Where you pay rent for your house/apartment, get knocked back from over 99% of your jobs, and the jobs you get have almost no upward mobility. Sometimes your sim is depressed and just doesn't respond to your clicking. Food in the fridge goes off quickly, but it's also cheaper to bulk cook, so you're at risk of eating semi-spoiled food a lot of the time.
Sims truly do live in an idyllic liberal fantasy world.
I was very disappointed when I first played cities skylines and it made me build a shitload of roads and earn a bunch of revenue before I could even start building renewable energy and trains
They're about war from a perspective that empowers and often nearly deifies the individual. Doomguy runs like 60 miles an hour, carries an entire arsenal, and can eat rockets to the face with a grin and keep on going. Master Chief is a 7 foot tall unstoppable ubermensch who single handedly destroys entire armies. They're nominally about war but the protagonists behave more like greek heroes. In more grounded games you're still often something like a sniper or another elite soldier who wields wildly disproportionate power. In multiplayer games, especially modern games, the individual is heavily emphasized with many customization options and different powers and abilities. Death is cheap and painless and the individuals K:D is emphasized over any collective goals like completing objectives or capturing points. No one suffers trenchfoot. No one spends hours bleeding out in a ditch screaming for their mother. If games include artillery then it is a momentary inconvenience. No games place you, powerless, in a bunker as you pray the shelling stops before you drown in mud. Civilians are never seen, all conflicts are between soldiers of roughly equal footing and thus bloodshed is kept morally pure.
War games are a grotesque parody of war that don't even try to show the substance of the real thing.
You could certainly make a game with a homeless or poor protagonist, but such a game would be unlikely to convey in any way the actual experience of being homeless or poor.
You could say the same about movies. Every form of media has to alter it's depiction of reality to match it's form. Often these changes make for a significantly less accurate picture.
The only way I could see it working would be as a character driven RPG like Disco Elysium or Planescape: Torment. I don't think creating an empathetic experience is the hard part, it's jumping from an interactive story to an actual game that's hard.
Kenshi is awesome. Does have a bit of a problem with the lategame though. It's really a game about struggling and overcoming adversity. Once you've overcome the adversity and you have 15 dudes who are all badass combat gods who live in a well-oiled machine of a fortress that they built in a pretty, green river valley you're just like "Okay, I have won the game. Guess I'll play something else now." Cause there is more stuff you can do after that point but it just doesn't feel the same when you have a safe, pleasant home to return to.
I dunno, building a successful, self-sustaining fortress tends to attract the attention of the Shek or the Holy Nation, who regularly send squads to try and knock you down. But the fact that these remained threats into the late game might say more about my inability to effectively defend myself.
Yeah the religious dudes would regularly come by and see whether I've decided women are evil yet. While I was getting settled I just had a man with a holy book meet them and go "yep, I promise women don't have rights here" but eventually I just had a woman say "what are you gonna do about it :gigachad-hd:" and then slaughtered every single person they brought. When your guys are skilled and geared enough, combat is basically not even slightly dangerous anymore.
People play The Sims (and games in general) to experience good feelings. Many don't get any good feelings at all in their lives and depend solely on games. Making them feel frustrated (challenging game) or sad (not successful in-game) is a recipe for ragequits and being review-bombed with 1 star reviews. Giving these people the feelings they want (need, actually) is a recipe to attract people who will spend, spend, spend on your skins and loot boxes.
The whole MMORPG experience was never about the games, it was about friendless misogynist nerds in their mothers' basements finding what it's like to have friends for the first time. Ever wonder why they exploded in popularity? Turns out being a piece of shit in real life means you're sad and alone. Giving them good feelings, etc., refer to first paragraph.
Sims series. No expansion focusing on being poor or homeless.
The Sims: Misery edition
Where you pay rent for your house/apartment, get knocked back from over 99% of your jobs, and the jobs you get have almost no upward mobility. Sometimes your sim is depressed and just doesn't respond to your clicking. Food in the fridge goes off quickly, but it's also cheaper to bulk cook, so you're at risk of eating semi-spoiled food a lot of the time.
