From Courtney Marchelletta,
Your Guide to Computer Sim Games.
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"Real Lives" could be describe as a life simulator, but it is more than that. You can "grow up" and "live" in almost any country in the world. You'll learn about their culture, health issues, history, politics, way of life, and much more. Make choices about school, leisure activities, finances, location, and career.

Your family, sex, and location are randomly selected. You do have the option to choose a new country when you start a new game, but everything else is based on statistics. Statistics is the main core of the game. How well you do in life, depends on your chances of going to school and landing a good job.

How much time you spend with each life is up to you. You can simply let the simulator run it's course, and just deal with the pop up boxes as they came, and occasionally investing and modifying finances. Or you can seek out romance yourself, relocate, look for a new job, or go to school without being prompted. Not all countries have the same opportunities, especially educational. Depending on your style, you can spend about an hour with each life.

Political, society, and health details are provided about the country as a whole. By browsing through the sections, you can see how your family and lifestyle compares to the rest of the country. Links with pictures, news, travel, and religion will take you to the Internet so you can learn factual information about your new country.

While information about the nation as a whole is interesting, I found the details of the family the most enlightening.

A personal data windows tells how about happiness, health, wisdom, appearance, and how many TVs, cars, and telephones the household has.