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Is 'SimCity' Homelessness a Bug Or a Feature?

Posted by Soulskill on from the get-the-guiliani-addon dept.

sarahnaomi writes: SimCity players have discussed a variety of creative strategies for their virtual homelessness problem. They've suggested waiting for natural disasters like tornadoes to blow the vagrants away, bulldozing parks where they congregate, or creating such a woefully insufficient city infrastructure that the homeless would leave on their own.

You can read all of these proposed final solutions in Matteo Bittanti's How to Get Rid of Homelessness, "a 600-page epic split in two volumes documenting the so-called 'homeless scandal' that affected 2013's SimCity." Bittanti collected, selected, and transcribed thousands of these messages exchanged by players on publisher Electronic Arts' official forums, Reddit, and the largest online SimCity community Simtropolis, who experienced and then tried to "eradicate" the phenomenon of homelessness that "plagued" SimCity."

7 of 393 comments (clear)

  1. Does SimCity allow you to.... by elfprince13 · · Score: 5, Funny

    host the Olympics?

  2. oh the humanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    If this dude is morally outraged by the way people play Sim City I can only hope someone alerts them to the way people play Dwarf Fortress.

    1. Re:oh the humanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I think the PC name for that game is Little People's Fortress.

  3. Re:doesn't meaning anything ... right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    If it were, I'd be upset at plumbers who think that the way to solve problems with fungi is to stomp on them.

  4. One sentence answer. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    The homeless people are who lived in all the neighborhoods of players who no longer play the game due to being locked out by intrusive DRM.

  5. Re:Games versus reality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Note to self: Avoid Santa Monica. Non-zero probability of encountering strange person trying to make an obscure point while disguised as a homeless person.

  6. Re:SimCity 2000 available for free by Cenan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Facts? Here? How DARE you?

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    ... whatever ...