Violent Homeless Sim Offends Just About Everyone, but Could Do Some Good

There’s a new French game making waves called “Clodogame” which quite literally translates to “Trampgame” in English. It’s a sim that focuses on the homeless of France, and though it’s far from “Bumfights,” it’s still managed to offend just about everyone in Europe.

“Users are invited to progress from being a penniless homeless person in Paris to becoming “king of the streets”, the most “talented tramp in Paris” and eventually move in to the Palace of Versailles.

Players are invited to “attack other homeless people”, become a “peerless pickpocket”, steal from sweet machines, public toilets and laundrettes. They need to learn to play an instrument, choose a pet liable to increase their begging skills, and keep control of their alcohol intake.”

Sounds uh, fun? Advocates for the homeless are up in arms, complaining the game does nothing but hurt the homeless by reinforcing stereotypes about them.

“It’s a disgrace, it’s degrading, it’s humiliating to make the homeless the butt of derision. The image portrayed is exactly the one against which we’ve been trying to fight.”

But the German makers of the game claim that it has actually raised young people’s awareness of the homeless.

“They are becoming more conscious of the problem. Some of them have even asked where they can send their donations,” said a spokesman.

Yeah, I’m inclined to believe that almost as easily as I believe the makers of “Faith Fighter” were really trying to promote “discourse among religions,” but they do have a point. If this game was done remotely tastefully, it might actually do some good to the cause of homelessness. If players were actually forced to live as (some) of the more desperate homeless do, stealing, begging and fighting for territory, it could shed some light on an issue that the average gamer would never normally think about at all.

If they can then make the connection from the game to real life, it might actually generate some degree of activisim in a small percentage of players, whether it be donating a few bucks or maybe even volunteering. As the game is now, it does sound a bit exploitative, but with some tweaks and maybe a link to donate to an actual homeless charity embedded somewhere in the game, maybe this could be an alright idea after all.

If you speak French, play the game here and give me your impressions.

[via Telegraph]