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How Making a Video Game About Your Life Can Get You Fired

Designer David Gallant knew creating a game about his experience working at call centers might cost him his job, and then it actually happened.

No Caption Provided

“This game is a work of fiction. It is inspired by real events. Similarities to real and actual events are intentional.”

When Canadian game designer David Gallant created the purposely mundane I Get This Call Every Day, based on his employment experience at various call centers, he knew it could get him into trouble. But it’s easy to think in hypotheticals. On Tuesday, however, the worst case scenario actually happened.

I Get This Call Every Day was originally conceived during a mini-Ludum Dare game jam from last September with the theme “Not Game.”

Gallant's job at the Canada Revenue Agency was not the first time he'd worked in a call center.
Gallant's job at the Canada Revenue Agency was not the first time he'd worked in a call center.

“That’s where I kind of got the idea of a call center simulation where there’s no good outcomes,” he told me on Wednesday. “There’s no real way to win the game.”

Development continued for several weeks after the jam, and it was finally published on his personal website on December 21. Gallant followed the popular pay-what-you-want model with a minimum of $2. On launch day, Kotaku ran a story on it, which drove a little bit of attention his way, but nothing notable in terms of sales. Gallant was just happy to have someone pay attention to his game.

The game itself falls into a similar category as Cart Life. I Get This Call Every Day has less to do with fun and more to do with imparting empathy through interactivity. Games are in a unique position to convey an activity, even one as dull as talking to taxpayers on the phone. I Get This Call Every Day has players sitting at a desk, waiting for a green button to flash, and choosing how to respond. Both characters are voiced by Gallant, and the whole experience--interface, visuals, art--is humorously crude.

It’s also, ironically, very easy to get fired yourself in I Get This Call Every Day.

Gallant published the game on Desura and Indievania, and made a move for approval on Steam's Greenlight service. It hasn’t gone well, with users responding negatively to the MS Paintish aesthetic.

“Things were, for the past week, really quiet,” he said.

Then, a reporter for the Toronto Star contacted Gallant. The Toronto Star is a big, notable newspaper in Canada, so if the Toronto Star comes a-knockin’, you answer. The reporter wanted to discuss I Get This Call Every Day, and revealed a key bit of information about Gallant’s life: the reporter knew he worked at Canada Revenue Agency.

I contacted the reporter in question, Valerie Hauch, to learn more about how she found out about the game, but Hauch did not return my request for comment, as of this writing.

His co-workers were aware of his hobby, and he regularly passed out business cards to promote the part-time business. Either nobody went to the website prominently featuring I Get This Call Every Day, or nobody cared. He didn’t actively discuss and showcase I Get This Call Every Day, though, knowing it might solicit unwanted attention.

“I got the idea that my fellow coworkers really wouldn’t be the audience for this game because it is an experience that they already have to deal with,” he said.

Nonetheless, Gallant’s not-quite-secret secret was about to become very, very public.

“To this point, I had never disclosed who I worked for deliberately,” he said. “The game doesn’t mention what employer it is.”

Gallant was told this detail would be included in the reporter’s piece, which appeared in a story on Tuesday titled “Tax department employee creates online game to vent his frustration with taxpayers.” Furthermore, the reporter contacted the government to get an official response.

“I knew that was always a possibility,” said Gallant. “This game could, in a way, be linked back to my employer, it could be something they take offense to, and I always knew there was a risk that I could lose my job because of that.”

He knew the risk, and the reporter was just doing their job. Pretty quickly, the situation snowballed. Gallant was unable to disclose the exact nature of what happened on Tuesday. Take a guess. He could only confirm he no longer had a job, and it’s pretty clear the reason Gallant is no longer taking phone calls is due to the game he made.

“The Minister considers this type of conduct offensive and completely unacceptable,” said National Revenue Minister Gail Shea in a statement to the Toronto Star. “The Minister has asked the Commissioner (of Revenue, Andrew Treusch) to investigate and take any and all necessary corrective action. The Minister has asked the CRA to investigate urgently to ensure no confidential taxpayer information was compromised.”

It’s not difficult to suspect how a story like this might end.

The story that ended up running in the Toronto Star about I Get This Call Every Day.
The story that ended up running in the Toronto Star about I Get This Call Every Day.

Gallant attracted a bit of attention from the story itself, but when it became clear an investigation would happen, he received a flurry of questions about his employment status on Twitter. He was, at least, able to disclose that he was no longer employed at the Canada Revenue Agency.

“Anyone hiring?” he wrote.

Since then, there’s been an unbelievable outpouring of support from the community.

