Begging, Giving, and Gamification
I have lived in New York City for just over two years now and I am ashamed to admit that the homeless faces that frequent the subways, sidewalks, and parks now make less of an impression on me. Maybe the modus operandi for a New Yorker requires this sort of numbing to homelessness or just the fact that New York City seems to be, at times, overrun with the problem. Whatever the case may be, my wide-eyed eagerness to help whenever I could has faded.
Last Pick Productions, a Vancouver videogame studio, has created an application to (hopefully) help remedy this problem. The app, called iBeg, is expected to release in the spring of 2013 and is meant to simulate the life of a homeless person. A player is given a homeless avatar and is charged with the responsibility of keeping that avatar fed, clean, and protecting it against the harsh elements that come with living on the street. There are a few different options a player can choose so that their homeless avatar can earn money: simply beg pedestrians, play an instrument, or create a story like you just need money to fix your car.
As you become more accustomed to life on the street and start making wiser choices, your avatar will be given the opportunity to level up their street smarts in order to become more proficient. And the money that is earned from odd jobs can be used to unlock more content within the game.
But Last Pick Productions wasn’t just trying to allow a user to feel, even if it’s in the comfort of their own home and just through a virtual world, what it might be like to be homeless. There was also a desire to create a real-world impact by directing a portion of the money users spend on in-game purchases to charities.
On paper, iBeg seems like a fantastic concept. They always say that you can’t really know a person until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. And while the shoes in this instance are virtual, perhaps this game can raise awareness about what it’s like to be homeless and the donated portions can really make a difference.
On the other hand, is homelessness really something that should be gamified? I’m not so sure. I doubt a homeless person would take me seriously if I said I was trying to know what he or she feels like by way of a virtual world on my iPad. You can’t really know how it feels to sleep outside in NYC in January unless you’ve done it, right? What do you think, good or bad idea?
I think it will be amused, but will cause the opposite effect. As the player advances in the game, his life on the street will become more profitable, and the player will bring this way of thinking to the real life. In that way, the player can wrongly think that life on the streets can become easier with time, what is a huge mistake. And even more, thinking in that way he may give no money to a homeless, thinking that the person has achieved another level on the streets and has enough.
actually, there is no way to know if there will be a change in the frame of mind for an individual, let alone for the masses, regarding homelessness, because of a (this) game… Not without at least some studies.
However, a game does increase the awareness for a situation. The more, if it does become popular.
I believe that every healthy human being is able (not necessarily willing) to discern between the concepts of a game and real life. I also believe that the main reason for a lack of support to help homeless people is to choose to *ignore* the problem, and cast it out of our awareness. Most people won’t help, because they don’t know how to and because they believe that their influence doesn’t matter. A gamification of the problem might be a step to trigger the willingness to at least look at the problem.
Where everyone takes it from there, is his own choice.
What I don’t believe, is that the game pushes you (or anyone else, for that matter) towards numbness.
It is a step in the right direction.
The thing about homelessness is that the person is very often having to deal with one or more other serious problem in their life. For example, bereavement, divorce, redundancy, PTSD, children’s home, addiction, mental health, learning difficulties, abuse, social skills, to name but a few. Making someone who has a home and a job and a family and a social life homeless – really or virtually – will just show them how it’s possible to improve one’s situation (if one doesn’t have any other major problem) and they will incorrectly assume that the homeless person could do the same if s/he wanted. So, alas, the game will not succeed in its goals.
As mentioned in previous comments, I don’t think leveling up and earning money would fit to raise awareness on that matter. The gamer wouldn’t feel cold and would leave his character sleeping outside while he has the comfort of his bed, for instance.
Game? Good.
Awareness? Bad.