Alice and Kev - The story of being homeless in The Sims 3

[Tommy Gun]

This has been posted in tons of places, but I haven't seen it here. Anyone else following it? I love stuff like this.

This is an experiment in playing a homeless family in The Sims 3. I created two Sims, moved them in to a place made to look like an abandoned park, removed all of their remaining money, and then attempted to help them survive without taking any job promotions or easy cash routes. It’s based on the old ‘poverty challenge’ idea from The Sims 2, but it turned out to be a lot more interesting with The Sims 3’s living neighborhood features.

I have attempted to tell my experiences with the minimum of embellishment. Everything I describe in here is something that happened in the game. What’s more, a surprising amount of the interesting things in this story were generated by just letting go and watching the Sims’ free will and personality traits take over.

Here's the beginning:
http://aliceandkev.wordpress.com/200...alice-and-kev/

[elmuerte]

what a terrible idea to punish those virtual humans

[Nachimir]

Yeah, I binged on this just before I left work last Friday. The post where Alice puts her wages in an envelope and posts them to a charity was pretty amazing.

[elmuerte]

I think we should start a virtual charity to help get Alice and Kev their house back, and a job.

[Shakesbeard]

elmuerte:

I think we should start a virtual charity to help get Alice and Kev their house back, and a job.

Screw this guy, join me in raising funds to stick them in a room without doors or a pool without ladders!

[elmuerte]

started on this, because it was a while since the last bogus site that links to idle thumbs.

Need to work on the design a bit, and fix the images and what not. But tonight it should be finished.

[Kroms]

This is so brilliant; the story hits all the emotional buttons. The dad provides some good comic relief while the girl goes deeper and deeper into the pit, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't I tear-up a little when that hug happened.

[Kingzjester]

This is some weird weird stuff. I wonder how much of what she's saying is actually happening and relatively easily interpretable and how much she (or is it he?) is editorializing as s/he's telling this tale... I have no point of reference as to how coherent their little Simmish conversations can be.

[Tommy Gun]

Kingzjester:

I have no point of reference as to how coherent their little Simmish conversations can be.

I actually assumed the interpretation came entirely from context and the little image thought bubbles. A lot of it is pretty obvious (e.g., Kev gets down on one knee, pulls out a box, and has a diamond ring bubble above him).