When Kev leaves the room to stagger over to Zedadias’ bed and fall asleep again, Alice bursts into sobbing tears.
Zedadias comes over to talk to her, and she begins to tell him a dramatic story. With a little interpretation of speech bubbles, I believe we can imagine that this is the story of her life.
She starts with a pond, which could be the waterlogged abandoned park where she lives.
And this speech bubble could represent her father.
When she’s finished, Zedadias quietly reaches out and pulls her into a friendly hug.
For him, it’s a small gesture. For her, this is one of the happiest moments of her life.
Next: Strange Social Rules
Alice and Kev 
AWWWWW
Cant wait to get my copy of sims 3 this story brilliant
ahh that was funny and very sweet!!!
Oh wow, this story is fascinating. Can’t wait to get the game tomorrow.
awww, aint they cute!
I said this once, and I’ll say it 100 more times! I think that if Alice grows up before The Z guy, they could get together!
Totally. =D
This story is amazing! Before reading this, I had no desire to buy the Sims 3. Now I NEED it. =D
i bet they will
This is SO better than TV.
I was thinking the same thing. Robin definitely has a knack for story telling. To me, Alice is more real than most the idiots in so called ‘reality’ shows.
I was on the fence about buying this game already, I think this made it a definite buy now.
i agree
ya when i bought my copy i didn’t see how it was so much better than sims 2 but after seeing this blog i relised that you just had to be very creative
Wow, Zed’s a pretty nice guy given he’s wearing those gloves and sunglasses. I’m surprised he’s not wearing something with a popped collar.
I received the link for this blog from a user on the Sims 3 forums who thought it was something that everyone should view. It is! I’ve bookmarked the page, and I have to keep coming back for the next chapter. You’ve inspired me to try out homelessness in TS3 myself.
I did the exact same thing. Bookmark and all. I probably check this site 3 times a day or more when I can.
Saw this in the metro this morning – absolutely genius. I’m completely hooked… poor alice!
I’ve added a Digg entry for this, as I thought it deserved it 🙂
http://digg.com/pc_games/Homelessness_in_The_Sims_3_such_fun
@Elia:
There’s already one up there that I Dugg earlier:
http://digg.com/pc_games/Virtual_Homelessness_in_The_Sims_3
@Elia:
I also dugg yours, the word should get out! 😀
At first I was smirking, but now I realise that this is for real. I am genuinely saddened.
Wait this is in the metro? What the?
Apparently so! I think the article will be similar to their online one: http://theridiculant.metro.co.uk/2009/06/alice-and-kev-homeless-in-the-sims.html
A friend will hopefully be obtaining a copy and mailing it to me soon.
It was pretty surprising to see the blog in the metro, I’l say that much. There I was, on the bus to an exam and POW. The blog I read the night before was right there.
Shame you didn’t make front page though ^-^
I’m afraid to get my hopes up for Alice for fear that those hopes will soon be dashed.
Very compelling storytelling, thanks for sharing this with all of us.
D’awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Well… Felicia Day (The Guild, Dr. Horrible..) likes it too… She twittered it this morning.
I like it too.
I saw this via Felicia Day’s Twitter, and I am so glad I found it. This is so captivating. I am subscribing to the RSS and promptly buying myself a copy of Sims 3. I had played the original (and all the expansions) for years. I had even been a Beta tester for The Sims Online. But Sims 2 never held much appeal. I must say, this makes me want to start playing it all over again. I can’t believe how far the game has come.
I’m so loving this =] I’m constantly checking for updates.
Good job getting on Felicia Day’s twitter! I’m hooked 🙂
Love this!
Came here courtesy of Felicia Day. All I have to say is: Best. Blog. Ever.
I don’t understand how, but every single post is a cliffhanger and I can’t cope with the suspense.
I don’t know if you have a job or if you’re a student or something, but you need to quit whatever else you’re doing RIGHT THE HELL NOW. You need to do THIS for a living.
Agree Homeless sims WIN \o/
I have a question, you really imagine every step before doing it in The Sims or you just make a move and expect it to turn in something this awesome?
This hug was more than friendly!!!
I’d hope its not tooo friendly, considering she’s probably like 13 and he’s old enough to own a house.
OMG This is the best!!!!
I put it up on reddit too:
I’m so hooked! I can’t wait to see what’s next, give me more!!
This is an excellent blog. Great story. I wish my PC could run TS3. I’m intrigued by the insanity trait.
This is by far the most fascinating thing I’ve read in a long time. I can’t wait to see what happens next!
