues with limited time and resources.
Take Back Illinois - Sponsored by the Illinois GOP, Take Back Illinois challenged players to explore four issues surrounding the 2004 state elections: Medical Malpractice Reform, Education Reform, Grassroots Activism, and Economic Reform. Take Back Illinois was a 2005 Slamdance Independent Game Festival Finalist.
Project Connect - a suite of 7 games created to educate 4th - 6th Graders on the science behind telecommunications technologies.
The Howard Dean for Iowa Game - launched at Christmas 2003 to help Dean supporters understand grassroots outreach and to encourage them to participate in pre-caucus campaigning in Iowa or in their local area. Ccommissioned by Dean for America, the game was the first ever official U.S. Presidential Election game.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
I work for FedExKinko's, have for about 2 months now. I can tell you right off that this game hardly portrays what it's really like, if you take it's description as truth. I myself work 3rd shift, and am titled a "Production Operator", which is the middle of 3 positions for that shift, and pays a base of $10/hr., with an added $1/hr. shift differential. So I earn $11/hr. I know most of the other people working in production (read: you generally don't take customer orders or show customers anything unless there's nobody else to do it) make at least $8\$9/hr. to start, not minimum wage. I can't be so sure about the people who work "Express", as they are the people who deal most often with customers and help them make their own copies, etc.
That said, anyone who cares can learn some valuable stuff working at Kinkos. Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat Pro, and Adobe InDesign get used pretty extensively, with PageMaker and Quark getting used less so. You also learn how to use auto folders, stitchers, laminators, do bindings, etc.
Add that the company does matching 401K, and offers a few different PPOs to choose from for medical, dental, and optical, does bonuses for every employee if monthly plans are met, and that you get paid for many holidays, and you can't help but face the fact that Kinko's is hardly a McJob.
It's not the Emerald City of Oz, but it's pretty good, IMHO.
So that said, I think I'll take this game's premise with a grain of salt.