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People and Capitalism

Video games are essentially entertainment media that are usually designed to make money. Interestingly, they are also a powerful way to look at what agency we have (or don't have) in our lives dominated by a capitalistic imperative.

Unlike books or films that critique the status quo of our world by giving a glimpse into aspects of our world that are hard to see, video games offer the chance to step into those situations and experience them first-hand. This is not only a powerful way to ask questions about the world but a way to do this in an embodied and felt experience.

The games in this list hold up an aspect of capitalism or consumerism and ask whether things should be like this. They let you experience what it's like to be a person under different circumstances in a world where capitalism dominates. Sometimes this is tongue in cheek and simply part of the world in which you play in. But other times it's the central premise of the game that intends to leave the player asking new questions about how we structure our lives, families, friendships and commerce.

This list includes 28 games from the last 26 years, with 138 likes. They come from a range of different genres and play-styles and are all good games if you want to question capitlaism.

List Details

PEGI Ratings: PEGI 3 to PEGI 18
ESRB Ratings: ESRB EVERYONE to ESRB MATURE 17+
Australian Ratings: G to R 18+
Genres: Action, Adventure, Battle, Brain Game, Collecting, Communication, Creative, Fighting, Narrative, Platform, Point-and-Click, Puzzle, Race, Rhythm, Role-Play, Sequencing, Shooting, Simulation, Sports, Stealth, Strategy, Traversal and World Building
Total Likes: 138

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Road 96

Release Date: 16/08/2021

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Road 96 is a narrative adventure where you play a teenager trying to escape an oppressive, authoritarian country by reaching the border. Through a series of vignettes, you experience the most important and poignant parts on an epic road trip through a...

Citizen Sleeper

Release Date: 05/05/2022

Out Now: PC, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Cartoon, Dice, Grid and Text

Citizen Sleeper is a role-play game set in the ruins of interplanetary capitalism. You are an escaped worker exploring a lawless space station, making friends, and (ultimately) trying to escape your past. Each cycle you roll dice and decide how to spend...

Station To Station

Release Date: 03/10/2023

Coming Soon: PC

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Blocks and Pixels

Station to Station is a railway-building puzzle game about connecting commerce and community to create a beautiful rail network. Play is about making connections between buildings to move materials and people around the world efficiently. It stands out...

Sunshine Shuffle

Release Date: 24/05/2023

Out Now: PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Cards and Cartoon

Sunshine Shuffle is a narrative game where you play poker with talking animals who each have a criminal past. It's based around the group's regular Texas Hold 'Em poker game. It stands out for the endearing Robin Hood story and the unusual blend of...

Cart Life

Release Date: 25/04/2019

Out Now: PC

Components: 2D Side-On, Pixels and Text

Cart Life is a simulation game where you play one of three street vendors. You attempt to run their shop whilst looking after their health, interests, and families. It has simple visuals, but depicts the realities of the thin-end of life.

Change: A Homeless Survival Experience

Release Date: 01/05/2020

Out Now: Mac and PC

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Change: A Homeless Survival Experience is an adventure narrative game where you play a homeless person trying to make it against the odds. It's intentionally hard to do well as you explore an endless city that's different every time you play.

Golf Club: Wasteland

Release Date: 16/06/2021, updated in 2021

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Golf Club: Wasteland is a golf game in an unusual setting. You play on an earth decimated by an environmental catastrophe. Through beautiful visuals and eerie audio, you piece together what has happened to the planet to cause such devastation. It's an...

Norco

Release Date: 24/03/2022

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Norco is a gothic point-and-click narrative adventure set in the decaying suburbs and industrial swamps of an alternative South Louisiana. Your brother goes missing after your mother's death and you set out to find him by following a fugitive security...

Not Tonight

Not Tonight (Series)

Release Date: 17/08/2018, updated in 2020

Out Now: PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Not Tonight is a tongue-in-cheek role-play adventure where you challenge the political establishment in alternative versions of Post-Brexit Britain (in the first game) or capitalism-run-rampant America (in the sequel). You take on a time pressured...

