No happy ending for Phone Story app

This week Apple banned from its store the iPhone application Phone Story just three days after its release. The game depicts a cartoon character working through the realistic and often unpleasant processes of creating Apple merchandise, highlighting the uglier side of electronics production.

Players of the app can take of the role of an employee in the oppressive conditions of the Foxconn factory, an Apple partner. In another level, players plan the obsolescence of electronics in the West, an act with negative consequences on the environment. Of course, the cartoon avatar uses an Apple phone to communicate and interact throughout the game.

In Phone Story’s “Suicide” mini game, one plays as a medical employee with a trampoline net attempting to catch staff jumping off the roof. This was to satirize the 14 real-life suicide attempts in Taiwan’s Foxconn in 2010, and three in 2011 thus far.

Molleindustria, the creators of the dark game, explained it as one that attempts to provoke a critical reflection on its own technological platform. In an interview with Gamasutra, Molleindustria’s Paolo Pedercini said, “We don’t want people to stop buying smartphones, but maybe we can make a little contribution in terms of shifting the perception of technological lust from cool to not-that-cool. This happened before with fur coats, diamonds, cigarettes and SUVs — I can’t see why it can’t happen with iPads.

According to Wired.com, Apple removed the game because it violated four rules for iOS app creation, including its depictions of child abuse (code 15.2), objectionable content (16.1) and promises to turn over a portion of the money to charity (21.1 and 21.2).

Though removed from the Apple store, Phone Story can still be purchased for $1 in the Android Market.