Area Man Primes Everything, Kills Emotions and Burns Down House In Process

Tomorrow Corporation's 2012 game Little Inferno lacks the "Game Over" screen that many gamers are familiar with, and this lack appears to indicate a removal of failure states within the game, instead encouraging the player to burn through entire catalogs of products in pursuit of reward. Though the main gameplay of Little Inferno focuses solely upon buying and burning purchases, we're given a constant stream of rewards, whether it is animated reactions, money, or express stamps to incentivize further purchases. The game invites us to burn as many items to our hearts' content, encouraging us to experiment freely without the deterrent of an evident fail state. The only explicit reprimands come if we attempt to purchase more than our mailbox capacity, to which we're lightly admonished for our overeagerness. I've forgotten how many times I've responded to these admonishments with "I'm sorry, I was overexcited." This state can be avoided, however, if we chooses to expend more money to obtain more mailbox space. With that in mind, Little Inferno seems to embody the free, unencumbered ability to experiment and learn without consequence that make video games and simulations so attractive. 

However, Little Inferno's in-game company, the Tomorrow Corporation, gave me an eerie sense of deja-vu. We'd discussed (to some extent) how Little Inferno encouraged our rampant consumption without abandon, but what threw me off most was how the Tomorrow Corporation reminded me of one company in particular: Amazon. For one, the Tomorrow Corporation is the only seller from which we can buy in-game. Aside from the immense amount of work it'd take for the developers to create a competing company, the provision of the Tomorrow' Corporation as the one-stop-shop for all your burning needs is similar to how most of us default to Amazon as our retailer for pretty much anything and everything. 

As I purchased more and more items, I received more and more rewards, either in the form of more cash to spend on the Tomorrow Corporation, or express stamps to receive my purchases. The cash reward system reminded me of membership reward programs, incentivizing us consumers to continue our good business (though it does make me wonder how much profit the Tomorrow Corporation is losing if they found out that their products yielded more cash than their prices). The express stamps, in particular, reminded me of services such as Amazon Prime and Prime Now, but more importantly, the express stamps meant I could burn things more quickly to get more cash to buy even more things to burn. I became caught in an endless cycle of ever-increasing reward, in pursuit of amassing more cash and express stamps. And if I ran out of express stamps, I'd pursue combos to gain more stamps to satisfy my need for immediate gratification. I found myself buying items to complete combos, so that I could use the combos to expedite the shipping for things I wanted. More money -> more items -> more combos -> more stamps -> more items -> more money. And so the cycle continued, until I burned down my own house. 

Aside from the abovementioned reprimands, I think the only deterrence that got through to me was burning the Celebration Bus. I was horrified to hear children's screams and the desperate honking before the inevitable explosion. But, I reasoned, they're not real children, right? Plus, I got a tidy sum that would let me open up a new catalog. So despite my hesitation, I threw myself into burning through a couple more Buses for the combos, forcing myself through the screams in pursuit of cash and combo rewards. After that, the screams of the burning Coffee Cup seemed tame. After all, I needed more cash and more stamps. 

Though I'd like to think that my real-life consumption habits are not as troubling as Little Inferno would lead me to believe, something about its consumption and reward system ticked something within me. So instead of, "I'm sorry, I was overexcited", I should be saying "I'm sorry, I'll be more mindful of my consumer habits".