LD'er @davidsgallant made a game about his job, got covered by Canada's largest(?) paper, and lost it. Help a bro out: davidsgallant.com/igtced.html

— Mr The Mike Kasprzak (@mikekasprzak) January 30, 2013

Buying this game right now - the developer, @davidsgallant , was fired for making it. Be kind and share this link. davidsgallant.com/igtced.html

— Alan Williamson (@AGBear) January 29, 2013

Yesterday @davidsgallant got fired for a game he made. I thought it was a fabulous example of games as art: business.financialpost.com/2013/01/30/dow…

— Daniel Kaszor (@dkaszor) January 30, 2013

“Oh, my god,” he said. “I don’t think I have a word for the emotional experience that this has all been. It was pretty tense yesterday [Tuesday], and then just coming home to the explosion of support--all the media coverage. And it’s still ongoing. I really thought by now it would have died down, but it’s still going!”

Besides media coverage, he's received support from Double Fine’s Chris Remo, Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail, Molleindustria’s Paolo Pedercini, and others. These are developers he admires, and they’re talking about his game.

“Both the local Toronto community and the online community has stepped up to this plate that I didn’t even know existed,” he said. “The amount of home runs being hit right now are...I can’t fathom it. I really wish I could say more. I’m just speechless.”

The outpouring of support has also translated into money for Gallant. His numbers don’t update in real-time, so it’s unclear how much he’ll actually make from all of the attention, but it’s enough to give him some breathing room over the next few months. He’s still looking for a job, though.

Dys4ia is an interactive reflection of Anthropy's experience with gender identity disorder.
Dys4ia is an interactive reflection of Anthropy's experience with gender identity disorder.

For the time being, Gallant and his wife are trying to take it day-by-day. They've taken to watching Star Trek episodes as a distraction, while watching email notifications about new sales come in, $2 at a time. He’d love to transition over to full-time game development, but eventually attention towards I Get This Call Every Day will dry up, and there’s not enough to gamble on just yet.

The enormously positive reaction he’s received has reinforced his desire to work on video games that do more to encompass the human experience. He pointed to Minority Media’s Papo & Yo and Anna Anthropy’s Dys4ia as formative moments for him, both as a player and developer.

“I had a friend who went through a gender change and, at the time, I didn’t really know how to deal with it,” he said. “Playing Dys4ia years after that happened really made me realize what I’d been missing in that whole experience,what she must have been going through that I really didn’t consider at the time. I think it’s really important that games are doing that,” he said. “I don’t think every game has to, but it’s something that deserves exploring, that I really want to see more developers explore.”

Patrick Klepek on Google+

228 Comments

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Woowookins

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Edited By Woowookins

Typo: "what she must have been gowing through"

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splodge

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Edited By splodge

David S Gallant Keep your chin up dude. Think of it this way: Now that you do not work there any more, you can really make a game about the job. No need to hold back any more.

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Paindamnation

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Edited By Paindamnation

I get those calls everyday I work in a technical support company for over 60 schools, so I deal with a range from Student's to Faculty/staff, presidents, dean, and etc. Their are alot of dumb people out there. And he's right "I get this call everyday" some things we just have no information on, or we literally are flying blind because the school decided to not give us access to log in as them, or their systems, so I can understand the frustration. However it was in terrible taste that the guy got fired because of it. The company knows it's customer basis, and it only found out, not by research but most likely the press release. While their are dumb people, at the end of the day, you take off your head set and go home, some people just can't do that.

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xymox

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Edited By xymox

It'd be a pretty obvious choice to be honest. Would you keep someone who's essentially saying your customers are shit? I mean, sure, that's not the exact wording used here, but still. I don't think that's good marketing. So I understand why he was let go. If you work as a kindergarten caretaker you don't make a game about decapitating small children. Maybe that's exaggerated as hell on my part, but whatevz, but I've got $2 to spare and it sounds like an interesting experience. No need for pity purchase.

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DarkbeatDK

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Edited By DarkbeatDK

I work in the technical support of an power company where I try to help out people over the phone if they have to electricity to see if they need our help or the help of an electrician.

It's not so bad where I'm at, but I do get the feeling that frontline, who takes cares of bills, has it worse, since they often have to uphold the rules until a customer complains high enough in the system and gets their way.

I hate it when people who complain enough get their way... It's not fair that people get special treatment for being jerks.

If someone got hysterical in the supermarket over there was just one register open, would you let them cut in line? Would it be fair to you?

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DJNeckspasm

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Edited By DJNeckspasm

@SpaceInsomniac: whoops, accidently put this as a private message. He did not sound intelligent enough to know of the word niggardly. The thick southern accent didn't help.

