A controversial online game has launched stateside.
Billed as Europe’s most popular browser-based game, Bumrise, from German developer Farbflut Entertainment, starts with players in the role of a homeless person. The aim is to eventually rise socially, with an ultimate goal of achieving elite Manhattanite status. Players can earn money by collecting bottles or by learning to play an instrument and busking for money on the streets. Players can team up with their friends to play the game together.
The game has rankled feathers around the world, with the Telegraph reporting on outrage from French homeless groups after the game’s launch in that country. A spokesperson for the Red Cross called the game, “…a disgrace, it's degrading, it's humiliating to make the homeless the butt of derision.”
For its part, Farbflut claims that part of the proceeds from the game have been “regularly” donated to homeless organizations. The company added:
Although Bumrise holds many cliches and stereotypes, it is set upon a satirical and exaggerated context. With help from our users, we assist the homeless people in Hamburg, and soon New York, with a portion of our revenues, thus bringing attention to their situation.
The game is also available on FaceBook under the name StreetRivals, “a more global name to incorporate all international versions into one game.”
Comments
Re: Game Based On Homeless Hits U.S.
I think this game would raise awareness to just how many homeless there are around the world. It would also show how the homeless live & what their day to day lives consist of. Just b/c a game comes out that is basically making fun of the homeless, which btw, it is your decision to think the latter of it, but you decide if it is making fun of them or helping raise awareness of them. They still bleed red like the rest of us do. Anyone that is willing to make that choice to make fun of a homeless person has no concept of sympathy or doesn't want to know how they got that way in the first place.
& what if the homeless actually did want this to go into the hands of people just to let the people that are not homeless know what their lives are like. It's kinda like being in the shoes of that person. But it is still a video game & fictional. You make the decision.
"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry
Re: Game Based On Homeless Hits U.S.
The Master: Oh, like that was ever gonna happen. Homeless was I? Destitute and dying? Well, look at me now.
Doctor Who: The End of Time, Part One.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
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Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl
Re: Game Based On Homeless Hits U.S.
More to the point, it's shit.
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: Game Based On Homeless Hits U.S.
Enough people seem to enjoy it, though I can't understand why. Then again, I've never been able to figure out why someone would enjoy Simcity.
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I once had a dream about God. In it, he was looking down upon the planet and the havoc we recked and he said unto us, "Damn Kids get off my lawn!"
Re: Game Based On Homeless Hits U.S.
Lots of people seem to enjoy shit like Evony and Farmville too. It's no indication of quality.
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: Game Based On Homeless Hits U.S.
And one person beleiving their opinion to be arbitrary is no indication of quality either.
Re: Game Based On Homeless Hits U.S.
My opinion is definitive. Deal with it.
Also lol, are you SERIOUSLY trying to make a case that "games" like Evony and Farmville aren't shit, or are you just being facetious for the sake of it?
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: Game Based On Homeless Hits U.S.
Yeah, I think it's easy to say that your opinion does not define what is a good game or not. If an assload of people are playing farmville, I think you could say that it is good.