This story is really compelling. This is the recommendation I put on my Facebook: “As an experiment, a games design student has created a homeless family in The Sims 3, and is blogging their lives. Alternately tragic and hilarious, this story shows how our digital doppelgangers can mirror reality too closely.” I believe this story says more than just that, but I’ll leave that up to the audience to see for themselves.
I’m now really interested in your projects related to your game design education. Do you have a blog for that? I find your POV very interesting and can imagine you’re doing other work just as compelling as this.
Thank you for your kind words. You can find my other completed games-related projects at my main blog: http://www.roburky.co.uk
i agree. this is an awesome story. 🙂 you really are very talented.
Wow! This is such an amazing story. I can hardly believe it was just through the game’s engine. You’ve built some really deep and complex characters!!
this story is brutal. homeless, dirty, unloved, and now being groomed by a paedo in michael jackson gloves and shades. talk about art imitating life.
This is really awesome. Thanks for publishing it. It makes me want to be wicked creative with my sims too.
That is a great story.
You know you got in the Metro this morning, right? That’s incredible!
I don’t suppose you have a copy you could scan do you? I still haven’t seen it for myself.
Also came through Felicia Day’s twitter – read all entries from the beginning and I absolutely adore it! Will continue to follow – am getting Sims 3 on Tues when my exams finish, was always going to do so but this has made me even more excited about it.
this is the best sims 3 storyline ive ever read so far. KEEP GOING!!! you’ve got me hooked 🙂
This is really awesome, I’m so impressed! I thought I was gonna skip on getting Sims 3 but this has thoroughly tempted me to give it a try.
I actually want to get Sims 3 now.
Love the story. It’s remarkably heart wrenching and well told.
(Your narrating is also hilarious).
Those are great screen shots. Do you do those with print screen in game?
Yes, all screenshots taken with the in-game screenshot button, then cropped in Microsoft Paint.
This is such a good story! I can’t wait for more. Also, I’d better get this out now, AWWWWH LOVE!!! ❤
definately better than TV
You thoroughly rock for this. Will come back for updates. I hope Alice can make something of her Sim Life!
i love them!
I don’t like the sims 3 as much as the sims 2
AAAWWW
I came here through Felicia Day’s Twitter, but I just noticed the official Sims 3 site linked here too! That is so awesome.
This story is amazing.
This makes me wonder. What is Kev’s backstory? Was he an Alice at one point? On the streets with a horrible parent, struggling like Alice? Or was he placed here by his own actions and circumstances? Where is Alice’s Mother? Will Alice become a Kev? And have an Alice of her own?
to think of kev as once a small homeless child makes me pity him. The fact of the matter is its quite possible that he once was an alice. With his hot-headed, insanity, and inapproproateness he could have easily flunked through school and not been able to achieve anything so that now he remains homeless. I think Alice…despite being unlucky….will somehow be able to build something for herself, maybe small but a start to improving circumstances for future generation.
Awww!! I just read the entire blog, beginning to end. I must say, you are quite creative. I’m on my way to download Alice and Kev, and create my own story.
Omg I totally just got teary!!! I’m so happy for her…I can’t wait to see what happens next!
Oh wow this is one of the best stories I’ve seen. Better then TV by a long shot
Added to my start.io to get updates notifications on this. You’re putting this story together so nicely.
Aww. :*) Zededias = possible love interest?
Felicia day IS Alice.
Please make this into a children’s book. Kids need to learn these sorts of things, especially that last bit: “For him, it’s a small gesture. For her, this is one of the happiest moments of her life.”
How did you get them to live in the park? I thought you had to move Sims into a house.
Anyway, great job! And I thought my own Sims stories were entertaining and full of drama. 😉
Now you’re even on EW! Very compelling story.
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/06/homelessness-in-the-sims-3-creates-a-stunning-story-.html
i want to know what happens next!! omg this story is amazing!
I clicked through from Entertainment Weekly’s PopWatch. So glad I did!
so damn good.
Very well-written and entertaining story! I will definitely be following this.
I can’t help but find this little blog compelling.. my very first and continued character is a teenager who has lost his parents, and once his “guardian” managed to get herself offed during a freak accident, he grew up quickly and decided it was time he fended for himself. Surprisingly, child services didn’t seem it was necessary to grant him another guardian, or even knock on his door after the guardian had died.
Thanks to the openess of the local gym and at least the minor comforts offered by his guardian before her passing, he is now an exceptionally successful member of society, on the brink of becoming a young adult, with a fully furnished house and is one of the best minds and bodies of his city. I just wish there was a character like Alice that he could have interacted with.. come to think of it, the most interaction he’s had is with an evil fellow teenager, whom he’s declared his nemesis (and oddly keeps following him home after school, only to start multiple fights in which he loses).