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SpaceInsomniac

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Edited By SpaceInsomniac
@DJNeckspasm said:

I had one customer tell me the company I worked for encouraged "niggerly" behavior because we cut off his internet until he paid his bill.


Are you sure he didn't say niggardly instead? http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/muddle#word=niggardly  Not that I'd go and make that word a part of my vocabulary anytime soon. 
 
And it wouldn't be the first time that word has caused problems for someone: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/williams/williams020499.htm
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SpicyRichter

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Edited By SpicyRichter

As much as I don't like it, I'm pretty sure the tax department was well in their right to fire him, so I doubt there will be legal action. Besides, I doubt he's all that broken up about it.

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DJNeckspasm

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Edited By DJNeckspasm

I worked at one call center for 5 years before getting fired. I was hired at another call center and stayed there for 6 months before quitting.

I consider those years of my life a complete waste.

Call centers breed shit. Nobody wants to work at a call center and nobody wants to call a call center. It's this godawful nexus where irritated people converge and explode.

The problems come from so many angles. Angry people is an obvious issue. Stupid people can be just as bad and often turn into angry people. People with problems you can't fix or can't fix well. Supervisors that push too hard. Supervisors that let too much go. Agents who don't do their job.

Even if you are incredibly good at call center work you'll still get stupid angry people who won't listen to reason. With the way the queue works in a call center it's possible for you to get nothing but angry stupid people the entire day. 8 hours or for some people 10 hours of talking to people who actively hate you and blame you for problems you didn't create.

"We had a lightning storm and now my internet doesn't work you piece of shit!"

"I'm sorry to hear that sir but I am not Thor so I have no control over the elements"

I had one customer tell me the company I worked for encouraged "niggerly" behavior because we cut off his internet until he paid his bill.

I had an old lady ask me to schedule a technician to come out and adjust the volume on her computer.

One old man wanted me to call him a taxi so he could go down the street to get some soup.

The worst part was people who had legitimate reasons to be very upset. There were people calling in who already had 10 different technicians come out to try and fix their problem. The only solution I had was to send another one. How do you sell that? How do you get out of that situation without a torrent of profanity? Some people I talked to had been hung up on 5 or 6 times. Some people received bills that were fully 10 times what it should have been. I didn't create any of these problem but I had to answer for them. You can be great at your job and do everything right and you'll still get shit on.

I was never great at that job. I got pretty good at talking to customers and I have a social anxiety disorder so that's significant. I never did get good at the rushing without rushing part. You had to keep your call time as low as possible without hurrying people off the phone. You also needed to document each call in 3 different systems in under a minute. It was the documentation that got me fired. I frequently forgot to or didn't bother documenting calls. Eventually they got tired of telling me to improve. I know that not long after I was fired they instituted a new system for documentation that was a lot faster. I know there were people working there that deserved to be fired a lot more than I did but it doesn't matter. I wish they had fired me sooner so I didn't waste so much of my life doing something I hated.

I'm back in college now and doing classes on web development. I will never work at a call center again.

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Lyriell

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Edited By Lyriell

What kind of society do we live in where a reporter thinks it is better to ruin one mans livelihood for a few web-clicks or paper-sales.

Hey, it's capitalism... whatever brings in the money right?

Sick...

I think people lose focus on what's important in life.

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Humanity

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Edited By Humanity

@Zvarri: I know it wasn't and I read as much. Losing your job definitely isn't a pleasant experience, trust me I know, I was under HR investigation for 3 months before I was finally given an unacceptable option or termination after being 5 years with the company - and I didn't even do anything wrong which is the funny thing. I don't want to sound like a total asshole saying "oh you didn't deserve all this support!" I just mean it's kinda surprising how people are so shocked at your employer for taking, what I consider, quite standard action in this sort of situation.

Hope you find a new job soon, hopefully a better one.

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Scotto

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Edited By Scotto

@Christoffer said:

@jtrink said:

Freedom of speech. Fuck that company!

Feels like I've written this a hundred times.

Freedom of speech doesn't protect you from companies, it's about the government.

Amazes me how many people don't understand this. Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from any consequences for your words - it means the government can't prosecute you for your words.

And even then, Canada's recognition of free speech is narrower than the United States - we have controversial laws that treat things like "hate speech" differently, for example.

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RE_Player1

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@bwmcmaste said:

@zeekthegeek said:

Canadian taxpayer here. This government continues to be the worst in our history. Any criticism is seen as treason.

Other Canadian taxpayer here. This government is no worse than any other one we've had in the past - people just bitch about it too much.

Yup.

