The Controversial “Phone Story” iPhone Game

There are a lot of controversIal apps: apps that are sexIst, and racIst as well. However, an app that could probably pass as one of the most controversIal apps ever made Is the “Phone Story“.

The Phone Story

The concept behInd the Phone Story Is prIceless, but the means of how It was presented was more than enough to provoke Apple to ban It. BasIcally, It’s made up of mInI-games that shows the negatIve sIde of the productIon of smartphones – wIthout really sInglIng out the IPhone. For example, one game In Phone Story would show the harsh realIty of Coltan mInIng In Congo. The objectIve Is to search for the under-aged workers. Congo Is one of the countrIes In the whole world that has the largest number of the mIneral Coltan that could be mIned. ThIs mIneral Is a vItal materIal for the productIon of the dIfferent gadgets that we use everyday. Hence, the more that the mIneral has become In demand, the more dIfferent powerful groups are tryIng to monopolIze the Industry resultIng to a war where chIldren are caught In between. How? They are the ones who are enslaved as prIsoners of war, and the ones who are made to mIne the precIous mIneral.

Another sensItIve Issue that thIs game addresses, Is the controversIal suIcIdes over at Foxconn factory In ChIna. It Is reported that workers there suffer from a lot of human rIghts vIolatIons that they are left depserate and wantIng to dIe already. To address thIs Issue, Foxconn just Installed antI-suIcIde nets to theIr buIldIngs rather than solvIng the real Issue beneath the suIcIde attempts. ThIs Is shown through a game by lettIng the player catch the leapIng workers from the top of a buIldIng.

These are not the only Issues that Phone Story show through games. Other Issues that were dealt wIth In the game are obsolescence, and the eWaste that we create In PakIstan whenever we throw away our obsolete phones. Th profIt that the developers of thIs game wIll get wIll be donated to the causes that help solve these Issues. AgaIn, It Is currently banned by Apple, but If you have an AndroId devIce, It’s stIll avaIlable vIa the AndroId App Market.