Oddworld Soulstorm

Oddworld Soulstorm (Series)

Release Date: 19/09/1997, updated in 2022

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, PS Vita, PS3, PS4, PS5, PSP, Switch, Wii U, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and iOS

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Oddworld Soulstorm is a running and jumping game where you guide members of your species through labyrinthine levels to free them from brutal oppression. It's a remake of 1998's Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus and a sequel to Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty. Its...

Big Ambitions

Release Date: 10/03/2023

Out Now: PC

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Big Ambitions is a role-playing game that simulates running a business. Like similar games, you make decisions about what, where and how to grow your business. Here though the scale is much bigger, so much so you can drive and walk around the city in...

Dustborn

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Dice

Dustborn is a road-trip adventure set in America 2030 where all information has been lost. You and your misfit friends must cross this divided world to deliver a package from California to Nova Scotia. It's unusual not only because of the setting but...

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

Release Date: 25/08/2022

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Cards and Cartoon

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is a narrative game about growing through teenage years on an alien planet. It's played by making choices about who to help or which skills to master over the ten years. This determines the course of your life on the colony...

Imagine Earth

Release Date: 25/05/2021, updated in 2021

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead

Imagine Earth is a simulation strategy where you manage space colonies for a huge corporation. You gather resources, manage your finances, shape the planets and expand your cities while fending off rival companies and alien invaders. It stands out for...

Luck Be A Landlord

Release Date: 06/10/2020

Out Now: Mac and PC

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Luck Be a Landlord is a simulation game where you collect symbols to build the ultimate slot machine, win lots of money, and defeat capitalism. You choose the tokens like deck building games, then have repeated attempts to win money like a rogue-like...

Flat Eye

Release Date: 14/11/2022

Out Now: PC

Components: 2D Overhead

Flat Eye is a narrative strategy game where you run a gas station in the near future. Play is a matter of making money from customers by adding products and streamlining efficiency. But what really stands out here is the web of corporate and management...

Green New Deal Simulator

Release Date: 07/04/2023, updated in 2023

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC and iOS

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Cards

Green New Deal Simulator is a strategy game where you must shift the US economy to net zero carbon. You place Effect cards on the map to choose how each area grows its green energy while also minimising unemployment. There are other educational games...

Hardspace: Shipbreaker

Release Date: 16/06/2020, updated in 2022

Out Now: PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a spaceship salvage simulation game where you disassembling out of use craft panel by panel. The challenge is that the ships are built to survive space and tough to take apart so you must use a wide array of tools to reduce...

Talk to Strangers

Release Date: 19/04/2019, updated in 2023

Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Day and Night and Pixels

Talk to Strangers is a narrative adventure where you play a struggling door-to-door salesperson selling mysterious wares to the neighbourhood. You talk to the residents in an effort to convince them to buy your goods while simultaneously using your...

Landlord of the Woods

Release Date: 17/03/2021

Out Now: Mac and PC

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Landlord of the Woods is a point-and-click adventure where you play a disaffected 25-year-old who starts working as a woods keeper. Play involves getting the woodland houses ready for each tenant who has specific requirements.

Still Wakes The Deep

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: PC, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Components: 3D First-Person

Still Wakes The Deep is a horror narrative game set on the Beira D oil rig in 1975. When disaster strikes off the coast of Scotland you must traverse the collapsing rig to save your crew from what becomes clear is not only a natural disaster.

The Last Night

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: Mac, PC and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

The Last Night is a narrative game set in a neon-bathed, hyper-advanced future where you are a second-class citizen wrestling with your place in the world. As you traverse the Blade-Runner-style city districts, you talk with characters, evade constant...

The Last Worker

Release Date: 27/03/2023

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5 and Switch

Components: 3D First-Person

The Last Worker is a narrative adventure set at the end of capitalism. In an increasingly automated world, you play Kurt, who works in a distribution high-rise and discovers a secret floor of battery-farmed animals and meaningless products. The game...

Citizen Sleeper 2

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: PC

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Cartoon, Dice, Grid and Text

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector continues the role-play adventure with a new story about an escaped corporate-owned android with a price on its head. Each cycle you roll dice and decide how to spend them, on repairing your ship, on trading or on...