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morden2261

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Edited By morden2261

@joetom said:

I don't think the reporter was "just doing his job" when he made that headline. He clearly wanted to stir shit up by creating controversy where there wasn't one. If I didn't know better, I'd think Patrick made a mistake and confused the Toronto Star with the Toronto Sun, because that's exactly the kind of sensationalist bullshit I expect from The Sun.

Indeed. That headline set the tone for how he'd ultimately be judged. I hope the reporter feels some guilt over how this played out... but she probably doesn't.

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FierceDeity

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Edited By FierceDeity

@thabigred said:

@MildMolasses said:

@thabigred said:

@MildMolasses said:

@thabigred said:

I've always had nothing about respect for our northern neighbors. I can't respect this.

Except for the part where he is an employee of the federal government and he's bitching about his decent paying, tax-funded job with great benefits which involves interacting with tax-payers concerning taxation. He was "club-fed" employee. It takes remarkable skill to get fired from government agencies. Maybe if his frustrations could take a more artful turn into metaphor and allegory he wouldn't lose his job, but they didn't.

You assume too many things in your posta. Like how artful allegory or metaphor could have saved his job, or like in another post where you said that "No one outside of Toronto reads to Toronto Star".

Actually I read the Toronto Star and I'm from Florida, about as far South in the US as you can get. I also don't think you understand how game development works if your response was he should be more metaphoric.

If you're going to continue being an insipid asshole to a guy who clearly put a lot of hard work and dedication into something, I have no business with you. Don't bother responding if you're going to continue being rude about this, and stop assuming things that you don't know.

I appreciate being called an insipid asshole and then told that I'm the one being rude.

BTW, I already corrected and admitted my mistake regarding the Star earlier.

When you make a game then I won't call you an insipid asshole for being an insipid asshole to someone who put the enough heart and dedication into something to actually ship a finished game.

Oh, he "shipped" a game? Really now?

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joetom

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Edited By joetom

I don't think the reporter was "just doing his job" when he made that headline. He clearly wanted to stir shit up by creating controversy where there wasn't one. If I didn't know better, I'd think Patrick made a mistake and confused the Toronto Star with the Toronto Sun, because that's exactly the kind of sensationalist bullshit I expect from The Sun.

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Christoffer

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Edited By Christoffer

@jtrink said:

Freedom of speech. Fuck that company!

Feels like I've written this a hundred times.

Freedom of speech doesn't protect you from companies, it's about the government.

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PinstripeHourglass

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Dys4ia is really, really good. Anna Anthropy's work is really hit or miss for me, but that was just an amazing little piece of insight into who she is, as well as a great example of using game mechanics to tell a story.

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Laiv162560asse

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Edited By Laiv162560asse

@Hikaratu: If I was personally offended by the idea of IGTCED existing as a game I would probably have raised a stink when I saw it covered in Worth Reading or wherever it first cropped up. I'm not. But I'm certainly not offended by the idea that a man has had difficulty reconciling the reality of his job, as a CS rep, with a game he authored about CS being a lose-lose scenario. The anecdotes I recounted weren't made in response to the article. They were in response to being told by someone that I didn't know what I was talking about and that call centre work was, quote, "the absolute worst thing ever", as if being on the other end of the line to a call centre could never approach being as bad.

@Zvarri: Hello, David, thanks for taking the time to make that sensitive response. I'm sorry you lost your job and I hope your situation resolves for the better soon. I'm not seeking to publicise my past experiences with call centres. I have no creative knack, but furthermore they're not unique. I think it really just goes without saying that dealing with customer service/call centres as a caller can be thoroughly dehumanising. Situations of dealing with faceless bureaucracy have been lampooned to hell and back in mainstream comedy, not least of all, so it doesn't really require a complete novice like me to get involved in order to illustrate further.

In cases of poor treatment, I suspect the cause is usually that the rep hates their job, resents being there and is just better off pursuing something else. From the sounds of it you were diligent and didn't fall into this category, which would make you a big loss to the CRA. Still, by all accounts IGTCED ran contrary to what your employers must have seen to be the spirit of your job. I'm sure you've rehashed everything countless times in your head, so you don't need people suggesting what you might have done differently... Good luck in future, anyhow.

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Icaria

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Edited By Icaria

"He knew the risk, and the reporter was just doing their job."

Loaded headlines designed to illicit reactionary outrage are just part of a reporter's job? My, how standards have changed.

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Sinusoidal

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@Thompson820: It's not exactly clear why he lost his job. He made it very clear that he didn't want to be doing it. Is it wrongful dismissal to fire someone who gets an article in a major national newspaper about how much they hate their job? Perhaps a better question: is it right for an organization to hold onto an employee they are fully aware despises what they do?

