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Earlier today, we reported that Apple had pulled Molleindustria's iPhone game Phone Story from the app store. The game depicts four stages of the production of a smartphone, exposing the ugly truths of smartphone development with a frankness that is designed to make users uncomfortable.
Earlier today, A friend of mine managed to snag a copy of the game during the three hours it was available on iTunes and shot this video on his laptop. It shows all four sections of the game. From the start, a narrator guides players through each different section.
Players begin in a Coltan mining facility in the Congo, and must yell at workers to keep productivity high. If you stop, the game admonishes you and says that you can't get out of your complicity by not participating, as you are already participating by owning a smartphone.
After that, players control a safety net designed to keep factory workers from leaping to their deaths. This level is a gruesome take on the now-infamous Foxconn scandal involving suicides and other struggles of the Chinese factory workers who build many of America's favorite electronics. (Our Joel Johnson reported extensively for Gizmodo.)
In the third phase, players take control of an Apple Store employee who hands out smartphones to charging consumers.
"Then, you purchased this phone," the game tells the player. "It was new and sexy. You waited for it for months. No evidence of its troubling past was visible. Did you really need it [the phone]? Of course you did! We invested a lot of money to instill this desire in you. You were looking for something that could signal your status, your dynamic lifestyle, your unique personality. Just like everyone else."
If you fail, once again the narrator tells you, "You didn't meet the goal. Don't pretend you are not complicit."
In the final level, the game walks players through the planned obsolescence of the product, and the eWaste that it generates.
We haven't heard back from Apple about the game and why it's no longer on iTunes, but we'll update when we do.
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But... who's really to blame here?
The American consumer who bought these? The American companies that decided to manufacture these in 3rd world cess pools?
Or...
The governments of those cesspolls that control production, working conditions and wages of those people? Congo? China? They are mostly responsible for the reprehensible and miserable plight of those people. Those dictatorships allow such conditions to manifest in the first place. You can't blame the drug addict without first looking at the drug dealer.
Just sayin. (Edit comment)
i'm not saying that the average american consumer bears no responsibilty or partial blame. as an iPhone owner, I'm shocked and disgusted by the means of which my iPhone became available to me. however, the blame can not be placed squarely on me or other iPhone owners. the misery of all those other people is not specifically my fault. it is the fault of the governments that create an enviornment where exploitation thrives.
Americans don't have to put up with working conditions like this because of a combonation of the free-market and the pro-labor push of the early 20th century. shitty working conditions? fine, I'll work at the factory across the street thats offering better pay and better conditions. but in Congo / China, where the government runs all forms of production and pricing, it doesn't matter what the worker wants. all that matters is what the government wants, and it's better for them to let the exploitation continue because it means lining the pockets of corrupt beauracrats and dictators. (Edit comment)
are you saying that it's the fault of Americans buying cheaply made products in 3rd world cess-pools that have created these dictatorships that allow human exploitation to continue? or is it that American companies flock to these places because they know they can get a product made cheaper since the government has basically sanctioned these types of working conditions in the first place?
i'm not saying that there's nothing we could do about it and stop feeling sorry for those poor people, keep buying iPhones and too-bad for them for being born in the wrong country. i agree that it's tasteless and insenstive that any American company would knowingly make a product there because they can work the people under any conditions without fair compensation.
you can blame yourself as a consumer if it makes you feel better, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily your fault. these 3rd world exploiters, dictators and corrupt politicians would exist with or without American consumers buying these types of products. (Edit comment)
And I am sorry your "insatiable appetite for status and needles products" comment is the dumbest thing I have ever read. Because you directly contradict yourself by using your PC/Phone to post that. Or every time you drive your car, watch your TV, play your game systems or use any kind of technological advancement for that matter.
So unless you live in a tree somewhere and have your own vegetable garden to live off of and have no contact with the outside world you are hypocrite for saying that.
Life sucks and it is not right they are treated that way. But it is not the consumers fault and if you really want to get down to it, it is not even the corporations fault. It is the countries fault for letting it slide.
The world isn't fair, even though it should be. Buying or not buying a product isn't going to change anything. Because sadly their lives would most likely be worse off without the job. The best we can do is acknowledge that we in first world countries have it good and to be grateful for what we have. And try to be good people and do the right thing when and if the time presents itself.
Anyways, I am not trying to attack you. This is just my view on the whole thing. (Edit comment)
And the rape analogy is a shitty analogy and you know it. Drug addiction has a physiological basis. Are you saying men are biologically compelled to rape scantily clad women? Shit, Sports Illustrated photo shoots need to start having police on premise. Oh, but they better be female cops, and not lesbians either. (Edit comment)
Moron? I'm not the one who chose two poor analogies in a row. (Edit comment)
I didn't do a "complete turn around", it is a logical chain of events. Businesses exist only to provide profit to shareholders. Otherwise they are a charity/non-profit organization. They don't deal in ethics, they deal in legalities. Boards don't convene and say "Hmmmm we have these third world countries to exploit, what should we do". It usually goes more along the lines of "The consumer is interested in product A and we have determined they will be willing to pay X for this. If we move manufacturing to China we can cut costs to X/10 and make 90% profit". Consumer choices and opinions are the catalyst for every corporate decision ever made. If every apple customer demanded "iPhone 5 manufactured in the US with fair labor or no purchase" and boycotted their products you would find not only Apple shifting gears, but other manufacturers trying to pick up all of that potential revenue. (Edit comment)
And, despite any argument you put forth, you share some of that responsibility. I do too. Until we start forcing these companies to do business in a responsible manner, by researching the companies we give money to and consciously not buying the latest phones or consoles or hardware produced in this way, we will always share that responsibility. (Edit comment)
Do you think that if there was something like the surgeon's general warning on the iPhone box saying something like, "the people making this product have a life expectancy of less than 30 years and the average wage is less than 1 cent an hour," would even one person in that line on launch day walk away?
Yes the consumers are to blame. In my mind, they carry most of the blame. They are the "evil" in the system. The companies and governments are just doing what is expected of them to provide consumers with what they ask for. (Edit comment)
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