I Get This Call Every Day
Developer: David S Gallant
Publisher: David S Gallant
Platform: Mac, Windows (Reviewed)
Release Date: December 21st, 2012
Price: $2.00 or more (Pay What You Want) Buy it Here
Overview
David S Gallant used to spend his day working for a call centre in Toronto. Then he made I Get This Call Every Day to blow off the stress from his day job. His boss fired him for this game in twist of life imitating art. I Get This Call Every Day an interactive fictional version of the idiotic and annoying customers he used to handle on a daily basis.
Story
I Get This Call Every Day is a simulated choose your own misadventure simulating life as an office drone in a call centre. Anybody who has had the unfortunate experience of having worked or currently working in a field involving customers will appreciate the game. The game only features one caller with a variety of possible endings. The caller is believable, ranging from an obnoxious youth to grating idiot. The player’s own possible responses range from new at your job polite to burnt out completely rude.
Gameplay
I Get This Call Every Day works like any piece of interactive fiction. The game gives you one of several options to select, the narrator reads the chosen line and then the caller responds. The controls are simple, extremely usable, and do not suffer from any difficulties. One of the biggest problems with the game is its length. The game can literally be played in ten or so minutes if the player patiently sticks to the script of a polite call centre employee and suffer the caller with grace and serenity worthy of a Zen master. The game is worth a few replays just to see all of the ways it is possible to be fired. It appears that the game keeps some sort of strike mechanic running. If enough incorrect actions are taken, the player is unceremoniously fired by email. Unfortunately, each firing is rewarded with the exact same curse with no response to the nature of the firing.
Visuals
I Get This Call Every Day looks like it was made in Microsoft Paint and drawn with a mouse. Creator David S Gallant stated that the art style started in the original mock ups of the game but was maintained because the ugly “art seemed to fit … [because] the game presents an ugly situation.” The art style actually contributes to vibe that this game was made by an angry and frustrated employee blowing off steam during or between calls.
Audio
It is blazingly obvious that David Gallant suffered worked as a call centre employee. The lines he delivers as the employee roll off his tongue like a well-practiced machine. The caller’s voice is believable and manages to hit the right tones of indignation and stupidity without becoming a caricature.
Overall
I Get This Call Every Day would make a great Flash game. But asking for even $2.00 is an extremely steep price for the game. The game can be completed in a short period of time and the replayability only doubles the 10 minute length of getting the most polite ending. Trudging through the same painful conversations to see how the other endings work out gets painful quickly. On one hand, the game proves its point about how terrible Gallant’s job was as a call centre employee. On the other hand, Gallant was being paid to endure this torture handle callers, the player is paying to endure stupid callers. After the first call, the game goes from funny to agonizing. For the full price, I cannot suggest buying the game for the sake of enjoying a game. The purchase of I Get This Call Every Day will most likely be more for the buyer than a purchase for long term personal enjoyment. The reasons to buy ths game might be to balance karma after accidently driving a call centre employee insane or to simply to support Gallant in his freedom new life. However, buying I Get This Call Every Day for face value is not recommended.
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