Hey everybody

I'm a student at KU Leuven conducting research on indie games which file a complaint against the worklife or against capitalism. I'm here to ask you for suggestions for some of those games. These can be serious, comedic, ... as long as they talk about the worklife in the office, factory or about capitalism as a whole

Kind regards

Virtually any game development team worth its salt talks about work/life balance to some extent. Granted, some are far better about actually practicing balance than others, but that's not really the point.

Capitalism as a whole is a different beast. I don't know anyone talking about trying to overthrow the capitalist status quo in any serious, official capacity. For a number of reasons that seems like a rather odd point to hammer on... for example, what would we replace it with? How would we persuade the (predominantly capitalist) powers-that-be to abdicate? How is one team complaining going to accomplish anything?

Shifting economic models is a much bigger change than can be confined to one industry or subculture. It has to happen when a sufficient majority of the populace is discontent with the way things are, and possess enough power to effect change. I doubt the games industry is going to revolutionize the global economy any time soon.

Virtually any game development team worth its salt talks about work/life balance to some extent. Granted, some are far better about actually practicing balance than others, but that's not really the point.

Capitalism as a whole is a different beast. I don't know anyone talking about trying to overthrow the capitalist status quo in any serious, official capacity. For a number of reasons that seems like a rather odd point to hammer on... for example, what would we replace it with? How would we persuade the (predominantly capitalist) powers-that-be to abdicate? How is one team complaining going to accomplish anything?

Shifting economic models is a much bigger change than can be confined to one industry or subculture. It has to happen when a sufficient majority of the populace is discontent with the way things are, and possess enough power to effect change. I doubt the games industry is going to revolutionize the global economy any time soon.

I think the OP is just asking a list of games that level, within their narrative, any sort of critique against capitalism, either against specific
issues or a system as a whole. Isn't it rather odd and besides the point to ask "what would a team complaining accomplish" or "what would
be the alternative"? It's like asking "what a movie like Wall Street or Apocalypse Now could change".

I think artists criticize and pinpoint contemporary issues and ills all the time through their work, without having the burden of
necessarily outlining a viable alternative system, a way to transition to that, or even expecting their art to seriously change anything,
besides perhaps some people's opinions. They're artists, not politicians or economists.

In any case, I think the effectiveness of a work of art to change the current status quo is rather irrelevant
to what the OP is asking anyway, unless I myself misunderstood him. He merely conducts a research and
wants a list of games that do engage in such criticism.

Tbh though, I can't think many games that do some serious criticism. Most of the time there are some "memes" here and there.

I think the recent "Night in the Woods" deals with it, but I haven't played it yet.

"The Sea will claim anything" could be another example.

http://landsofdream.net/games/the-sea-will-claim-everything/

There's "I get this call every day" about office life.

http://www.davidsgallant.com/igtced.html

Also Sunset:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/287600/

And quite obviously the Bioshock games are a critique/parody of Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy. They're not exactly "indie" though. :)

(Seriously, what is it with the post formatting these days? :P )

I don't know if it's a big enough part of the game for your project, but Stardew Valley definitely has these themes.