Hilarious Online Game Called 'Scotty Goes To Centrelink' Drops Following Election Loss
If you enjoy video games that are pure nightmare fuel, then this one's for you.
Let us introduce you to Scotty Goes To Centrelink.
The game did the rounds on social media shortly after the Liberal Party's staggering election loss, and it is just dripping with shade.
"Help a newly unemployed Scott Morrison navigate the hellish welfare system that he helped build," reads the game's description.
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Sounds easy? Nah, mate. This is Centrelink we're talking about.
The browser-based game is set in a creepy city and starts off outside a Centrelink, which is as good a place to start as any.
You trot into the alarmingly empty building (which is unlike any Centrelink we've ever been in) and approach the desk to start your noble quest.
"Hello, my name is Scotty and I’d like my welfare please," exclaims Australia’s 30th Prime Minister.
The Centrelink staffer is having none of it, however. She doesn't care if you're a freshly ousted PM or Outside Bob who lives in an alleyway.
"We can’t just give you free money," she tells ScoMo. "We have to be sure you’re looking for work."
She gives you 20 CVs to hand out, and directs you to pop one in the closest CV receptacle, which turn out to be a bunch of wheelie bins.
Then you're off out into the big, wide world to hand out those CVs.
Wheelie bins seem to be pretty much everywhere, which is nice. Although sometimes they have a mind of their own and flee from you at an alarming pace.
So, here's the hard part.
Not only do you have to hand out 20 CVs but you also have to dodge massive floating Scott Morrison heads who chant 'get off welfare, get into work'.
If they catch you, you die.
If you're successful in handing out the 20 CVs and have dodged the ghostly, disembodied heads of Mr Morrison then it is back to Centrelink you go.
Unfortunately, the month has ticked over. This means you have to start all over again, repeating the defeating JobSeeker cycle once more.
Oh, and the Centrelink worker doesn't miss the chance to get in a bit of a dig: "Maybe you should try a bit harder. Do you even want to work?"
It's a frustrating game in which you have to walk everywhere and carry out fruitless tasks only to find out that it was all pointless due to a technicality.
To be honest, it's a pretty accurate depiction of what being unemployed can be like as you dare to seek out welfare.
The floating heads that repeat 'get off welfare, get into work' don't help. If you've ever been on Centrelink, you'll know it's pretty depressing trying to find a job in a tough employment market to have government big-wigs tell you that you aren't trying hard enough.
But, if you're lucky enough to finish the game, you'll wake up on a very Hawaiian beach with a special song that highlights what made Scott Morrison's tenure as Prime Minister really stand out.
It's worth finishing just for the song.
Scotty Goes To Centrelink is free to play, so have a crack right now. Especially if you're unemployed, because apparently you have nothing better to do.
Rachel Lang