Hamburg/London – Dossergame.co.uk, the UK version of the infamous and harshly criticized Pennergame from Germany, has just been re-launched in the UK. The games character starts of as a homeless tramp in London who's mission is to become the king of the streets by begging, heavy drinking and forming gangs with other players. Charity organizations condemned Dossergame and other foreign versions for its satirical and derogatory content.
Freek Spinnewijn, director of FEANSTA, a European homeless organization, said: “Dossergame undermines the dignity of people experiencing homelessness and oversimplifies a complex social reality.” The French Secretary of State for Housing, Benoist Apparu, wanted to outlaw the Parisian version while Cristobal S. Belsa, the president of Soldarios (an NGO in Madrid) believes it threatens society as a whole by portraying the wrong messages about homelessness. Due to the games immense popularity in Europe with over 3 million players, it has not only survived but grown despite such harsh criticism.
With the new release of Dossergame, the operator Farbflut Entertainment - boldly reinforced the satirical content with provocations like "peeing on another player's leg" or "slapping someone's arse". "It is a fact that especially provocative content can raise awareness of serious circumstances. We are eager to see how the public will react to the funny graphics and new localized provocative themes that are all London based.” explains co-founder Niels Wildung.
Although the nature of the game is fun and humorous, Farblut take very seriously their social commitment to improving the Homeless situation. In 2009 alone, Farbflut donated a five-figure sum to charity organizations in Germany. Through a cooperation with the online foundation Betterplace.org, Farbflut also influences players to get involved with donations.
Dossergame is also able to be played on Facebook. The application is called StreetRivals – a more global name to incorporate all international versions into one game. After only a few weeks it has over half a million users and is ranked 3rd out of all facebook role playing games.
