Click here to visit the story of Alice and Kev
This is the continuing story of my slightly unusual playing of The Sims 3. It follows little girl Alice and her struggle to survive with no home, no money, no food, and the worst Dad in the world.
About me
My name is Robin Burkinshaw, and I am a student of games design in the UK. Click for more.
This is the most interesting thing I’ve seen in a long time!
This is one of the most compelling stories I have read lately. It truly is a work of art!
Please do not concern yourself over the comments of closed minded people.
Your creative work has truly given a face to the homeless and opened the eyes of many who read it.
I’m completely absorbed by this story at the moment; your squishy pink blob has done you proud!!
Ignore the people who don’t like it. They just don’t “get it” and could benefit from a night on a park bench themselves.
I speak as a fellow author who uses The Sims.
This is just plain amazing and I’d love to have permission to publish this in my Book Reader format (see http://books.raggiesoft.com/reader2.htm for details)
All credit to you of course
Isn’t it lovely that no matter what type of artist a person is, they are going to get the negative comments w/ the positive
!!! Sadly, there ARE a lot of closed minded people in this world as Matt mentioned…but, these are the people we have to choose to ‘ignore’!!! A VERY dear friend of mine was homeless for well over a year and to be honest…if I showed HIM this story, he would LOVE it!!! Even if it wasn’t meant to have a ‘message’…it sorta does in it’s own way 
!!! GREAT JOB…and please, do not let the ‘little’ people w/ the white and not so squishy brains getcha down 
…
Keep on creating!!!
-Rebecca
i think the people that have responded negatively to the story haven’t really given it a decent read through yet. if they had they would realize that this is a touching, funny, and intelligent piece of commentary (intentional or not) on the conditions of the homeless today.
i was shocked to read that many of Alice and Kev’s critics thought that the story was downplaying the gravity of being homeless or was trying to poke fun at them. the writer’s style never implies that these are people to laugh at and ironically enough, this virtual world filled with virtual humans has managed to humanize homeless men and women everywhere to a degree that other mediums struggle to achieve.
putting the donation links was a nice touch btw
There has only been the tiniest handful of truly negative comments. They only colour the discussion on the site because they were all made on the first entry, whereas those that like it tend to wait until the end before commenting.
But I feel the detractors often do have a point. The story wasn’t originally written as any kind of social commentary. People coming to the site with that expectation, and then being immediately confronted with a joke about a homeless person being inappropriate? And seeing comments about people laughing at it? I can see why they take the position that they do.
It is very easy to see Kev as a negative stereotype, which is something I feel guilty about now that the story has recieved so much widespread attention.
I think that those people who have left negative comments saying that you’re taking this story as an approach to discriminate homeless people are failing to realise that this is a computer game. In a way it’s art, it’s just like writing a novel.
You don’t see those people having a go at authors who have mentioned homeless people in their book and yet it’s almost the exact same principle.
I don’t think anyone is taking this story serious to be honest, but that’s just my opinion.
I find that this really is a totally different view of video games, not a discrimination against homeless people.
Good work and please keep going!!
makes me want to get sims three just to try out how much of a saint/basterd/GLADOS to an AI. i wonder if i could get my school to use this…..
To be fair to Helena, there were some comments on the Alice and Kev blog originally that were making fun of the characters for being homeless. They have since been removed because they were upsetting people.
found the story captivating and i can’t wait to play my sims3 this weekend with all the different traits.. back to my comment.. i like the fact the story has progressed into something ?? not sure of the word yet.. Alice’s selfless act amazed me, my sims2 characters don’t seem to be as amazing, most of them just want to kill off someone and see their ghost. I appreciate the storyline and can’t wait to view more.
I thought it was a beautiful story. Sad, but so is life.
This story was really good!
roBurky,
Whether you meant to or not, you have presented a fairly accurate story about homelessness. (Not all homeless people are this story though.) Don’t feel guilty about the stereotypical Kev. I actually have a family member like that. He is bi-polar. If not for family, he would be homeless. Fortunately he doesn’t have custody of my grandson, but he does see him regularly. However he cannot hold a job for any period of time, and his medication is expensive. With cuts made to medicaid all the time it is becoming more and more difficult for him to obtain his meds.
You have addressed a huge social issue, just let people post. It may open a few people’s eyes, and hearts. This world could use some more compassion.
The story of Alice and Kev is amazing so far. I was sucked in entirely! To a point where I wonder how much “free will” these little animated characters have, and if they will jump out of my screen and proceed to be “inappropriate”.
And to people like Helena, perhaps it might be a good idea for you to sell off your computer, cancel your internet line and feed the homeless yourself with the money saved. It’s a win-win situation; we as Netizens do not have to deal with you anymore, and you can be the charitable do-gooder you’ve always wanted to be. Read the bible one of these days, for the heck of it. Specifically John 8:7.
You are a geniuos. Excellent marketing, you just reached the swedish press.
This is actually a friggin hilarious story! I decided to start playing The Sims 3 again(have not played for about a month) after reading this. Unfortunately my experience just was not quite what I expected.
Anyway when people say this should be used to advertise The Sims 3 and say you should be payed for this I have to disagree (despite it being so funny) because it does not appeal to all Sims fans. I mean, I ryed showing this to my brother who is also a Sims fan and he just said it was dumb.