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Ask HN: Are there any good poverty simulator games?

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Re: Ask HN: Are there any good poverty simulator games?

#91

Post by rr808 »

DarylZero wrote: post #54
seoaeu wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who doesn't know this? The problem isn't that there's no safety net, the problem is that navigating it is a maze and there's tons of cracks for people to fall through. Many, many people don't get the help they need because of that. Take rent vouchers: only some people who "qualify" actually receive vouchers because there is a cap on the total number the government gives out. Or the EITC: to get the full benefit your…

Or here's an interesting fact: SNAP (food stamps) have cost-of-living adjustments. When food prices go up, SNAP benefits go up. But SSI benefits count SNAP as income and there is a dollar-for-dollar downward adjustment for every increase in SNAP. So if you have SNAP, your SSI benefits will _decrease_ with an _increase_ in cost-of-living!

If you own a couple of grand in assets you no longer qualify for SNAP. Which is crazy given that 15 million people rely on SNAP.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any good poverty simulator games?

#92

Post by Bud »

onesafari wrote: post #24
bojangleslover wrote: post #12

>The Affordable Care Act requires you get health insurance. The good news? Your child is covered by the state. The bad? You aren’t. According to benefits.gov you would qualify for medicaid on $1,441/month gross (the wage of the job I selected)

Many don't know the USA has a very large safety net. Medicaid, medicare, social security, SNAP, TANF, SSI, LIHEAP, EITC, rent vouchers, pell grants, job training programs, etc.

Aaaaand apparently, many also lack even the most basic level of clue about how many gaping holes there are in that net and how many people fall through that net.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any good poverty simulator games?

#93

Post by Bud »

kennywinker wrote: post #86
manachar wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The interesting part of simulation genres is finding out what you need to change to make it fun. What makes a simulation game fun varies per game. Stardew Valley could be described as a boring loop. EVE Online just yesterday made fans happy by getting official Microsoft Excel support. The key seems to be to have a particular hook and perspective. So, for a poverty simulator, you could embrace hustle culture and have…

> EVE Online just yesterday made fans happy by getting official Microsoft Excel support. That's the funniest single phrase I've read all day. Thank you for sharing that, it brought me great joy :)

What's even funnier is, it's actually true.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any good poverty simulator games?

#94

Post by FigmentEngine »

Something like games these by Jane McGonigal

https://janemcgonigal.com/play-me/

> I make alternate reality games: games that are designed to improve real lives or solve real problems. I’ve been making ARGs since 2001 — and you can watch trailers for a dozen of my favorite ARGs below.

> Many of my games challenge players to tackle real-world problems at a planetary-scale: hunger, poverty, climate change, or global peace, for example (see: EVOKE, World Without Oil, Superstruct)

Re: Ask HN: Are there any good poverty simulator games?

#96

Post by aindilis »

I've been working on some free/libre open source software for 22 years designed to help people survive poverty and related conditions, such as homelessness, disability, illness, relationship abuse, emergencies, etc. It's called the Free Life Planner (FLP). The goal of FLP is to help people get on top of every security, such as food, water, financial, emotional, cyberphysical, etc etc. Its website is here: https://github.com/aindilis/free-life-planner I really need to rewrite the introduction to the FLP GitHub page since it doesn't explain the concept well enough, although the following use case does explain it more: https://frdcsa.org/~andrewdo/writings/homeless-story.html If anyone is interested in collaborating that would be fantastic, there's already a Vagrant image of FLP (but it's heavily redacted and out of date) available here: https://app.vagrantup.com/aindilis We're also working on finishing the installer for both FLP and the middleware that it runs on top of, called FRDCSA ( https://frdcsa.org ). The installer for FRDCSA when fixed up will be available here: https://github.com/aindilis/frdcsa-installer I would love to see a free/libre open source video game that used the tech involved.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any good poverty simulator games?

#98

Post by umvi »

throwanem wrote: post #68
umvi wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it's a pretty depressing and challenging game. I beat this game with all the different scenarios. If you play long enough though, you can find a pretty simple formula to win: - Find the nearest homeless shelter that is near a job board - Take freelance jobs, putting the bulk of your earnings in a savings account and only keeping a little cash on hand for laundry and other things (otherwise it gets stolen at the…

Being able to open a savings account without a fixed address is already pretty unrealistic.

The game requires you to have stayed at the same homeless shelter many days in a row before you are able to get an address and open a bank account iirc

Re: Ask HN: Are there any good poverty simulator games?

#99

Post by McNutty »

todfox wrote: post #85

Jones in the Fast Lane: https://jonesinthefastlane.com You start in poverty and can work your way out, but you can also get trapped. It certainly gives you the feeling of the grind: eating only the cheapest food, earning barely enough, having no time after work.

This was also the first thing that came to mind for me. It is very simple compared to what OP is perhaps imagining, but when I played it as a child the message definitely got through to me.

  I can't open your link but no matter, after several decades I still fondly remember getting a job at the burger place (and smart-ass comments about "you can save 6 hours and flush those fries right now"), saving up and saving up until I could get better and better degrees and jobs, and finally ending up as the CEO of the bank or whatever.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any good poverty simulator games?

#100

Post by tejtm »

tlb wrote: post #3

It could be most beneficial to people currently in poverty, to try out strategies for escaping it.

exposure to / awareness of what I would call "financial horizons" is the biggest thing for me.

In poverty there is neither reason nor energy to waste beyond a conceivably actionable point. Learning to overcome that horizon is critical and I think it becomes more difficult the older we get.

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