The Last Worker: Robots steal our jobs in this VR game
This VR game takes you into a dystopian, automated world, perhaps foreshadowing our future. How does it feel to be the only human working among intelligent machines?
What do town criers, typesetters, wheelwrights, and telegraphists have in common? They are professions that have become obsolete in recent decades due to automated processes. Technological progress is constantly changing our working world. But rarely has this change felt as rapid as it does today. This VR game picks up on this current theme and tells the dystopian story of the last worker.
AI takes over human tasks
In particular, rapid development in the field of artificial intelligence and its impact on our jobs is currently being hotly debated. OpenAI 's online tool ChatGPT is the trigger for many dystopian fantasies.
Its underlying AI system is capable of generating texts that are almost indistinguishable from human work. The current iteration GPT-4 even understands images, dissects infographics, summarizes scientific articles, and explains individual aspects of this data.
There are only a few months between the development of the first version and GPT-4. How long will it be before these AI systems replace entire workplaces, leaving journalists and authors to find themselves in the illustrious company of telegraphists and town criers?
The Last Worker: Between Capitalism and Activism
This admittedly very exaggerated scenario is taken further by author Jörg Tittel and the game studio Wolf & Wood in "The Last Worker". The first-person adventure is set in a fictional, almost completely automated world in which there is hardly any room left for people in the labor market.
In the fulfillment center of the world's largest retailer, Jüngle, you take on the role of a human worker who is one of the few of his kind not yet replaced by robots and artificial intelligence.
Aboard his company-owned flying "JünglePods" and armed with his multi-function pistol "JüngleGun," Kurt ships countless products from the fulfillment center. Only the moody robot "Skew" keeps him company.
But when a group of activists asks Kurt to help dismantle Jüngle, the last worker's loyalty is put to the test. He learns about the dark side of his employer and must choose between capitalism and activism.
Hand-drawn graphic style by comic icon
The Last Worker was designed from the ground up as a hybrid that can be experienced both on-screen and in virtual reality. The hand-drawn graphic style was created with comic book legend Mick McMahon, whose credits include Judge Dredd and 2000 AD.
You'll find out what it feels like to be one of the last dying species of workers on March 30, 2023, when the narrative action adventure with stealth interludes will be released for PC, PS5, Xbox Series, and Nintendo Switch, as well as for the VR headset PSVR 2, Meta Quest 2 and all SteamVR-enabled headsets.
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