Trust me: in the current dump that is the Canadian economic climate and our over-educated populace bloated by student loans handed out like candy, it's not exactly hard to find someone as qualified as he who'll appreciate the job more than he did, soul-crushing non-fulfillment or no. Perhaps he should have considered how he was going to feed his family more before he very publicly mocked his employers: who in essence are the Canadian taxpayers whose hard work at jobs - some much better, and mostly much crappier than his - that supported his livelihood.

In all honesty, they did him a favor. He's got more motivation to succeed at what he really wants to do now than he ever did before. I wish nothing but the best for him and his family.

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digitaldemigod

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Edited By digitaldemigod

@crusader8463: I worked in a call center for 7 years. Worked for many accounts, Dell, Charter Cable, Mediacomm cable, and others. The tech support side was bad, but the cable tv support side was the worst. It was a traumatic experience. I know what you mean about wanting to drive off the road. The customers are horrible and the management are like slave drivers. We weren't even allowed 10 seconds in between calls to sip some water. And sometimes my wife will suggest I get a job at another cable company call center and I tell her she's out of her fucking mind. She seems to think she could handle the endless circular arguments, belittling, and threats call after call. I told her she should take the job then. Fuck call centers.

I think it's total bullshit that this news reporter basically helped get the guy fired. Just doing her job, yeah, but still.

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deactivated-5d48c59b057e6

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@Laivasse: I'm glad you brought up your aunt. I used to get a lot of calls from elderly people, disabled people, desperate people. Sometimes there would be devastating situations for which I could offer no help - what do you say to the senior citizen who has a tax bill larger than what she received in a year from her pension? What do you say to the mother who is about to be evicted, who won't be getting her child benefits because of an address error?

I am a helpful person by nature. I want to help people. When I got these calls, I did the best that I could. Oftentimes, the laws surrounding confidentiality, or the ways in which internal processes worked, prevented me from being able to help:

"I'm afraid I can't help you fix your brother's tax credit issue (even though I know it is simple) because we have nothing on file to show you, his sister, is his legal representative - and I understand that your brother is vegetative, and he cannot grant you power of attorney, but we don't have any process to handle that kind of situation."

That's an example of a call I received last week. They didn't always happen often, but they did happen. I would explore every available option, consult with my manager and resource officers, do anything I could to find solutions. Sometimes, I could help. Many times, I could not, and every time that happened, I felt like the biggest pile of shit. When you see me referring to my job in interviews as "making me less human", these calls are what I am talking about. These calls are not represented in I Get This Call Every Day. I don't think I could make a game about them without being very specific, without retelling some of the very true stories I have encountered.

I'm sorry that I Get This Call Every Day doesn't reflect what your aunt had to go through. I never meant for it to demean or belittle the callers. I do think your aunt's situation is significant, and I urge you to make a game about it. For me, her experience isn't personal - but for you it is, which makes you perfectly equipped to tell it. I don't care if you've never made a game before; there are tools like Construct 2, Twine, Gamemaker, etc that are easy to use for your first time. Make something personal, whether it is about your aunt, yourself, your job, anything. Express it with a game. Please.

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ghost_cat

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Edited By ghost_cat

I find that getting fired from a shitty job is pretty liberating, but Gallant got huge amounts of support and a bit of money too. That must be an incredible and rare feeling to experience.

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crusader8463

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Edited By crusader8463

I currently work at a call center myself, tech support for smart phones, and it's gotten to the point where every day I drive to work I'm tempted to drive off the road just so I don't have to put up with another day of the job. There are some good ones, but for the most part they are truly soul crushing. Ignoring all the bad parts of dealing with stupid people on the phone for 8 hours a day, I do tech support for phones I'm not here to teach you how to use your computer or how your fucking mouse and keyboard works, a lot of the worst parts of the job are the stuff that the company does off the calls. When the companies business model is based around getting people in, burning them out for every thing they are worth, then letting them go so they can hire new people to do the same you knows it's a bad place to be. A lot of these places even have supervisors that are told to ride the agents that have been there longer the hardest and to never give them an inch to try and make the job as bad as they can in hopes of making people more likely to quit.

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Hikaratu

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Edited By Hikaratu

@Laivasse: It's not as if the game is supposed to imply that every single call a person gets in that sort of job is awful, it's one call and outlines one kind of customer you will run into as a call center employee eventually. He's not trying to make villains of anyone who calls a call center or anything just not everybody on the planet is a reasonable person. If you think there needs to be a game about telemarketers being intimidating pricks or whatever make that game yourself so other people can empathize with the experience the same way. You seem personally offended on a level that I actually can't fathom.

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bwmcmaste

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Edited By bwmcmaste

@zeekthegeek said:

Canadian taxpayer here. This government continues to be the worst in our history. Any criticism is seen as treason.

