Real Lives 2004 - Living Other People's Normal Lives?

Thanks to USA Today for its article discussing an educational videogame which allows players to live the life of another person. The piece explains: "Real Lives 2004 starts by automatically generating a life based on current population and birth rate statistics", before explaining possible outcomes: "Our teen-testers were able to experience many different lives in just a few hours. One was a boy born into a poor family in Zhangzhou, China, who did not attend college or vocational school. As a mail clerk, our teen-tester faced decisions about gambling, alcohol and drinking... He found romance but had no children and he died at age 84 from cancer."

Comments

Real life? WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem is, real life is boring for a lot of people. That's the whole reason they turn to games in the first place.

Re:Older 'life simulators'

[krazykong]

Actually, someone has actually recreated that game in a web based format. It can be played here..

Upload our lives.

[subzerorz]

Can you upload your own life and let it run a simulation to see how you will end up in life? This would be interesting to see when your 40, 60, or 80 years old.