Lucene Lives a Full Thai Life, Birth to Age 80, in the Browser Sim “1 in 65 Million”

POLYGON — Lucene, a member of the Polygon agency, played one complete life from birth to death on Monday, taking a character named Kong from a childhood in Nakhon Ratchasima to his death at 80 in the browser-based life simulator “1 in 65 Million” (1 ใน 65 ล้าน). The game scored the life at about 59 out of 100.

The premise is rebirth as one of 65 million people in Thailand. Lucene’s character was born a boy in Nakhon Ratchasima, known as Korat, to an upper-middle-class family. She picked a well-known state school in town, but Kong failed the entrance exam and went to the subdistrict school instead. From there the game put a choice in front of her every few years: school and university, jobs, how to spend savings, and who to vote for. It also threw in random events. When a nationwide flood hit, she called the game realistic.

“This game teaches you that being born Thai isn’t easy.” — Lucene, as her character reached 80

Kong married a partner named Ing and named their son after Tae, the childhood friend who kept turning up in the story. His work history was uneven. After three years as an online creator with no audience he moved to factory work, and later he farmed. Along the way he voted in a string of elections, repeatedly backing an anti-corruption party, took in a young relative who was sent to live with him, and lost money to an investment scam. In his later years a stroke and mounting medical costs ate through his savings.

At 80, with little money left, Kong died. Lucene said she would rather not be a burden on her children and weighed donating her body, since that costs the family nothing. The final tally gave full marks for relationships and 14.7 of 15 for responsibility to others, but only 6.6 of 20 for financial security. The game called him a down-to-earth saint, and his next life began as a fern.

Chat spent the opening minutes joking that the cover image said 85 while the stream title said 65. Late in the stream chat called Tae the MVP of the run and mourned Kong at the end. Lucene said the game was great fun, reminded viewers of an event on Nov. 14 in Thonglor, then led a countdown for a closing shout of “huwa,” which chat repeated in a flood.