''McDonald's Video Game'' is a
Flash game
A browser game or a "flash game" is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer.
Some browser games are also available as mobile apps, PC games, or on co ...
published and developed by the
Italy-based group
Molleindustria
Paolo Pedercini (born 1981) is an Italian game designer known for making Flash videogames based on provocative left-wing socio-political points of view, on topics such as labour market flexibility and Queer theory, in explicit opposition with ...
in 2006.
It is described as an "anti-
advergame", meaning a
satire of various companies and its business practices.
It has also been classified as a
newsgame
Newsgames are a genre of video games that attempt to apply journalistic principles to their gameplay. Newsgames can provide context to complex situations which might be hard to explain without experiencing the situation firsthand.According to "News ...
or an editorial game by Ian Bogost.
''McDonald's Video Game'' is a satirical
parody of the business practices of the corporate quick-service restaurant giant
McDonald's, taking the guise of a tycoon-style business-simulation game. The game presents the player with four views: the farmland, the slaughterhouse, the restaurant and the corporate HQ.
Through each of these views, decisions can be made which will affect the fate of the player's company. In the game, the player takes on the role of a McDonald's CEO by choosing whether or not to feed the player's cows genetically altered grain,
plow over rainforests or feed the player's cattle to other cattle (a practice known to spread
mad cow disease). The player can also choose advertising strategies and public official corruption to counteract opponents of the player's actions.
Some choices within the game, such as the opportunity to demolish villages or bribe public officials, paint the corporation in a negative light. These aspects of the game are unflattering to McDonald's, who issued a statement saying that the game "has no association with McDonald's and is therefore a complete misrepresentation of our people and our values."
On some websites (such as
Kongregate), Molleindustria released a version of the game called ''Burger Tycoon'' which is exactly the same except that it eliminates all mention of McDonald's such as the franchise logo and a
bear
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...
replacing the
Ronald McDonald mascot. This was done in order to avoid copyright sanctions.
All online instances of the game currently suffer a bug wherein the "Slaught-o-matic" does not produce patties when slaughtering cows, rendering the game unplayable. The only way to play is to download the game directly from Molleindustria's website itself.
The game has been translated into nine languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Finnish, Danish, Turkish, Portuguese, French and German.
McDonald's Videogame splash page
accessed April 7, 2015.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDonald's Video Game
2006 video games
Art games
Video games developed in Italy
Business simulation games
Criticisms of companies
Flash games
Freeware games
Humanitarian video games
McDonald's
Parody video games
Single-player video games
Top-down video games
Indie video games
Browser games
McDonald's video games