Other Canadian taxpayer here. This government is no worse than any other one we've had in the past - people just bitch about it too much.

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Thompson820

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Are there not unfair dismissal laws in Canada? I don't quite understand how creating a piece of art which parodies an unspecified job is legal ground for dismissal.

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Korne

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@ck1nd said:

Why is everyone villainizing the government? You act as though they should have patted him on the back and let him continue. It's a sad story, but the guy obviously got what he wanted, and knew about the consequences. I know we all love to hate the government, but geez guys, pick your battles.

I think it's a bit more to do with Free Speech. Just finished playing the game, and while crude, it is incredibly passionate. Nothing about it seemed to leak any secrets about his company or would do any specific harm to them, so his firing seems a bit brash.

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@Laivasse said:

@Hailinel said:

That's fine, but no one needs to see you on your high horse. You are not some morally superior being for refusing to play it.

Of course, god forbid anybody else's moral superiority feels threatened.

I never said anything about being superior. I'm just capable of empathizing with the game's creator to a greater degree.

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PXAbstraction

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I gotta' say, it's near impossible to get fired from the Government of Canada and there are hundreds, if not thousands of spectacularly inept people who have been working their cushy jobs on the taxpayer dime for decades. That this guy gets fired because he parodies his crappy job and doesn't even mention where it was, that's just ridiculous. Shouldn't be surprised with Revenue Canada I suppose. I'm absolutely buying this game to show support for the guy. I hope this helps get him started on a path to a better career.

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Laiv162560asse

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@Hailinel said:

That's fine, but no one needs to see you on your high horse. You are not some morally superior being for refusing to play it.

Of course, god forbid anybody else's moral superiority feels threatened.
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@Laivasse said:

@Hailinel said:

@Laivasse said:

@Hailinel said:

@Laivasse
@Hailinel said:
@Laivasse You've obviously never worked in a call center and don't know what you're talking about.
I worked for a while as a project manager, where my main responsibility was to be phone-answering-guy for various customers who were wondering why they had paid hundreds of thousands for a service which wasn't working/hadn't been delivered. You're obviously just seeking to dismiss anyone you disagree with and don't know what you're talking about.
There's a difference between Project Manager and Call Center Rep. You had power. He didn't.
'Project Manager' is increasingly a glorified term for corporate gopher. When someone's used as nothing but a buffer between top management and dissatisfied clients, the lack of power is the same. The point stands that if a lack of power is frustrating to a person, then they should avoid the fundamentally servile role of customer service.

Avoiding the role is not the point of the game. It's demonstrating the futility of the role. And not everyone is able to avoid it, even if they want to, because it may be the only avenue of employment open to them. A friend of mine worked in an IRS call center for three years and took calls very much like I Get This Call Every Day. It was the absolute worst thing ever, but it was the only job he could get at the time despite his college education. He worked there for about two years before he was finally hired on for a position that wasn't innately soul crushing. He couldn't do anything to avoid it because he, like every other responsible adult, had to pay his bills.

Dealing with people's problems over the phone is only 'futile' if you assume their grievances are illegitimate or that there is something about the callers that makes them fundamentally impossible to reason with. If you believe that to be true about people, how could an internet forum possibly be any better? What would differentiate me or any of the other posters on this page from the average caller to a call centre? I don't accept that there is a deep well of sympathy to be tapped here.

My disabled aunt faced a situation where her phone number somehow became saturated across the lists of the all the shadiest call centre fuckers around. Before she went ex-directory, her phone rang several times an hour with endless telemarketers and surveyers calling up. To the phone of a blind woman with learning difficulties. I was there to answer once and insisted 'sorry, I just don't have the time' - to which the smarmy bastard on the other end offered 'well, you keep saying you don't have time, but why are you still talking to me then?' ...No doubt he ended up with some bleeding heart story to tell about how awful it is to get expletives shouted at you over the phone. I don't see people making games about how intimidating it would have been for my aunt to get that call. I don't see people making games about the experience of other relatives I've known, left nearly in tears because they desperately needed a serious financial issue resolved, but instead got passed around between departments, left on 'hold' (ie. the receiver was just dumped; the rep was audibly working at her desk), hung up on, and left hanging until office hours expired and the line went dead. Therefore I don't particularly care to play a game like the one David Gallant made.

That's fine, but no one needs to see you on your high horse. You are not some morally superior being for refusing to play it.

