Video games involve a lot of storytelling. Stories can be super powerful, and I think the world definitely has room for more games that depict and explore the e

Video games involve a lot of storytelling. Stories can be super powerful, and I think the world definitely has room for more games that depict and explore the experience of poverty. But that absolutely HAS to come from a place of direct experience. If you read a couple books, interview a couple people at a shelter, and then make a game - it won't be a poverty simulator. It might simulate the theoretical economics of poverty, or a birds eye view of the day to day mechanics of it, but that's not the same as the actual thing. SimCity is a city simulator, but it doesn't simulate what it's like to live in any city, or what it's like to be a city mayor or even a city planner. Video games can help people understand things, just like that pulp song has helped people understand, but just like the pulp song it has to come from direct first hand experience.