As far as using the household items, he doesn’t seem to mind in the least, and due to his traits, seems to prefer offering this small service to keep anyone he’s invited in happy. As far as everything breaking, he’s had to repair everything in his house and least three times by now and is quite handy with a wrench ^_^
Congrats on the Entertainment Weekly article! You can see it at http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/06/homelessness-in-the-sims-3-creates-a-stunning-story-.html
If it got me here, prepare for a tonnnn more traffic. I really want to see what happens next, and am tempted to go buy the Sims 3! 🙂
Just read the whole thing from Felicia Day’s Twitter.
Really great story! Can’t wait to get home from work now and play Sims.
I so can’t wait to see what happens next. lmao! Brilliant.
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
she should age and get with zed.
Very good story telling and screen shots to match. I followed the link from the Sims 3 site and just read the whole thing.
This is absolutely fascinating! And now people are downloading these characters into their games and replicating this girl’s pathetic life so they can witness ti first hand! I’d love to study this…
This story is so fascinating. It’s making me consider things I never thought about before, and I seriously feel moved to support a homeless charity. I never expected the Sims 3 to make have such deep thoughts.
Very sweet. It’s amazing how, when reading this you forget that they are a game. You get caught up in the story, very nice.
Wow… Just wow.
-M
Like everyone else, I’m amazed by this game! The writer deserves a lot of credit for bringing this to us, but I am truly amazed that this story has come to pass through the Sims’ free will.
The little voice in the back of my head is saying ‘is this a wind up?’ but I’m just going to tell it to stuff it. Along with the little voice that’s telling me not to buy this!
Brilliant, awesome story. I love it. You’ve inspired me to create my own homeless and penniless crazy family!
Found this on EW.com’s Popwatch. It’s an absolutly heartwrenching story… even though I know Alice is a Sim, I wish I could give her a hug. Great job with the storytelling, and kudos to the makers of the Sims 3 for making this kind of real life interaction possible. I’ll be back tomorrow to check for updates.
This is fantastic. God help me, I read it all from the very beginning, in one sitting.
This is such fascinating work: clever, funny, poignant, and proving something really significant about the creativity gaming invents and invokes. And serialised story-telling repopularized? – bring it on!
This is brilliant, and I’m certainly glad to see it in the press, it deserves it. Once my exams are over I’ll certainly be picking up a copy of the game.
well done rob
You also got a mention on the BBC website ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/06/web_monitor_24.shtml)
Very cool story – I had no idea that the Sims games had gotten so sophisticated. Please keep up the posts, I’m extremely curious to see what happens next!
I read the whole story so far and it is brilliant. I can’t wait to see what happens, but so far I love what I read. Keep up the good work!
This is easily the best and most amusing soap I have watched. Knocks the cr*p out of Hollyoaks
This is so interesting! I really want to try something like this myself. Look forward to reading some more 🙂
This isn’t going to end well.
I know things in general will continue to be miserable for Alice, but it is touching to see her have at least one moment of pure happiness.
In the last picture she lookes soooooooo happy hugging him.
ok. I have been reading all of your posts in succession and I must be overly emotional right now because I just literally shed a tear at Alice’s good fortune – FINALLY getting a REAL hug. :*)
Me too – tears sprang to my eyes.
ohkay wow..! =[ the whole time while reading this I imagined how I would’ve done things differently, but geeez, this touched my heart..! Even though it’s just a sim, I’m really happy for her to find someone that actually excepts her not seeing only her bad traits… WOW..!
That is so adorable.
*drools* he’s almost as hot a anderson cooper
I meant to say:
*drools* He’s almost as hot as Anderson Cooper!
AWWWW, This is so touching. Keep the stories coming, my 4 kids, my neice (ages ranging from 6 to 18) and I gather to follow the saga of “Poor Alice”, better than the soaps… It’s great how a game can give us all something to talk about and a bit of common ground so to speak. I have loves Sims since the originals but the ai has come so far that being a voyeur is so much more fascinating now! And that Zedadiahs, so sweet and caring,(and strangely attractive:P. Where was he when I was a goodclumsyunluckyloser teen. Oh yeah, still in someones imagination, sigh. Thanx Robin and congrats on your recent Sim fame!
PS Shame on the Joy family….
Wow … kid looks like she’s on drugs from that hug. Must be nice!
AWWW!!! I have a feeling that they are going to fall in love…
What a wonderful thing to happen to Alice! She is finally getting a bit of happiness in her life hopefully. I love this story thus far.
did that guy really spontaneously hug her? if so that is soooo cute!
