Keeping Up With the Joneses
A browser-based game that recreates the "keeping up with the Joneses" effect,
connecting it to the issue of suicide due to poverty
TOOLS
HTML5, CSS3
JavaScript
MS Paint
YEAR
2016
Concept
The course The Politics of Code provided students with a critical perspective of how software works as a political medium. For the final project, each student was required to implement technical knowledge to produce software/code addressing a relevant, current issue following the political theory and media studies covered in class.
I had become interested in the occurrence of suicide due to poverty, an issue that has been studied and directly associated to economic inequality, social exclusion, and perceptions of prosperity. I found the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses" (which is an idiom in the English language) in the title of an article detailing this problem.
Following my research, I decided that a game would be effective in recreating several factors that play a role in this phenomenon: the notion of winning versus losing; positive or negative feedback depending on performance; a system of rewards; etc. Also, designing the game to be simple, as well as to look easy and familiar, would be fitting for concept. The problem of suicide due to poverty seems to go largely unnoticed, and in my opinion, it is particularly insidious because only the few, most vulnerable individuals are affected. In a way, it seems to be hidden in the day-to-day, in the "normality" of everyone else's comfort.
Below are slides from the project proposal presentation, which show part of my research, as well some initial ideas and inspiration for the game.
Website
This was my first time developing a website, and it encompassed writing HTML5 and CSS3, coding the game with JavaScript, and setting up a server. Most of the image assets were created using Microsoft Paint, to make them in the style of pixel art and give the website the aesthetic of retro video games, while others were found online.
The website has issues regarding what is (and isn't) shown on screen while the game takes place: the page doesn't adjust to the viewport's dimensions, and therefore the user must reduce the browser's zoom or scroll to see all of the game's elements. This is an aspect of web design that I have improved on since, as I learned more about this practice.
Game
The game was designed to maximize comparison. The player has a house in a neighborhood, represented by a grid onscreen, and they can always see their home in comparison to those of their neighbors. At the top of the grid, it is made clear that the goal of the game is to reach the "high income" socio-economic class.
There are four boxes surrounding the neighborhood:
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At the top left, the user can see for how many generations they have been playing (pointing to the generational nature of poverty and wealth) and their current socioeconomic class (by category, by income number, and in a bar). An upwards or downwards arrow will appear at certain moments to show improvement or decline in social mobility.
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At the bottom left, the user can see what each household owns, which changes according to income level.
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At the bottom right, there is a big button that the user can click only when "activated".
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At the top right, the user can see when a job is "available". These jobs are the only opportunities to increase income level and social mobility. When a job is available, the button below is activated, and the user can click on it. To complete a job, the user must click a certain number of times.
Here's the thing about these jobs: the lower your income level, the harder they are to complete. You need to click more times to complete a job in the lower levels than in the higher ones. Also, you might encounter "obstacles" (debt, disease, etc.) that prohibit you from clicking the button and completing a job. So, in some cases, you might see your household fall into extreme poverty quite quickly. Additionally, these clicking jobs are boring, trivial, and annoying: the goal is not to have fun or learn anything from the action, but to make the necessary money.
In the game, there is always a red button with an X on the top right corner of the screen (not shown in the image below) that the user can click on at any time. If they do, a window will pop up asking if they are sure they want to commit suicide. If they answer "no", they keep on playing. If they answer "yes", they are taken out of the game and to a Google results page for "suicide + poverty".