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I can guarantee his job sucked. Not as much as digging ditches for a living, but it still sucked. Early on in my life, I spent a few months working for a call center that worked to help people in Oklahoma register for the state health care program and choose their providers and find other information. For the most part, everyone is normal and decent and just trying to get through a shitty task so they can move on with their life. Almost all were less fortunate or, at the least, down on their luck. But there were always just enough absolute morons who could not handle the most basic concepts, instructions, or requests that it made you just want to push the big red button and wipe out all of humanity. Multiply that by the number of days you have to be stuck doing that job and . . . it's pretty demoralizing.

I also worked for a bit doing call center work around that same time for a popular browser in the earlier days of the internet. I literally had people who didn't know what a keyboard was and more than once I received calls from someone who demanded that I write down their suggestions for "the next version of the Internet". And those weren't the aggravating ones. The aggravating people are the big chunk of customers who just flat out lie to you about everything and make your job infinitely fucking harder.

However, you just don't talk shit about your customers at the business you are currently employed at. Hell, you don't do that for companies you used to work at. References are important and you don't want to burn bridges. I do think this has to be better for this guy, in the long run. Sometimes the best thing to happen when you're in a shitty job that just eats away at you is to have it pulled out from under you so you're forced to move on with your life. Obviously, there are plenty of ways he could have put out his game without risking his job, if he really gave that much of a damn. Pseudonym Change enough information about the job function or subject. Lots of options. He didn't. So . . . this has to be an accepted and expected result.

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@Laivasse: Probably a fair point. Although the driver for firing this guy could have been equally predicated on the chance that the public would take offense of it, There could be a general backlash against the agency in question, and it would be indepedent as to the quality of the job being done.

In either case it does show a lack of respect toward customers. But in circumstances where home life and public life are being intertwined more consideration needs to be given to ignoring what people do off the clock. This could easily turn into a customer represenative (or account manager on a B2B side) putting in a mention that is interpreted as disrespectful on facebook being fired the next day. Not a circumspect move, but at some level it might be a good idea if society at large distinguished between personal vs. work more stringetly. It just leads to excess fricton when people take out of context mentions to seriously.

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It's interesting to see this story and the comments. The first I heard about it being about the CRA was when it hit my Inbox while at work. That was quite the surprise. Good luck to David in his future as a game developer.

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I worked at a call center. It sucked, some good times but mostly just crappy and mundane.

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Why is everyone villainizing the government? You act as though they should have patted him on the back and let him continue. It's a sad story, but the guy obviously got what he wanted, and knew about the consequences. I know we all love to hate the government, but geez guys, pick your battles.

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I am someone who got fired from a call center job thanks to something I said on the internet, so I feel for this guy. Hopefully he can make it where his actual passion lies.

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Laiv162560asse

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@Hailinel said:

@Laivasse said:

@Hailinel said:

@Laivasse
@Hailinel said:
@Laivasse You've obviously never worked in a call center and don't know what you're talking about.
I worked for a while as a project manager, where my main responsibility was to be phone-answering-guy for various customers who were wondering why they had paid hundreds of thousands for a service which wasn't working/hadn't been delivered. You're obviously just seeking to dismiss anyone you disagree with and don't know what you're talking about.
There's a difference between Project Manager and Call Center Rep. You had power. He didn't.
'Project Manager' is increasingly a glorified term for corporate gopher. When someone's used as nothing but a buffer between top management and dissatisfied clients, the lack of power is the same. The point stands that if a lack of power is frustrating to a person, then they should avoid the fundamentally servile role of customer service.

Avoiding the role is not the point of the game. It's demonstrating the futility of the role. And not everyone is able to avoid it, even if they want to, because it may be the only avenue of employment open to them. A friend of mine worked in an IRS call center for three years and took calls very much like I Get This Call Every Day. It was the absolute worst thing ever, but it was the only job he could get at the time despite his college education. He worked there for about two years before he was finally hired on for a position that wasn't innately soul crushing. He couldn't do anything to avoid it because he, like every other responsible adult, had to pay his bills.

Dealing with people's problems over the phone is only 'futile' if you assume their grievances are illegitimate or that there is something about the callers that makes them fundamentally impossible to reason with. If you believe that to be true about people, how could an internet forum possibly be any better? What would differentiate me or any of the other posters on this page from the average caller to a call centre? I don't accept that there is a deep well of sympathy to be tapped here.

My disabled aunt faced a situation where her phone number somehow became saturated across the lists of the all the shadiest call centre fuckers around. Before she went ex-directory, her phone rang several times an hour with endless telemarketers and surveyers calling up. To the phone of a blind woman with learning difficulties. I was there to answer once and insisted 'sorry, I just don't have the time' - to which the smarmy bastard on the other end offered 'well, you keep saying you don't have time, but why are you still talking to me then?' ...No doubt he ended up with some bleeding heart story to tell about how awful it is to get expletives shouted at you over the phone. I don't see people making games about how intimidating it would have been for my aunt to get that call. I don't see people making games about the experience of other relatives I've known, left nearly in tears because they desperately needed a serious financial issue resolved, but instead got passed around between departments, left on 'hold' (ie. the receiver was just dumped; the rep was audibly working at her desk), hung up on, and left hanging until office hours expired and the line went dead. Therefore I don't particularly care to play a game like the one David Gallant made.

