This a review of "Homeless: It's No Game", from www.gamesforchange.org/. In the game, the player takes on the role of a homeless person and must survive on the streets for "24" hours while trying to increase self-esteem. To do so, players must do the following:

• Earn money by begging, foraging for and selling items from dumpsters, collecting and recycling bottles, and/or washing car windows


• Eat


• Find access to restrooms

The game is very simple to play, arguably too simple. All the player has to do is move his character around a neighborhood grid using the arrow keys.

The player causes things to happen by moving his character over them, such as over the knife and fork to eat at a cafe (if you have money and the cafe owners are actually willing to serve you).

What's good about this game is that the player gets to experience, though in a very simple way, the difficulties homeless people experience. In the game, it's impossible to find a restroom to use in the middle of the night, even when you have a little money people aren't always willing to let you spend it at their establishment, and your money-making opportunities are extremely limited. The game allows the player to see that a homeless person's biggest concern is making sure basic bodily needs are met.

However, the pace of the game is frustrating because the character moves VERY slowly. Also, periodically throughout the game, the player is told through a small blurb of text that something is happening to him, such as a police officer harrassing him. It might be more effective if these things could actually happen to the character rather than just presenting these occurrences via text.