Hobo: Tough Life is releasing out of Steam early access on March 30th (urban survival RPG where you play as a homeless person)

[8byte]

What are y'all gonna say about the game "This War of Mine"? That it "gamifies" a horrible war experience? No. The game was praised for its depiction.

This game may (or may not) shed more light on what it means to suffer homelessness and poverty.

Games, like all art, are an expression of the human experience and being homeless, starving, hopeless, afraid, desperate, heartless, cruel, kind...all of these are part of the human experience. All are fair game for art to explore.

Judge it afterwards. Don't judge it now before you know what it is.

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While games contain a myriad of art, and can be works of art themselves, let's also not forget the exist first as consumer products, to make money.

Art can be exploitive, and there's no reason whatsoever to justify exploitation. Additionally, exploitation can push something squarely out of the "art" category entirely.

 

[Olrac]

Yeah, with all of the 'wokeness' on this board, how can this game possibly get a pass? It is clear from the descriptions and trailer that this going to play on typical stereotypes for 'homeless' people, at best. It is even worse, given the current pandemic, in the US at least, has led to many people without jobs and not far from being in this situation for real.

 

[Beatle]

A true modern day survival game

 

[Xalbur]

I really didn't get the feeling that the devs are making fun of homeless people in that trailer, not sure what all of you are on about.

 

[Macross]

Wow, that trailer....

 

[chrominance]

I really didn't get the feeling that the devs are making fun of homeless people in that trailer, not sure what all of you are on about.

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Watched the trailer, and I agree, I don't think the devs are intentionally making fun of homeless people.

That said, just because the slight isn't intentional doesn't mean it can't be there. It's obviously hard to tell much from a trailer, but this looks more like an amalgam of mechanics borrowed from other games than an actual commentary on homelessness, which in turn can trivialize the experience (it's pretty easy to build a makeshift home, all you gotta do is collect 50 Wood and 12 Sheet Metal, add Scrap Furniture as needed, and voila!). As someone posted upthread:

I wonder if this game addresses the challenging cleaning up somewhat at homeless shelter / community center, getting a hobbled together suit from salvation army and trying very, very hard to apply for job through placement centers , let alone letting a bank allow you to open an account for direct deposit so you can slowly scrounge up some kind of income with the end goal of hoping, barely hoping a housing authority or rental center for cheap one bedroom apartment will actually grant you a fucking lease without some sort of background check, no photo ID, no social security card, etc.

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There are a lot of ways in which this could go bad, and not a lot of ways this could go well. If the developers are able to walk that tightrope, then fantastic, but I think it makes sense to have a great deal of skepticism just because treating this kind of subject matter with dignity is much harder to do well than your typical setting for a survival sim. And if that's not even the goal here, then it just comes off as insensitive and naive at best, crass and demeaning at worst.

 

[Xalbur]

Watched the trailer, and I agree, I don't think the devs are intentionally making fun of homeless people.

That said, just because the slight isn't intentional doesn't mean it can't be there. It's obviously hard to tell much from a trailer, but this looks more like an amalgam of mechanics borrowed from other games than an actual commentary on homelessness, which in turn can trivialize the experience (it's pretty easy to build a makeshift home, all you gotta do is collect 50 Wood and 12 Sheet Metal, add Scrap Furniture as needed, and voila!). As someone posted upthread:



There are a lot of ways in which this could go bad, and not a lot of ways this could go well. If the developers are able to walk that tightrope, then fantastic, but I think it makes sense to have a great deal of skepticism just because treating this kind of subject matter with dignity is much harder to do well than your typical setting for a survival sim. And if that's not even the goal here, then it just comes off as insensitive and naive at best, crass and demeaning at worst.

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That's a good point, I'll wait until there any sort of feedback from anyone who played this before deciding how I ultimately feel about this

 

[gig]

This is not art or a game with a message. Just watch the trailer for fucks sake.

The title, the description, everything points to this being in poor taste.

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Yep. This forum over all others should have a good grasp on this concept.

 

[Biestmann]

Theoretically, a game like this could humanize homeless people to an audience not previously receptive to their struggles, but judging by everything we see here, this game doesn't really seem interested in doing that.

 

[BobbeMalle]

I'm not gonna add more, a lot of people before me already said what i had in mind
The fact that during development you didn't stop and think this could be tasteless is, to me, problematic

 

[Weltall Zero]

if they can actually deliver a decent message i can see it being something better than it appears to do.

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Yeah, in the end it's going to come down to whether the premise is intended to raise awareness, or as a sensationalist, morbid hook that trivializes the situation. Smart money is probably on the latter, unfortunately.

 

[Deleted member 5596]

A game that tastefully looks at all the social issues, the society that enables this to happen and all the problems associated with homelessness, could be a very interesting game or at least a great interactive look at the whole issue that a lot of people suffers everyday in their lives.

This is not that game clearly.

 

[Deleted member 7148]

Yeah this seems kinda gross when you have privileged gamers with monster rigs playing homeless simulators.

 

[Res-bot]

We've had other games portray homelessness - Last of Us basically follows 2 protagonists who are homeless for the majority of the playthrough throughout the game. The main difference is that their homelessness is a norm of the post apocalyptic world they live in. I can imagine Joe and Ellie living fairly decent non-homeless lives pre-fungus because they don't have a lot of the social, mental and health problems that make a person prone to homelessness to begin with.

I wonder if this game will address the causes of homelessness, because if as the game says , you can solve quests, form alliances, unite factions, construct roofs and walls, and get paid work, it sort of sounds like a survival sim where you start from scratch as opposed to say what leads to homelessness in our current world and the difficulties they face in getting away from homelessness.

 

[Don Fluffles]

I wonder if this game addresses the challenging cleaning up somewhat at homeless shelter / community center, getting a hobbled together suit from salvation army and trying very, very hard to apply for job through placement centers , let alone letting a bank allow you to open an account for direct deposit so you can slowly scrounge up some kind of income with the end goal of hoping, barely hoping a housing authority or rental center for cheap one bedroom apartment will actually grant you a fucking lease without some sort of background check, no photo ID, no social security card, etc.

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This should definitely be a feature. The more it contributes to empathy toward the impoverished population, the better.

 

[styl_oh]

this game exists and is called disco elysium

 

[deepFlaw]

We've had other games portray homelessness - Last of Us basically follows 2 protagonists who are homeless for the majority of the playthrough throughout the game. The main difference is that their homelessness is a norm of the post apocalyptic world they live in. I can imagine Joe and Ellie living fairly decent non-homeless lives pre-fungus because they don't have a lot of the social, mental and health problems that make a person prone to homelessness to begin with.

I wonder if this game will address the causes of homelessness, because if as the game says , you can solve quests, form alliances, unite factions, construct roofs and walls, and get paid work, it sort of sounds like a survival sim where you start from scratch as opposed to say what leads to homelessness in our current world and the difficulties they face in getting away from homelessness.

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...The Last of Us is about homelessness only in that the way people going on a journey are homeless. I would certainly not say it "portrays homelessness" in any way, lol.