Sims truly do live in an idyllic liberal fantasy world.
deleted by creator
Most city builders are lib af
There is a game that is called Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic. Might be what you are looking for.
Edit: Yes we did it comrade ... the hivemind is working.
Fortunately we have the 100% materialist Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic.
edit: lmao we commented at almost exactly the same time
I was very disappointed when I first played cities skylines and it made me build a shitload of roads and earn a bunch of revenue before I could even start building renewable energy and trains
Also at any time the cops can give you a surprise death and early game over.
Being poor and homeless sucks. It's hard to make a compelling video game about experiences that are inherently dehumanizing and miserable.
Most popular types of games are all about war in one way or another. Yet they are fun.
They're about war from a perspective that empowers and often nearly deifies the individual. Doomguy runs like 60 miles an hour, carries an entire arsenal, and can eat rockets to the face with a grin and keep on going. Master Chief is a 7 foot tall unstoppable ubermensch who single handedly destroys entire armies. They're nominally about war but the protagonists behave more like greek heroes. In more grounded games you're still often something like a sniper or another elite soldier who wields wildly disproportionate power. In multiplayer games, especially modern games, the individual is heavily emphasized with many customization options and different powers and abilities. Death is cheap and painless and the individuals K:D is emphasized over any collective goals like completing objectives or capturing points. No one suffers trenchfoot. No one spends hours bleeding out in a ditch screaming for their mother. If games include artillery then it is a momentary inconvenience. No games place you, powerless, in a bunker as you pray the shelling stops before you drown in mud. Civilians are never seen, all conflicts are between soldiers of roughly equal footing and thus bloodshed is kept morally pure.
War games are a grotesque parody of war that don't even try to show the substance of the real thing.
You could certainly make a game with a homeless or poor protagonist, but such a game would be unlikely to convey in any way the actual experience of being homeless or poor.
You could say the same about movies. Every form of media has to alter it's depiction of reality to match it's form. Often these changes make for a significantly less accurate picture.
I mean a game that portrays the realities of being homeless would be a lot like a post apocalyptic horror.
Like Fallout or something. You have to be aware of your needs to survive.
But unlike in power fantasies like Fallout, you can't violently lash out at the world. You're unarmed, outnumbered and disorganized.
I don't think creating an empathetic experience around homeless people is that hard.
The only way I could see it working would be as a character driven RPG like Disco Elysium or Planescape: Torment. I don't think creating an empathetic experience is the hard part, it's jumping from an interactive story to an actual game that's hard.
this is what Kenshi has been like for me so far
Kenshi is awesome. Does have a bit of a problem with the lategame though. It's really a game about struggling and overcoming adversity. Once you've overcome the adversity and you have 15 dudes who are all badass combat gods who live in a well-oiled machine of a fortress that they built in a pretty, green river valley you're just like "Okay, I have won the game. Guess I'll play something else now." Cause there is more stuff you can do after that point but it just doesn't feel the same when you have a safe, pleasant home to return to.
I dunno, building a successful, self-sustaining fortress tends to attract the attention of the Shek or the Holy Nation, who regularly send squads to try and knock you down. But the fact that these remained threats into the late game might say more about my inability to effectively defend myself.
Yeah the religious dudes would regularly come by and see whether I've decided women are evil yet. While I was getting settled I just had a man with a holy book meet them and go "yep, I promise women don't have rights here" but eventually I just had a woman say "what are you gonna do about it :gigachad-hd:" and then slaughtered every single person they brought. When your guys are skilled and geared enough, combat is basically not even slightly dangerous anymore.
People play The Sims (and games in general) to experience good feelings. Many don't get any good feelings at all in their lives and depend solely on games. Making them feel frustrated (challenging game) or sad (not successful in-game) is a recipe for ragequits and being review-bombed with 1 star reviews. Giving these people the feelings they want (need, actually) is a recipe to attract people who will spend, spend, spend on your skins and loot boxes.
The whole MMORPG experience was never about the games, it was about friendless misogynist nerds in their mothers' basements finding what it's like to have friends for the first time. Ever wonder why they exploded in popularity? Turns out being a piece of shit in real life means you're sad and alone. Giving them good feelings, etc., refer to first paragraph.