Disaffected Puts Gamers Into Real Life 52
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."
Wow, that's really silly (Score:5, Insightful)
Rob
Re:Wow, that's really silly (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Wow, that's really silly (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wow, that's really silly (Score:1)
Sorry, i had to.
Re:Wow, that's really silly (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, if you're overqualified, it is rather difficult to get hired. They'd rather have someone who won't jump ship (and take away the training that Kinko's paid for) when the economy recovers. I went through this a few years ago.
Re:Wow, that's really silly (Score:1)
Re:Wow, that's really silly (Score:2)
Re:Wow, that's really silly (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wow, that's really silly (Score:2)
Re:Wow, that's really silly (Score:1)
Re:Wow, that's really silly (Score:2)
Re:Wow, that's really silly (Score:1)
A big....fat..... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:A big....fat..... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:A big....fat..... (Score:2, Interesting)
Why would it make money?
AFAIK, it isn't meant to make money... the
Re:A big....fat..... (Score:2)
Wonder if Kinko's backed out of a contract with them. Nice revenge.
Gee... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Lead the Way (Score:3, Interesting)
Advergames? That's a new one... (Score:5, Interesting)
For perspective, I wonder if the submitter believes that America's Army [americasarmy.com] 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?
Kinko's (Score:2)
2 cents,
Queen B
Re:Kinko's (Score:1)
I've also notices that their File, Print, Kinko's software is a complete screwjob. I sometimes have to print out materials that are several hundred pages split into about 10 chapters or so. If I use F.P.K., I pay full price for each file that
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Kinko's (Score:1)
Re:Advergames? That's a new one... (Score:2)
Nope. For another example, see Food Force [food-force.com], distributed by the UN's World Food Programme.
Re:Advergames? That's a new one... (Score:2)
Re:Advergames? That's a new one... (Score:2)
Game summary from the official website. (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Re:Game summary from the official website. (Score:2)
Re:Game summary from the official website. (Score:2)
Re:Game summary from the official website. (Score:2)
Hah! We Bush supporters were playing command and conquer generals before this Dean game ever came out!
Summary Blows (Score:4, Insightful)
Although somehow I have difficulty imagining a serious discussion relating a video game to a gateway drug.
Oh, also you can download it for (amazingly enough) FREE, from here [persuasivegames.com] or here [download.com].
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go bathe after being such a dirty karma whore.
Re:Summary Blows (Score:2)
Hmmm... This is Slashdot, BTW. Anything is possible. Even a virtual Kinko's.
Funny thing, this game... (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:Funny thing, this game... (Score:2)
Re:Funny thing, this game... (Score:2)
It certainly wasn't Xanadu, but it was a pretty good bridge between mindless retail jobs and a genuinely skilled technical ca
Way to follow the hyperlinking guidelines Zonk. (Score:3, Insightful)
Your hyperlink makes no sense at all. Didn't you even read taco's sermon?
Let's look at the text containing the link:
Now, the article linked to is titled "Undermining the advertisers" and it is about a game titled "Disaffected". For ten points: Based on the above text, and the subject of the article, which is the appropriate linking style?
Hint: It's not #3. And it's not #1. The article is not about a new company called "Persuasive Games". It's about the game Disaffected (and to a lesser extent, Persuasive's founder.) The link should be descriptive of the content of the link. Thus, it's not #4 either. Doesn't leave much...
How can Taco hold users to a higher standard than the so-called editors?
End note: It would actually have been more proper to link the whole sentence than the text that actually got linked. It's descriptive. A minimalist link that I do not think would be appropriate for slashdot (because it is not very descriptive) would be "The Guardian Gamesblog writes" which would at least tell you what you were clicking.
Re:Way to follow the hyperlinking guidelines Zonk. (Score:2, Insightful)
You must be new here.
Seriously though, Taco just posted a rant about proper hyperlinking, yet Zonk can't seem to handle the process. This place has all the professionalism of a drunk clown with his pants around his ankles pissing on little Jimmy at his birthday party.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Way to follow the hyperlinking guidelines Zonk. (Score:1)
HTH, HAND.
Re:Way to follow the hyperlinking guidelines Zonk. (Score:2)
Curry Game (Score:2)
Kinko's - not so bad (Score:1)
It may have started as a close-to-minimum wage job, but if you take the opportunity, it's a great place to network and launch a career. But I'm sure THAT part won't be in the game.
Concept for Persuave Games (Score:1)
Whacking your Neighbor (Score:1)