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."

Comments

Wow, that's really silly

[Pluvius]

If you really want to know why minimum-wage jobs suck, why not just get a real job at Kinko's (or McDonald's, or whatever) and get paid while learning? It's not like it's hard to get hired.

Rob

Re:Wow, that's really silly

[iocat]

What games like this may miss is that there may be reasons to work at Kinkos or Starbucks other than that is the best job you could get. You may not be into having a career track job. Maybe you're an artist or a writer and want something that can pay the bills (more or less), gives you no mental stress when you're not on the clock, and may have fringe benefits (health care and coffee at Starbucks, and free copies for your fanzine/bandfliers/whatever at Kinkos).

Advergames? That's a new one...

[lpangelrob]

but it's an interesting scat on the seemingly pervasive branded advergames that have taken over.

For perspective, I wonder if the submitter believes that America's Army is an "advergame".

The common understanding seemes to be that such games are of low quality and value, but does that necessarily have to be the case?

Funny thing, this game...

[Red_Chaos1]

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.