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@Zvarri said:

@CrystaljDesign: I was really hoping Minister Shea, or someone in her office, would actually take the time to play it. I have no confirmation, but based on her publicized reaction, I do not believe that she did.

I used to get annoyed that non-gamers thought every game was Pong or Mario, but now they think every game is Call of Duty which is a million times more dangerous to the culture.

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Dumb government, like people really thought the Canadian Revenue Call center was a fantastic job location in the first place. Then they actually allude to him compromising people's tax information. Shameful.

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@Zvarri: Sorry to hear you lost your job over this, I don't know why but your art style reminds me of Fat-Pie.com

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Edited By MormonWarrior

I have worked at two call centers - one was a sales job, which I quit after two weeks, and one was a survey job that I quit after a month. I actually think I have a serious phobia of phones. I get the complaints - at the same time, it makes sense that somebody being that negative about his job would be fired. I've had sucky jobs to be sure, and probably should have been fired for the way I reacted to one, but unless you have a contract you really don't have a right to complain and badmouth your company.

Best wishes for this guy, though. It's neat to see the outreach from the community.

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Canada, you're a jerk.

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@thabigred: You seem to be making an awful lot of assumptions about me now.

But it's nice to know that you will go out of your way to insult people who were never insulting you. I'll be sure to let you beta test my next project

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@Laivasse said:

@Hailinel said:
@Laivasse
@Hailinel said:
@Laivasse You've obviously never worked in a call center and don't know what you're talking about.
I worked for a while as a project manager, where my main responsibility was to be phone-answering-guy for various customers who were wondering why they had paid hundreds of thousands for a service which wasn't working/hadn't been delivered. You're obviously just seeking to dismiss anyone you disagree with and don't know what you're talking about.
There's a difference between Project Manager and Call Center Rep. You had power. He didn't.
'Project Manager' is increasingly a glorified term for corporate gopher. When someone's used as nothing but a buffer between top management and dissatisfied clients, the lack of power is the same. The point stands that if a lack of power is frustrating to a person, then they should avoid the fundamentally servile role of customer service.

Avoiding the role is not the point of the game. It's demonstrating the futility of the role. And not everyone is able to avoid it, even if they want to, because it may be the only avenue of employment open to them. A friend of mine worked in an IRS call center for three years and took calls very much like I Get This Call Every Day. It was the absolute worst thing ever, but it was the only job he could get at the time despite his college education. He worked there for about two years before he was finally hired on for a position that wasn't innately soul crushing. He couldn't do anything to avoid it because he, like every other responsible adult, had to pay his bills.

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granderojo

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@MildMolasses said:

@thabigred said:

@MildMolasses said:

@thabigred said:

I've always had nothing about respect for our northern neighbors. I can't respect this.

Except for the part where he is an employee of the federal government and he's bitching about his decent paying, tax-funded job with great benefits which involves interacting with tax-payers concerning taxation. He was "club-fed" employee. It takes remarkable skill to get fired from government agencies. Maybe if his frustrations could take a more artful turn into metaphor and allegory he wouldn't lose his job, but they didn't.

You assume too many things in your posta. Like how artful allegory or metaphor could have saved his job, or like in another post where you said that "No one outside of Toronto reads to Toronto Star".

Actually I read the Toronto Star and I'm from Florida, about as far South in the US as you can get. I also don't think you understand how game development works if your response was he should be more metaphoric.

If you're going to continue being an insipid asshole to a guy who clearly put a lot of hard work and dedication into something, I have no business with you. Don't bother responding if you're going to continue being rude about this, and stop assuming things that you don't know.

I appreciate being called an insipid asshole and then told that I'm the one being rude.

BTW, I already corrected and admitted my mistake regarding the Star earlier.

When you make a game then I won't call you an insipid asshole for being an insipid asshole to someone who put the enough heart and dedication into something to actually ship a finished game.

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deactivated-5d48c59b057e6

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@Humanity: It really wasn't a shock to me; as has been said elsewhere, and even in Patrick's article, I always knew this was a possibility. I never expected the outpouring of support that followed, however.

Leaving that office, all I could think about was how I was going to make sure my wife and I would be able to put food on our table. In 48hrs, everything flipped on its head.