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Antiwork

Hardspace: Shipbreaker, and the Union

I want to share this here, since I think it touches a pretty significant overlap between the Antiwork and gaming communities. I just finished Hardspace: Shipbreaker. From a gameplay perspective, it's an incredibly satisfying game. You tear a spaceship apart and sort the salvage into different places. Now, I have no idea how a game about sorting salvage feels it has ANY right to have a story this good, but it's fantastic. So you start a job as a Shipbreaker for the Lynx Corporation. The game starts with you reading your employment contract. You're put into staggering debt because Lynx “helps you out” by shouldering the immense cost of your training and equipment, allowing you to work to pay it back. The company literally owns its employees. As the game progresses, other Shipbreakers on your team start to talk about doing something about it. The climax is incredible. The point…


I want to share this here, since I think it touches a pretty significant overlap between the Antiwork and gaming communities. I just finished Hardspace: Shipbreaker. From a gameplay perspective, it's an incredibly satisfying game. You tear a spaceship apart and sort the salvage into different places.

Now, I have no idea how a game about sorting salvage feels it has ANY right to have a story this good, but it's fantastic. So you start a job as a Shipbreaker for the Lynx Corporation. The game starts with you reading your employment contract. You're put into staggering debt because Lynx “helps you out” by shouldering the immense cost of your training and equipment, allowing you to work to pay it back. The company literally owns its employees. As the game progresses, other Shipbreakers on your team start to talk about doing something about it. The climax is incredible.

The point I'm making is, if you sympathize with labor movements, you'll probably enjoy this game. If you know someone in your life who enjoys video games but doesn't understand why unions exist, get them to play this. It's laid on pretty thick, but the characters are so convincing that it really works.

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