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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« on: January 12, 2026, 02:19:50 pm »
03. It Is As If You Were Doing Work || Browser || 01.10.2026
While looking for a thoughtful game to play, I came across It Is As If You Were Doing Work among developer Pippin Barr's gameography, whose works were suggested from the developers of another game I played some time ago, Something Something Soup Something (SSSS). I was hoping to play something that was just as impactful as SSSS was to me or even close to it, as it's still a game I think about every so often.
To outline It Is As If You Were Doing Work as succinctly as I'm able to, it's an introspective gaming experience about the value we as humans attribute to the act of labor, no matter how tedious or fictitious such labor may be, and then gamifying it. And, strangely, it's successful. As the in-game About text file reads, the game (or, rather, the program we as the player-character are engaged in which acts as the game we as the player are playing) "is an application created especially for those humans who feel the need to recapture an appearance of usefulness through traditional human-computer interaction." Of course, the application only exists in a theorized world where almost no human works anymore as a result of AI machine-learning having replaced human labor. So when we as the player begin, we log in to the program as one would at an office job at their personal work station. The program is a mock substitution of white-collar desk work to grant compromised or struggling individuals in this new world the opportunity to feel fulfilled by some arbitrary metric, wholly devoid of earned income but instead fueled by the work itself and the routine job title promotions we inevitably achieve.
Regarding gameplay, it's comprised of assorted tasks we're to complete that appear as pop-up windows flooding the screen. While they're all straightforward to accomplish, the effort that's required varies. Some are elementary action prompts: select the correct field option, input the desired field value, or merely click the requested button. Meanwhile, other tasks are slightly more in-depth, such as finding the correct date on a calendar. However, the most interactive task players will engage in are text fields that are often presented in the form of responding to an e-mail. During these sequences, players will actually need to press keys on the keyboard, but what appears on-screen is a pre-written message. there is always a subject the proposed e-mail is about, but the text we're implied to be typing are inspirational messages, though not generic ones people tend to think of when envisioning office space. Instead, what's typed out reinforces the program's design in re-establishing a sense of purpose to those who use it. Interestingly, tasks cannot be ignored. Time may pass resulting in their expiration, but they'll remain on-screen otherwise, meaning they'll naturally overlap one another as windows continue to appear over time. Additionally, tasks cannot be completed incorrectly; so while the program does aim to provide self-worth earned through completing tasks that are objectively simple, it does still force users to put in the minimal effort of performing them correctly.
All the while, completed tasks and just about every individual action grants a point value that leads to the user's promotion. Of course, there are no changes in how the program functions once a promotion is reached, and there aren't even differences to the types of tasks being presented. After all, there doesn't need to be. Working toward job performance milestones to earn a nonexistent promotion and seeing that subtle job title change is all that we need as struggling individuals who long for some sort of work satisfaction to feel accomplished. So, we keep working, and working, and working—until at some point, maybe we don't need the program anymore. We'll either find the sense of accomplishment we strove for and feel temporarily fulfilled or, instead, maybe we'll begin to find it all worthless. But in the context of what this fictional program and actual game is, I don't think whoever we as the player are intended to feel anything but the satisfaction we so longingly missed.
Alongside tasks to complete, there are four desktop icons to open. None of them relate to anything remotely resembling computer work, though they strangely do still award promotion points. Intermittently, the program pauses and opens a loading progress bar signifying our need to take a break. Whether these moments really serve as an intended break for the player-character or instead a stopping point for the real-life player to reflect upon what they've been doing all this time and consider stopping, I'm unsure. Maybe it's both. It's easy to just go through the motions while completing these tasks, just as it is with the work being emulated.
Something I noticed after playing while skimming through press reviews is that my takeaway upon playing was much different than others. While there is some level of humor involved in such an outlandish premise (though maybe it won't be in the years to come), I was much more analytical about my short time playing. While the game itself states that the program is for the 5% of people who haven't adapted to the change in human labor not needing to be exchanged to support one's life anymore, it only made me think of the kinds of people who live for work, so to speak, or those without any hobbies, interests, or life passions. Even when those opportunities are freely granted—when you now have full control of your life without consequence if whether you'll financially fail from doing or not doing something—there will still be people who aren't able to fathom what life is without performing work that's almost assuredly unimportant in the grand scheme of things. It's not as if I've been unaware that some people are like this all this time, though. It's just a sad reminder is all.
What's especially thought-provoking is that, in the end, It Is As If You Were Doing Work actually is just some game and not some self-help program for addicted workers out of a real job. And somehow, Barr has been able to accomplish making a game with such a tedious game loop that really does feel like work yet simultaneously has the work present itself as the game it is with its systems. When you think deeply about the topic, it's not like other gaming works people would objectively classify as games are that much different: buttons being pressed and prompts being read are noticeable similarities, but even gaming objectives such as farming resources or min-maxing character stats take on a quality to that of menial work that's devoid of fun. Maybe the line between what's work and what's play isn't all that objective.
