After I tapped to start, there was a pause and the wait screen showed ‘Interview Pending’. Seconds later, the page loaded up and the words ‘Failed At Interview’ and ‘Recommended Resignation’ appeared. It kinda hurt my feelings, but what the actual hell is going on?
We’re used to getting tips and stratagems to help us win at games, but when it comes to South Korean developed game Don’t Get Fired, it’s all luck — but with a linear storyline. The main goal in this crazy and perplexing mobile game? To make it to the very top of a corporation. You’ll need a lot of luck on your side, that’s for sure.
How To Play The Game Of Life
In Don’t Get Fired, you start at the bottom-most of the corporate ladder — as a lowly intern. You get a job, you have a job to do, and you better do it or you won’t have a job anymore and will get relegated to the bottom again.
Honestly, it’s the hardest game I’ve played. Where in real life, excelling at your job requires a combination of factors like showing up everyday, staying busy, doing your job well, working hard and keeping your head down (and everything will be just fine), this game just takes what you know and destroys it.
Gameplay is easy; it’s a linear storyline based on the decisions you make. There will be some tasks you’re required to do in the office, which at most requires simple tapping and being alert. Once the task is done, the screen goes blank while your actions are deliberated and the ultimatum delivered: You Got Fired or You Got Promoted. Each ultimatum will leave you with nervousness and uncertainty all the same. Each outcome will add to your ‘experience’, which is good, I guess.
You’re required to make a couple of lose-lose decisions along the way that will decide your fate in the corporate world. Things like pay off your student loans (not paying will incur a $100 interest every time the question pops up again) or buying your mum a purse (not buying will decrease your chances of getting a promotion every time you get asked). How does one choose? You don’t — you just drown in debt and bad decisions.
Getting Fired
There are so many reasons that’ll get you fired while you’re playing; it’s probably the biggest feature of the game. Company going bankrupt, opening a box of doughnuts, being a Negative Nancy to your colleagues, failing work challenges, getting caught working two jobs — the possibilities are endless. It’s almost addictive getting fired; you keep on playing to see how else you can get booted from worklife.
Too Much Real Life
It’s all too parallel with the working culture in Asia. Long hours of slogging away at desks, the banality of routine, low pay, dealing with bosses, the thanklessness of doing your job — the struggle is real, and the struggle is out there.
The lack of fancy graphics is also perhaps a reflection of real life; that there is ugliness in everything, and you are just a drone in this world of suffering. Man, that’s one life lesson that has got to hit you in the gut. And while it’s only negativity you will feel while playing Don’t Get Fired, perhaps the most salient takeaway one can get from this is that you just have to keep trying. We’re fighting battles everyday, and that’s heroic stuff man.
Download: Google Play