Ruczaj - cyberżulerska gra ekonomiczna (Ruczaj - cyber hobo economic game) is a web-based experience simulating living in Polish suburbs with access to fast internet connection. There are only three things that player can alter. First, writing social media posts that generate „likes”. When you have enough likes, you can „code corvee” which provides beer. With beer, you go out where farming some weed is possible, weed can be exchanged for a social media post and so on. Every action is fulfilled with one mouse click. Gathering likes, beers and weed is creating mutually dependent loop that quickly becomes insufficient to generate income. Especially when your debt to Social Insurance Company is growing with every second.
Game is constructed of three columns where on the left are listed actions that player can make, in the middle is news feed with e-mails and messages from other people and companies and on the right are debts that need to be payed. There are no objections in the game to finish it nor ways to lose or win. Boring, repetitive and frustrating gameplay is very much intended. There is nothing to do, no perspectives to progress and no prize – only dry and absurd sense of humour.
Ruczaj is available online for free and can be accessed with any computer or mobile phone. Used medium is central to the nature of the game – it is almost fully randomly generated, but always tells the same story of slow, jaded neighbourhood where nothing happens anymore. Player quickly catches that feeling of bitter internet experience and probably leaves unsatisfied.
Cyber hobo (or cyber junkie) is a person that has given up on the state of today's internet – he knows that only junk and scraps are left in cyberspace of graphomaniac and corporate cliches. Cyber hobos are actually trying to find and distil something extraordinary and original from banal sea of repetetive aesthetics.