While looking for a thoughtful game to play, I came across It Is As If You Were Doing Work among developer Pippin Barr's gameography, whose works were suggested from the developers of another game I played some time ago, Something Something Soup Something (SSSS). I was hoping to play something that was just as impactful as SSSS was to me or even close to it, as it's still a game I think about every so often.
To outline It Is As If You Were Doing Work as succinctly as I'm able to, it's an introspective gaming experience about the value we as humans attribute to the act of labor, no matter how tedious or fictitious such labor may be, and then gamifying it. And, strangely, it's successful. As the in-game About text file reads, the game (or, rather, the program we as the player-character are engaged in which acts as the game we as the player are playing) "is an application created especially for those humans who feel the need to recapture an appearance of usefulness through traditional human-computer interaction." Of course, the application only exists in a theorized world where almost no human works anymore as a result of AI machine-learning having replaced human labor. So when we as the player begin, we log in to the program as one would at an office job at their personal work station. The program is a mock substitution of white-collar desk work to grant compromised or struggling individuals in this new world the opportunity to feel fulfilled by some arbitrary metric, wholly devoid of earned income but instead fueled by the work itself and the routine job title promotions we inevitably achieve.
Regarding gameplay, it's comprised of assorted tasks we're to complete that appear as pop-up windows flooding the screen. While they're all straightforward to accomplish, the effort that's required varies. Some are elementary action prompts: select the correct field option, input the desired field value, or merely click the requested button. Meanwhile, other tasks are slightly more in-depth, such as finding the correct date on a calendar. However, the most interactive task players will engage in are text fields that are often presented in the form of responding to an e-mail. During these sequences, players will actually need to press keys on the keyboard, but what appears on-screen is a pre-written message. there is always a subject the proposed e-mail is about, but the text we're implied to be typing are inspirational messages, though not generic ones people tend to think of when envisioning office space. Instead, what's typed out reinforces the program's design in re-establishing a sense of purpose to those who use it. Interestingly, tasks cannot be ignored. Time may pass resulting in their expiration, but they'll remain on-screen otherwise, meaning they'll naturally overlap one another as windows continue to appear over time. Additionally, tasks cannot be completed incorrectly; so while the program does aim to provide self-worth earned through completing tasks that are objectively simple, it does still force users to put in the minimal effort of performing them correctly.
All the while, completed tasks and just about every individual action grants a point value that leads to the user's promotion. Of course, there are no changes in how the program functions once a promotion is reached, and there aren't even differences to the types of tasks being presented. After all, there doesn't need to be. Working toward job performance milestones to earn a nonexistent promotion and seeing that subtle job title change is all that we need as struggling individuals who long for some sort of work satisfaction to feel accomplished. So, we keep working, and working, and working—until at some point, maybe we don't need the program anymore. We'll either find the sense of accomplishment we strove for and feel temporarily fulfilled or, instead, maybe we'll begin to find it all worthless. But in the context of what this fictional program and actual game is, I don't think whoever we as the player are intended to feel anything but the satisfaction we so longingly missed.
Alongside tasks to complete, there are four desktop icons to open. None of them relate to anything remotely resembling computer work, though they strangely do still award promotion points. Intermittently, the program pauses and opens a loading progress bar signifying our need to take a break. Whether these moments really serve as an intended break for the player-character or instead a stopping point for the real-life player to reflect upon what they've been doing all this time and consider stopping, I'm unsure. Maybe it's both. It's easy to just go through the motions while completing these tasks, just as it is with the work being emulated.
Something I noticed after playing while skimming through press reviews is that my takeaway upon playing was much different than others. While there is some level of humor involved in such an outlandish premise (though maybe it won't be in the years to come), I was much more analytical about my short time playing. While the game itself states that the program is for the 5% of people who haven't adapted to the change in human labor not needing to be exchanged to support one's life anymore, it only made me think of the kinds of people who live for work, so to speak, or those without any hobbies, interests, or life passions. Even when those opportunities are freely granted—when you now have full control of your life without consequence if whether you'll financially fail from doing or not doing something—there will still be people who aren't able to fathom what life is without performing work that's almost assuredly unimportant in the grand scheme of things. It's not as if I've been unaware that some people are like this all this time, though. It's just a sad reminder is all.
What's especially thought-provoking is that, in the end, It Is As If You Were Doing Work actually is just some game and not some self-help program for addicted workers out of a real job. And somehow, Barr has been able to accomplish making a game with such a tedious game loop that really does feel like work yet simultaneously has the work present itself as the game it is with its systems. When you think deeply about the topic, it's not like other gaming works people would objectively classify as games are that much different: buttons being pressed and prompts being read are noticeable similarities, but even gaming objectives such as farming resources or min-maxing character stats take on a quality to that of menial work that's devoid of fun. Maybe the line between what's work and what's play isn't all that objective.