Dead Pets Unleashed

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Cartoon

Dead Pets Unleashed is a narrative rhythm game about a struggling punk band wrestling with life and the challenges of getting older. You play the songs in rhythm-action elements, while also getting to know the locals and managing the progress of your...

Jagged Alliance 3

Release Date: 14/07/2023

Out Now: PC

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Weather

Jagged Alliance 3 is a strategy battle game where you lead a squad of mercenaries tasked with finding the President and bringing order back to the country. Play involves recruiting a team of heroes to take on tactical turn-based combat. It stands out...

Pls Donate

Pls Donate (Roblox)

Release Date: 05/02/2022, updated in 2023

Out Now: Android, PC, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: Cartoon

Pls Donate is a Roblox communication and trading game where you set up your own market stalls to sell and donate any of your items to donate Robux in return. You play by selecting your items to sell and then writing signs to attract people to come and...

Resistor

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Resistor is a racing game where you use tricks and dirty tactics to win races, in an effort to take down the dystopian establishment. It draws its racing from Burnout, but between each event there threads a narrative about power and money. This...

Curated lists:
Game genre:
Style of Play:
Components:

How long to play:
User-generated content:	No
Accessibility features:	Yes

Controls
Gamepad:
Mouse And Keyboard:
Touchscreen:
Motion:	Motion Aiming Motion Pointing Motion Tilting Motion Gesture Motion Camera
Remap Controls:
Button Combinations:	Holding Down Buttons Optional Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional No Simultaneous Buttons
Controller Vibration:
Sensitivity:

Getting Started
Onboarding Before Play:
Assistance Getting Starting:	Tutorials Practice Area View Control Mapping Assistance With Controls Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Adjust Speed No Jump Scares
Assistance For Progressing:	Guaranteed Progress With God Mode Bank Progress With Frequent Checkpoints Assisted Progress With Boosts Assisted Progress With Hints Assisted Recall for Characters Assisted Recall for Narrative and Dialogue Save Progress Anytime

Reading
Reading Level:
Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text High Contrast Text
Subtitles:
Captions:
Voice Acted:

Navigation
Clarity:
Head-Up Display:
Menu Navigation:

Visual
Contrast:
Interactive Elements:
Visual Distractions:
Audio Cues for Visual Events:
Narration for Visual Elements:
	Motion Sickness Friendly
Colour Options:
Play Without Sight:
Violence:

Audio
	Balance Audio Levels
Audio Events:
	Play Without Hearing

Communication
Player-to-Player Online Communication:
Online Communication Assistance:

Difficulty
Difficulty Options:	Simple and Full Version No Memorisation Advantage No Hidden Information No Deceit Advantage No Colour Advantage No Mathematics Advantage No Weighing Decisions

Getting Started
Assistance Getting Started:	Clear Manual Electronic Version of Manual Electronic Version of Manual for Screen Readers Getting Started Video Digital Version Reference Aid
Assistance Progressing:	Play Order Tokens (Or play order doesn’t change) Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Low Impact Catch Up Rule

Reading
Reading Level:
Necessary Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text on Board (Or no text required) Large Clear Text on Cards (Or no text required) High Contrast Text (Or no text required) QR Code For Text (Or no text required) Primary and Secondary Text Distinguishable (Or no text required) Information Orientation Clear Icons

Physical
Pieces:	Components are Distinguishable by Touch Components are Replaceable No Non-Standard Dice (Or No Dice) No Tiny Pieces No Paper Money No Sprawl
Cards:	Large Card Size Standard Card Shape Limited Hand Management No Excessive Card Shuffling No Right-Handed Advantage
Placement:	No Unbound Placement Player Components Not Shared No Fiddly Placement Easily Verbalised Actions

Visual
Printed Visibility:	Colour Blind Friendly Design Double-Coding Colour High Contrast Colours
Component Identifiability:	Outline Key Elements No Busy Backgrounds Easily Verbalised Game State No Close Inspection Disadvantage Playable Without Sight

Audio
Communication:	Audio Cues Mirrored Visually (Or no critical audio signals) No Pressured Reveals No Pressured Communication Playable Without Hearing

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People and Capitalism

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