It’s one thing to feel bad for homeless people; it’s another to be forced into their shoes. Advertising agency McKinney has teamed up with Urban Ministries of Durham (UMD), a non-profit based in North Carolina, to create SPENT, an online game that guides users through what it feels like to be homeless.
Here’s how it works: If you accept the challenge to play, you enter a simple point-and-click game, navigating multiple choice questions about your livelihood. The site says you have been stripped of your savings and are currently unemployed, asking, “Can you make it through the month?”
You’re given simple choices with varying consequences. Do you want to try working in a restaurant? A factory? If you live far from the city your rent will be cheap, but, as you’re informed through pop-ups, you’ll have to pay more for gas or transportation.
The game’s integration with Facebook is its best feature. When faced with some choices, (like your landlord raising your rent) the game will ask you to decide whether to ignore the claim, pay it or ask a friend. The last option opens up a pre-written statement in Facebook where you can email one of your actual friends for “help,” bridging the gap between virtual reality and the real uneasiness of having to ask a friend for assistance. This simple act also helps spread awareness for the game by attaching a logo and small description to your request.
The game, however, walks a fine line with tone. Non-profits constantly have to balance bumming out their audience with important facts and stats, and motivating that same audience to then donate or become engaged. SPENT seamlessly blends that information into the game. Your choices are met with great insights about how many people opt out of health insurance because of high premiums, how 44% of people living below the poverty line use public libraries to access the Internet or how in 2009, 50 million Americans lived in households that had a hard time getting food. These facts are made all the more powerful after you’ve had to weigh the options for yourself.
After trying to shop for digital groceries, however, that fact is punctuated by comments like “With these groceries, you’re going to [have a hard time].” If you elect to eat a cheap burger rather than a salad you’re told, “Perhaps that’s why low-income workers like you are more likely to be overweight.” If you choose to live out of the city, SPENT sends you off with a missive: “Let’s hope your car doesn’t break down!” One of your options for getting some extra cash is to smash your child’s piggy bank for an extra $15.
SPENT definitely subscribes to the “tough-love” mentality, trying to give you a realistic impression of what it’s like to deal with homelessness and poverty. With its snipes, the game also gives a good impression of what it’s like to be leered at.
Jenny Nicholson, a copywriter at McKinney, is one of a handful of people that created the game and came from circumstances like the ones SPENT simulates. She says the game isn’t about disparaging the user but creating empathy: “You have to make the best decisions you can. The people that are in these situations don’t do this because they’re stupid but because they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.”
Tough love is a tough sell for someone who stumbles onto the game simply wanting to learn more or give money. There is a donate button at the bottom of the page, and once you run out of money you are prompted to get involved or donate to UMD. Currently based in the Durham region of North Carolina, Nicholson hopes to release SPENT nationwide if it proves effective.
What is your experience with the game? Should non-profits be tougher and more forthright about the problems they fight? Let us know in the comments.
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