3rd World Farmer - a thought-provoking simulation
Take on the role of a farmer in a poor country. Will you prosper despite corruption and lack of basic neccessities? Or will endless wars, diseases, droughts, and unreliable markets perpetuate your economic disadvantage and spell your ultimate doom?
Endure the hardships of third world farming
All it takes for things to go wrong in this game is one bad harvest, an unfortunate encounter with corrupt officials, a raid by guerillas, a civil war, a sudden fluctuation in market prices, or any of the many other game events, that might never happen to families in industrialized countries.
3rd World Farmer gameplay features
Manage the virtual farmer family and make interesting choices:
- Do you pay school fees or let kids help in the fields?
- Should a young adult marry off for a dowry or stay and help with the harvest?
- Can the family support another baby?
- How do you prioritize spendings on medicine, education and farm investments?
Plant crops and tend livestock.
Buy tools and farming machinery to increase productivity.
Construct wells and buildings to expand and secure your farm.
Invest and contribute to community projects like roads, schools, communications, clinics, and political representation in order to improve the local area.
React to a multitude of random events, many of which will set you back in unexpected ways or offer you risky deals.
Motivation
3rd World farmer is an independently developed serious game. It simulates some of the real-world mechanisms that cause and sustain poverty in 3rd World countries. While the simulation is not precise in every detail, it does cover a wide range of topics related to poverty.
It is meant to be both educational and thought-provoking, because we hope to open people's eyes to the problems and to motivate them to make positive social change. Our aim is to have everybody play the game, reflect, discuss and act on it.
A bit of background
3rd World Farmer has been around as an online flash game since 2005, but is now finally brought to Android devices as well!
Since the original release, the game has been featured in mainstream media, in studies, on educational portals, and used by relief agencies and teachers in class, where it has proven to be a great starting point for discussions of third world issues.
Help us improve
We invite you to leave your feedback and comments:
In your Google Play app review
On our 3rd World Farmer website, https://3rdworldfarmer.org
On facebook, https://www.facebook.com/3rdworldfarmer/
On twitter, https://twitter.com/3rdworldfarmer
