A Games Design student has decided to conduct a social experiment: a real-time pseudo-study of a homeless family on The Sims 3, a reality simulation game. And every bit of it is documented on his blog.

Robin Burkinshaw created Alice and Kev, a homeless virtual couple, on the simulation game and gave them the amenities normally fitting a real homeless couple. He then “monitors” the couple’s progress in the game, and blogs about it over at Alice and Kev: The Story of Being Homeless in Sims 3.

The blog relates the day-to-day escapades of the couple, complete with screenshots, anecdotes and minimal dramatics. Burkinshaw says of the endeavor:

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.

The Sims 3 is a reality simulation game by Maxis, wherein you can create virtual people and guide them through the daily aspects of everyday life, such as buying and furnishing a house, getting a job, having kids and interacting with neighbors.

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