Curate of Curiosities

Now that we've seen both Molleindustria's takes on the fossil fuel industry and working culture, we have a basic idea as to how their games operate: although they deal with a surprising variety of gameplay styles, they have the same basic message: society, in its present state, is utterly broken.

Since most of their games are on the short side, what better way to show this philosophy than to devote one page to three different games?

First off, the McDonalds video game, originally released in 2005 with an updated version being released in 2019. What better target for your interactive anti-capitalist tract than one of the largest companies in the world? It didn't become one of their most popular games for no reason, after all.

Like Oiligarchy, this game is a management game, where you control various parts of the McDonald's supply chain.

First, we have the crop fields, bordered by both a cornfield and a rainforest. Here, you have the choice of using the fields to raise either cattle, which, of course, will be used for food, or soybeans, which will be used to feed the cattle. However, it won't be long before you run out of space, and the only way to get more is by cutting down the neighboring forest.

The second screen is the feedlot, where you manage feeding and slaughtering the cattle that are raised in the fields.

Not to mention slaughter them when they get too sick.

The third screen is the restaurant, where you hire and manage employees. Of course, you need customers in order to bring in profit, as well as beef patties to process and serve.

This brings us to the McDonald’s headquarters, consisting of three parts—the advertising division, who, by the looks of things, clearly have their work cut out for them, the public relations sector, where we can pay off politicians and activists (Just like in Oiligarchy!), and the executive board, where we can check on how the company is performing, not to mention get yelled at if we're not raking in enough profits. (Again, just like in Oiligarchy!)

Of course, in order to please your stockholders, you'll need to cut a few corners. To start with, in the feedlot, you have the option, and are in fact encouraged by the tutorial, to put industrial waste and growth hormones in with the cows' feed.

Eventually, no matter how much of the rainforest you cut down, you're going to run out of land. Sure, there are people in town that need the nearby cornfield, but unfortunately for them, the mayor thinks it's far more important for the mayor to have an extra $10000.

Uh oh! It looks like the public is starting to catch on to our unethical business practices. No worries, all we have to do is bribe the right people, and they'll forget it ever happened!

Even with all of these cost-cutting measures, though, the game is surprisingly difficult. The most reliable strategy I can think of is to not buy more than you need to maintain the supply chain. Sure, I ended up being bombarded with lawsuits, but the profit that I was getting was still more than enough to satisfy my shareholders.

Nevertheless, it seems that no matter what you do, you're doomed to fail eventually. Nobody said running such a high-profile company would be easy, though.

Next, we have Unmanned, released in 2012. Remember when everyone was making a big deal about America carrying out drone strikes in the Middle East and Afghanistan?

The game starts with our hero, a drone operator, dreaming about being chased by civilians.

And then he himself turns into a drone and flies away.

Then his day begins. He has this conversation he goes through while he shaves himself, but it ends early if you shave him completely.

The next stage has him driving to his workplace. The car here woks a bit like the one in Desert Bus in that if you don't have your hands on the steering wheel, then the car will veer off to one side. In the meantime, he has another conversation with himself.

We find out two things about him: firstly, that his son has ADHD and takes Ritalin for it, which seems like fodder for another layer of satire. Secondly, he has a crush on his coworker despite already being married, which probably wouldn't make for as good satire.

After that, there's this minigame where he sings a song and you have to guess the next line within the time limit. From here, we find out that our hero lives in Nevada, making this even more of a reference to Desert Bus.

And then it's time for work. He and his coworker are asked to tail someone with their drone. In the meantime, you have the option to flirt with her mere seconds after the scene starts. (She doesn't take it well, of course.) I wonder how long it'll be before he or someone else notices they're being tailed?

He goes on to have his lunch break, which seems to consist of one cigarette (that you can have him smoke in real time), and talks to his wife about their son's visit to the doctor. Of course, it isn't long before the conversation turns to what he actually does at his job. Obviously, he can't just tell her that he blows people up, so he just says some stuff about her being a "guardian in the sky" to make himself look like some sort of hero.

Alright, break's over. Time to tail our guy some more. Also, I'm no military expert, but it seems that the reason that you're using these remote-controlled devices is that there's no risk of casualties on your side. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you're the ones who are afraid.

But wait, it looks like our guy's planting something on the ground! All we have to do is get permission from our higher-ups, and we can blow him to smithereens. Of course, aiming at him is a bit tricky due to the floaty controls.

Not that it matters. All you have to do is aim vaguely near him, and he'll be atomized.

Work day's over, time to bond with our son over a nice military shooter.

Do you get the message yet? Do you get the really obvious message on the cognitive dissonance involved in the protagonist's line of work, that allows him to claim that his targets are too afraid to face them out in the open, then go home and play a game that involves doing just that?

Anyway, actually playing this game is surpisingly difficult, as oftentimes the enemies will hit you as soon as they pop up, when they're out of your field of view.

Naturally, I die.

This is where the satire involving how ADHD is treated in our society comes into play. During the appointment, Mikey's doctor had him take a test which he complains made him feel like a total invalid. I'm certain that those of you who have been in his position can relate. In the meantime, we play a different military shooter, this time where we shoot down Nazis.

Somehow, I actually managed to win.

The final scene is as simple as it gets; just click to make the sheep jump over the fence.

And that was Unmanned. As expected, it was heavy handed, though I'd still prefer it over Every Day The Same Dream. At least this doesn't seem to be promoting suicide, nor is it anti-capitalist; it's just stating "Hey, we're bombing people halfway across the world. Isn't that messed up?"

One last thing, you can get medals for doing various things during the game, such as succeeding in the karaoke minigame and flirting with the coworker. There are 12 in total, but the most I've ever gotten is 7.