"Green Pepper Simulator distils academics' day-to-day workload into a dashboard: grant success rates, publication timelines, student attrition and endless deadlines. And it makes the threat feel immediate."
"Even if you do everything 'right', the outcome is still beyond your control. For many players - especially early-career faculty members - that's not just dark humour. It could fuel anticipatory anxiety about their future."
"Eventually, the game offered me various bleak endings, including dismissal, a transfer to a job in campus security and janitorial work. I laughed. Then I realized I wasn't laughing because it was absurd."
Green Pepper Simulator is an online game where players assume the role of early-career academics navigating six years to secure a permanent position. Players manage grants, publications, student recruitment, and teaching while maintaining mental health. The game mirrors real-life academic pressures, highlighting grant failures, publication challenges, and student attrition. Players experience a decline in mental health despite efforts to succeed, leading to various bleak outcomes. The gameplay resonates with many early-career faculty, evoking feelings of anticipatory anxiety about their future in academia.
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