I love when a seemingly pointless technology winds up having a use that far outweighs anything its creators intended. Twitter being used to communicate in a locked down Iran is a perfect example of this. You had better believe that no one thought Iranians would be tweeting a presidential election. Today, Kotaku reports that a game development student in the UK is using The Sims to explore issues of poverty in society. The student, Robin Burkinshaw, has created a father-daughter pair that live in an abandoned lot in her copy of The Sims. She is also using a blog to chronicle the Sims’ lives.
Read: “The Sad Story of Two Homeless Sims” (via Kotaku)
Whether this will make any sort of difference in reality remains to be seen, but it is a fascinating chance to use a game for something more than it was ever expected to be.