1 Star

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I Get This Call Every Day is a very basic, prompt-based point-and-click game designed around the idea of providing over-the-phone customer service. The game’s creator, David S. Gallant, invented the game based on his real-world customer service call center job. He would repeatedly get moronic customers calling for help, and then fighting with him when he would try to help them. Anyone who has worked any sort of job in the retail industry should understand his tale of woe with pure empathy, and it is this element of pointlessly repetitive communication that makes the game joyless.

In a word, this game sucks. Granted, it’s supposed to, but it sucks nonetheless.

The game begins humorously enough, with Paintshop style drawings of a computer and a blinking phone, indicating to click on the blinking green light and begin helping a customer. As the customer and the service provider converse, the player gets prompted with different choices of how to respond to the customer. These choices range from perfectly professional to crude and snide remarks.

Unfortunately for the player, this game is unwinnable. By unwinnable, the implication is that even if the player reaches the end of the game, the crushing feeling of wasted time, defeat, and sheer unhappiness overpowers any sense of accomplishment. More likely, the player’s choices will lead to a blinking envelope on the computer which is a message from the boss dictating the player has been fired.

As Gallant says on his website, “Lose politely, or lose spectacularly; the choice is yours.” The smart choice is not to play, but who is to say what version of suffering the average gamer might choose to put him or herself through.

I Get This Call Every Day is available for purchase and download for a minimum $2 or pay-what-you-want at www.davidsgallant.com/igtced.html.