One of the great things about the Red Cross mission is that it intersects with so many different worlds and communities. Recently, EA, the makers of Sim City, found a creative way to bring some humanitarian spirit into their virtual worlds: they added Red Cross buildings to the game, so that Sims can respond to disasters better!
I’m sure Sim City residents all over are grateful for the disaster relief services that are now available. Just to see how this would impact the town, we orchestrated some disasters and watched the Red Cross workers do their thing.
Check it out:
Just a beautiful, typical day at the American Red Cross in Sim world…
Suddenly, without warning, a tornado drops into the city and wreaks havoc!
Note: Those Sims standing outside the building should definitely be taking shelter underground at this point.
Once the tornado dissipates, residents whose homes were destroyed line up outside the Red Cross to receive services.
The Red Cross even sets up tents in front of the local Grade School overnight – perhaps to shelter residents while their homes are rebuilt.
This integration with a popular world-building video game is not only fun, but also instructive; I’ve always felt that including more complex cause-and-effect scenarios within the world of the game actually helps me become more thoughtful about my own actions and decisions as the player. Open-ended games like Sim City can certainly benefit from modeling aspects of their game after real life entities. Who knows, perhaps some players may actually learn a thing or two about disaster response in the process!
In the meantime, we’ll leave it up to the virtual Red Cross to figure out their response to a slightly more outlandish disaster, like this meteor strike:
Yikes.
If you’re a Sim City player, you can get the Red Cross pack here. It costs $9.99, and 80% of the proceeds go directly to the American Red Cross. Happy gaming!