Awwwww the last pic was so cute!
I hope that something becomes of her and Zedadias. I really do! 🙂
wow i love your blog! you are such a talented writer and you have really been helping me with my blog!!! (just reading these storys) thankyou! 🙂
That’s so sweet! >3<
She has a YETI for a father… how apt!
Wow. What a great friend 🙂 Alice deserves someone like him. How sweet! I hope this is a chance for her to turn her life around.
oh, thats just heartwarmig
this page was great. i hope they fall in love.
I hope too. But he’s maybe gay.
this got me all teary eyed!
Oh, that’s beautiful! This is fascinating!
These are the times when you wana just beat the crap out of Kev
Out of all the chapters, I must say this is the best.
love the story,very interesting! ^^
AWWWW! They are so cute. 😀 ❤
AWWWWWWW!
I need to get my hands on the Sims 3 ASAP!
Poor Alice…look at her face on the last pic and on the one talking about her father. Those emotions really take place so well. I need that game Now, but I’ve only got 4 GB on my PC.
😦
Awwwwwwwwwwww thats sweet!
Is it sad that I almost teared up at this post?? Wow.
I was a huuuuge Sims and Sims 2 fan, but I haven’t let myself get the Sims 3 because I now have a dissertation to write and a class to teach–neither of these things would likely get done if I had this game. Alas, I think that Alice and Kev have convinced me that those things are trivial when compared to the hours upon hours upon hours of entertainment and joy I could get from this game!
AWW. I love this. i bet alice and Z end up being together in the end. keep up the good work.
Oh my God, that was just so amazing. I’m on the verge of tears, TEARS! Not even a published novel has done this to me, so this is definately something.
aww, so nice 🙂
Okay, so, here’s what’s got to happen:
Alice becomes an adult and she and Zebadias get together and she has a baby, but as the baby starts to grow up and be as nice and sweet as Alice, but Alice came to see herself as special like that, like that’s how she fought against the pain of her traumatic upbringing, homeless with an insane and verbally, physically abusive father: her sweetness. But her kid’s growing up in with a home, which Alice resents, and is being as nice as Alice, which diminishes Alice’s, like, mental defenses against that trauma, and she goes all insane and drowns it in the bathtub and blames it on Zebadias.
Y/N?
You have a twisted sense of humor,Lol! I certainly hope your prediction doesn’t come true!!!
WELL JEEZ DAN !
JUST RUIN THE WHOLE FKING STORY !
This is brilliant<33
You just make me cry……
I burst into tears at the last sentence and picture! Seriously! This doesn’t happen often…
I think this ties in sadness with when she cries alone on the bench. *tear*
When Alice grows up I want her to move in with Zedadias, and maybe more…
They’re so cute together!! Well, I hope she reaches adulthood before he grows too old for her. They really have good chemistry and I could picture Zed taking care of her and making sure she’s always wearing a smile. Heck, I could picture them saying their vows! 😀 Hahaha. Forgive me. My imagination is going crazy for this! You got me hooked!
I really really enjoy your story! Happy Birthday Alice, and Good Luck!
This is jut wonderful. This story has actually brought tears to my eyes twice now. It is so powerful. Keep up the good work!
aaaaaaaaaaaaawwww!!
Truly amazing.
What a story!
❤ Aw, yay!
AWW.
awwwwwwwwwwww :”>
This story is so addicting. I think this is my favorite chapter.
At last, she finally gets some comforting and attention that’s not so negative or hateful.
In the third pic, if u look closly at Alices eyes, they look wet
This actually moved me to tears.
How the HELL did you manage that?
awwwwww
Just started to read this history… and this part is soooo sweet
I love your sims history *-* so brilliant
I’ve never seen anyone interpret actions in The Sims so well… This is awesome please keep it up!
when you showed the picture for the dad i actually laughed out lod 4 real
Is it bad that I find myself almost in tears at this point in the story?..
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Aww! This is so touching! I absolutely love this story! 🙂
i want that game for xmas but im 11 my parents are probley not gonna like the game if i got it i would download alice and kev child its so sweet
You’re making this game look SO good haha
Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazingly fun and addicting game, but you’re a pretty good storyteller and you know how to piece things together really well 🙂
I’ve read this whole story many many times over, but this portion is one, if not my favorite part of the entire thing.
the last picture is adorable! good for Alice she has a buddy!
AWWWW! this out of all the stories so far is the must touching.I nearly burst into tears at the last picture.I’m happy for Ailce!If I could(if she WAS real) I’d give her a big hug.
Awwww… *sniff sniff cry cry*
Is it just me, or does she look like she’s about to cry?