

Revenue Canada worker's video game draws criticism - speg
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/01/30/game-developer-draws-ire.html?cmp=rss

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merlish
Basically in the game you take a phone call from some guy and try to get him
to answer a sufficient number of security questions that you can actually
change whatever needs changing.

Being too fuzzy on the details and not pushing for enough information results
in the caller being happy(ish), but you get an e-mail from the boss afterwards
telling you you're fired. Being sarcastic or downright rude results in the
person on the other end making a complaint to your boss, resulting in you
getting an e-mail firing you when the call ends.

Amusingly, I'm not actually sure whether it's possible to finish the game
while both managing to make the change the user wants and not getting fired. I
think the best ending I've got so far was the caller failing to make it past
all the security checks, and having to drop the call.

The game does not use any real recorded voices and it doesn't particularly
make fun of callers. Just the caller is somewhat quick to anger and doesn't
know the answer to any questions, really.

This is a massive overreaction by the minister, who obviously hasn't played
the game either.

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talmand
I do believe the National Revenue Minister is overreacting just a tad bit.
Creating a game about phone support is conduct that is "offensive" and
"unacceptable"? An investigation is required to ensure that confidential
taxpayer information wasn't compromised?

So, fire him and then ask to start a potential criminal investigation over
this?

Seems to me that politicians in Canada need something more substantial to
complain about.

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purephase
My guess is that the content used in the game may have been garnered from his
day job, and therein lies the risk.

~~~
jff
There's a difference between "Lots of callers can't remember their SIN, I'll
use that" and "David Johnson, of 123 Maple St, Vancouver, BC, gave 112211 as
an invalid SIN, let's put him in the game".

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jsnk
The distinction doesn't matter.

Callers agreed to their conversation recorded only on the condition that 1. it
will be used for training purposes and 2. security purposes. There was never
an agreement regarding the callers' conversation recorded to be used in a game
that makes mockery of the callers and potentially make money from them.

~~~
katbyte
I don't think he recorded it as much as remembered experiences he had and
transcribed them down independently.

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rosser
_Gallant has received a slew of tweets of encouragement, and he has tweeted
that sales of his game are "through the roof.”_

He probably doesn't need the job that badly any more, then.

~~~
jayfuerstenberg
Even before his "loss" of employment he was pulling in decent money.

A lot of indie developers would be jealous of him, and now even more so.

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dhughes
To give you an idea of how federal tax workers act here is an example.

In my region is a big tax centre and it was discovered these people who
process taxes, federal workers, smoke illegal smuggled cigarettes. Someone
searched through the old cigarette buts around the smoking area of the
building and found a lot were off-tax, Native, illegal cigarettes.

These people make $60,000 to $80,000 per year in an area where a good wage is
a full-time minimum wage job.

Combined with the low cost of living here and a massive wage these people
these federal tax workers are beyond arrogant.

~~~
theorique
How do they acquire the tax free cigarettes? Is it against the law for them to
buy them?

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gyardley
When I was a kid in small-town Ontario, buying tax-free cigarettes was a lot
like buying marijuana - you went to the guy who was known to sell them, who
was usually hanging around the high school, and he hooked you up.

In my day the cigarettes were name brands, sold to low-tax American states and
then smuggled back into Canada through Indian reservations - you couldn't tell
you were smoking smuggled cigarettes by looking at the butts. Now Indian
reservations manufacture their own untaxed cigarettes - which is completely
legal, when bought and smoked on the reservation. However, they're also
illegally sold off the reservation.

In Ontario at least, it's against the law to buy these cigarettes off the
reservation. The penalty is a fine. Enforcement, for the individual buyers, is
pretty much non-existent.

~~~
purephase
It's even easier than that. I know of local stores in my area (heart of the
GTA) that sell them over-the-counter. You just have to know how to ask.

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mhurron
You're probably going to loose your job if you bitch about it publicly.

Doesn't matter if it's in a game or on Facebook or out in the lobby.

~~~
vy8vWJlco
While I can imagine some situations where I would definitely agree, I'm not
sure this is one (I'm not sure it isn't either; I don't have all the details).
I think he's entitled to vent in his personal life without presuming it will
affect his work, and since people's private lives are increasingly public, the
lines of visibility and freedom are under pressure to move. I think I'd rather
those lines move in the direction of increased individual rights and free
expression than the other way, but I'm OK with an "assessment" of his supposed
"crimes against humanity" as long it isn't a substitute for rational judgement
and is allowed to conclude dispassionately that he's not breaching anyone's
privacy or other rights, if true. I don't think it's enough that CRA doesn't
like it... At face value it seems harmless. (I might be inclined to call him
immature though... Obviously most people's jobs feel like banging your head on
a table; do something else if you can, but publicly resenting people just asks
for the same in return. And so on...)

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dmix
That video was hilarious. I'm sure some game company would hire him.

Someone like this doesn't belong in a government job. They need to find a
corporate drone and he's not that person.

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kdazzle
Can-Con!

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thoughtcriminal
Here's the link to his game: <http://www.davidsgallant.com/igtced.html>

Personally, I think he managed his workplace stress constructively. He made a
game people may enjoy rather the six o'clock news for doing something rash.

