Recordkeeping: Island Saver COMPLETE
Oct. 14th, 2020 07:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xyzzysqrlIsland Saver has the name of a bank plastered all over it, and they sure let you know it right off. From the start you're bombed with the concept of keeping your money in a bank. If you keep your money in a bank, you get little interest pop-ups now and again. Banks are so handy, you guys!
At times, the game strong-arms you into taking out a loan so you can experience the magic of having a bank give you money and then hound you to pay it back for the rest of the level. Currency exchange becomes a minor mechanic, where you must wait for some other country's currency to drastically drop in value against your own before cashing in so money can fountain at you.
Oh, right, there's also an anti-pollution message, but cleaning up pollution is only really important insomuch as it gets you more money. Even uncovering the source of the pollution and stopping it is framed as a "charity" move, like you're generously giving the gift of cleanliness to all these animals.
The animals are all piggy-bank style slotted creatures that exist to eat, poop, and to have money sucked out of them. You can also paint them different colors and put cute hats on them. That's a thing you can do.
Have you heard about the NatWest Group's involvement with the Canadian oil sands? Did you know they briefly branded themselves as "The Oil and Gas Bank"? If we frame "cleaning up pollution" as a one-person job, the responsibility's on you and not the giant multinational banking organization with their fingers in the fossil fuels.
Anyway, you'd think that I hated this game but that's actually not the case. Stripped out of context, it's a fun and cutely colorful thing where you complete tasks in an area, get rewards, feel good about those rewards, then move to the next area. You can engage in some secret-hunting, there's 20 dingles on each island to find. That's fun. It's all very happy and colorful and the music is nice and the sound is nice and then a fox starts farting out poop right behind you and refuses to stop and that's less nice.
I had a great time with this game, so I actually went ahead and completed it, although I didn't buy the DLC. I had a really fun time, and if you like games where you complete tasks and get rewards, this is a fine and free time, particularly if you don't mind being marketed to.
Aside from its value as a video game, though, this is a great chance to pick through and really analyze the details of an interactive marketing campaign. What does the game want you to think? How does it want to make you feel? And why does it want you to feel that way?
Anyway, cute hats, cute animals, 10/10.
At times, the game strong-arms you into taking out a loan so you can experience the magic of having a bank give you money and then hound you to pay it back for the rest of the level. Currency exchange becomes a minor mechanic, where you must wait for some other country's currency to drastically drop in value against your own before cashing in so money can fountain at you.
Oh, right, there's also an anti-pollution message, but cleaning up pollution is only really important insomuch as it gets you more money. Even uncovering the source of the pollution and stopping it is framed as a "charity" move, like you're generously giving the gift of cleanliness to all these animals.
The animals are all piggy-bank style slotted creatures that exist to eat, poop, and to have money sucked out of them. You can also paint them different colors and put cute hats on them. That's a thing you can do.
Have you heard about the NatWest Group's involvement with the Canadian oil sands? Did you know they briefly branded themselves as "The Oil and Gas Bank"? If we frame "cleaning up pollution" as a one-person job, the responsibility's on you and not the giant multinational banking organization with their fingers in the fossil fuels.
Anyway, you'd think that I hated this game but that's actually not the case. Stripped out of context, it's a fun and cutely colorful thing where you complete tasks in an area, get rewards, feel good about those rewards, then move to the next area. You can engage in some secret-hunting, there's 20 dingles on each island to find. That's fun. It's all very happy and colorful and the music is nice and the sound is nice and then a fox starts farting out poop right behind you and refuses to stop and that's less nice.
I had a great time with this game, so I actually went ahead and completed it, although I didn't buy the DLC. I had a really fun time, and if you like games where you complete tasks and get rewards, this is a fine and free time, particularly if you don't mind being marketed to.
Aside from its value as a video game, though, this is a great chance to pick through and really analyze the details of an interactive marketing campaign. What does the game want you to think? How does it want to make you feel? And why does it want you to feel that way?
Anyway, cute hats, cute animals, 10/10.
