Real Lives is a simulation program that allows students to explore the path of a personal life and the social context of an individual from anywhere in the world. The scope of the simulation covers from birth to death, covering such areas as health, education, careers, social issues, relationships, family planning, and finances. The strength of the program lies in the broad range of lives it can simulate.

When a simulation is started, the program randomly generates a character from virtually any country in the world. The simulation relies on statistics to determine the character’s socio-economic, cultural, and religious background, as well as their initial health and likelihood for survival.

When using the simulation, students are free to explore all kinds of information about the character’s country, family, and life, ranging from politics and religion, to access to health care and clean drinking water. Each time the student tells the computer to advance one year in the character’s life, new choices become available. Initially these choices are limited to how to spend free time,but each choice shapes the child’s future. Also, many uncontrollable events can occur in the character’s life, be it natural disaster or health problem, act of violence or peer pressure.(The program allows for any of the dozens of “issues” to be excluded, although default settings include all issues.)

Decisions to help others influence the character’s conscience score, while decisions to start relationships or have a family affect happiness, as does the balance between a character’s work and leisure activities. A decision early in life to accept alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs can result in health problems for the character later. Choosing to have your character become politically or socially active can result in job loss, expulsion from school, imprisonment, and even torture, depending on the character’s native country.

One prominent feature of this program is the ability to review the character’s life journal, and even to revert to an earlier age and alter the character’s life by changing decisions. This feature allows students to consider the consequences of actions and determine how different choices can influence one’s life. Another useful feature of the program is the series of web links to interesting sites, such as One World News, Lonely Planet Travel Guide, Religious Tolerance Site, and CIA World Fact Book. These provide students a starting point for further research into many different areas.