Split screen, top-view (think Legend of Zelda. Simplistic style, with the ability to enter and exit buildings, walk up to objects, hold items, etc.)
This game is essentially the computer vs you
Computer is white male
You are either of a minority race or female
You work against the computer (Joe Whiteguy) to get a job
Your arrow keys allow you to move up, down, left and right. You may enter buildings by walking up to the front door. You can mail your resume by walking up to the mailbox and pressing ctrl+r. You may get into your car by pressing ctrl+c. You choose your destination from a drop-down menu provided any time you press ctrl+m. You may scroll through these items (which will list the job locations you have applied to, as well as phone numbers to reach several businesses) using the up and down arrows and can choose one by pressing enter once the selector is on it.
The program will lapse into night and back into daytime at a moderately rapid pace.
The split-screen allows you to watch as the computer receives calls about interviews, job offers, etc. while you must work much harder to receive the same calls and offers. His time is synchronized with yours.
First step: take resume (identical to computer’s) and send it out to as many businesses as you can. Try and schedule opportunities to meet potential employers face-to-face, bring resume in personally. Send out many through the mail. Obtain email contacts, use references to help advance you. Basically work your ass off to get noticed.
Second: As you work to get calls from possible employers, you must try and regulate your two meters located in the right-hand side of the screen. One meter gauges your level of happiness/contentedness, the other gauges how tired you are. You want to keep it at high-happiness and low-tiredness.
It is not really possible to win this game, because in the end, Joe Minority/Lady always has to work harder to receive the same call-backs and the same positions, despite the fact that you and Joe Whiteguy mailed out resumes that were identical.
While you play this game, the ability to watch your opponent's progress adds a level of stress to the player. It's never easy to watch as someone, almost effortlessly, beats you at a game that didn't seem all that difficult. The player may not have even realized the difficulties that actually face many minorities and women in the country as they battle for jobs in which they are perfectly qualified for. As Joe Whiteguy go through similar steps as you, you watch as he does not have to put in so much effort in before his phone starts ringing. (It’s a fact that a name on a resume that appears to be white male receives substantially more interviewers than one that sounds like it may come from a different racial background - particularly African American.)
You get a few interviews and watch them play out. The callback ratio will correspond with the study’s findings of frequency of employment based on race. The more callbacks you get, the higher your happiness meter soars. Your opponent’s meter will average higher, especially if you only put in the same amount of work as him. You have to do A LOT more to obtain the same level of contentedness during the job search and then work even harder than that to make your meter rise higher than his.
With regards to the meter that gauges how tired you are: Since Joe Whiteguy doesn’t have to put in as much leg work as you, his meter stays relatively lower than yours. So there is a give-and-take ratio that happens between the happiness meter and the tiredness gauge. You could maintain ultimate contentedness by putting in a ton of extra work, but you will exhaust your character in the process.
Once hired, (more than likely this will be after the computer has been hired) a comparison of salary can be taken into consideration. Starting salary will most likely differ, with the computer making more. He does less to rise up in the ranks, while you struggle to prove yourself. Again, the happiness meter comes into play. But this time it incorporates happiness at the job, how much you feel your accomplishments are taken into consideration, and how appreciated you feel overall at the job. This part will not involve any game play, it will be like a final scene in which you get to watch the two players go head-to-head at their new jobs. Depending on how hard you worked will depend on the level in which you were able to enter (i.e. did your character settle for a position that was below his expertise or did he put in the extra work to hold out while he applied, interviewed, set up appointments for meet-and-greets, etc in order to be accepted as a higher position) which will correspond with your player’s happiness and exhaustion levels.
The goal of this game is to beat Joe Whiteguy at the interview/hiring/salary game. But the point of this game is that that may not be possible.
