Video game challenges players to live on $8 an hour

[meegbear]

A new game developed by an advertising agency copywriter has captured the experience of being poor in a way no other game to come before it has even hoped to do.

Called "Spent," the flash-based, mostly text-driven game challenges players to make it through one month as a single parent who's lost their job, their house and their savings. It begins by forcing players to pick an $8 an hour job and make the math work.

Players have to pick their residence, pay bills, cope with unexpected expenses and still have enough in the bank at month's end to make the rent. Challenges presented are along the lines of what to buy at the grocery store, whether to let a pet die or take it to the vet, and how to pay for those medical bills once the inevitable occurs, among others.

The game was created by 32-year-old Jenny Nicholson, an ad copywriter with Durham, North Carolina-based McKinney.

Intended to benefit Durham-based Urban Ministries, a non-profit that helps provide food, clothing and shelter to the city's homeless population, "Spent" has begun to accrue a following. There's even a petition asking members of Congress to try their hand at surviving on the edge of poverty.

"Social sharing is integrated into the game," explains Nicholson, appearing on a promotional video. "There are some challenges where you lose a day of work and lose a day of pay, half to pay a lot of money, or you can ask your friend for help, which forces you to kind of experience what it means to ask other people for help, but it also serves to get word of the game out and get other people to be curious enough to try it out and see for themselves what it's actually like."

Users with a broadband Internet connection and modern web browser can try the game here.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/26/video-game-challenges-players-to-live-on-8-an-hour/

[FSogol]

1. K & R. n/t

[HughBeaumont]

2. So, in other words, it's kind of like a training app for 21st Century Corpmerica.

;)

[izquierdista]

3. You need a video game for that?

There are a lot of people that wish it was only a video game.

I wonder if there will be a "Spent - the Ukraine version" where you get to live on $200 a month, or "Spent - the Africa version", where you get a dollar a day.

[Confusious]

5. Cost of living

They're not paying American prices for things.

Some tribes in Africa that live like their ancestors did. Doesn't mean they're poor. They put food on the table by farming and animals.

Not saying they're aren't poor people there. You just have to adjust for conditions.

You can live in Tucson on $30K a year. can't in New York.

[izquierdista]

8. I know about cost of living

I mentioned Ukraine because I lived there. They are very poor on $200 a month. Not all the city dwellers can farm or raise animals. They depend on the grocery store to buy food, just like we do here. And while potatoes and beets are 10 to 20 cents a pound, meat is comparable to what it is here in the U.S. That's why the per capita meat consumption in Ukraine is about 1/3 of what it is here. Many people don't have to rent, because they still live in the apartment that the Soviet Union built to house them. They may not have to pay rent, but they do have to pay for electricity and gas, and for the maintenance and upkeep on a tiny apartment that is going on 60 years old.

They also don't have much money to spend on clothes. People have one or two nice outfits, and the rest of their clothes come from the "sale by weight" places that sell American or Western European hand-me-downs by the kilo.

Ukraine is a wonderful place to drive. I would say only about 5% of the population can afford a car, and usually they stick to driving around town, because the cars are older and not so reliable. The intercity highways are virtually empty except for the occasional Mercedes or cargo truck. The only drawback is that the police enforce every speed limit sign, if they clock you 5kph over it, there goes $10.

I adjusted for the conditions there. I could live by myself very comfortably on $500-600 a month. I often wondered about how the average family did on just $200.

[KillCapitalism]

4. I doubt anyone will ever "win" the game.

$8/hr. in that situation is just not near enough to survive on. It would even be tough for a single person who's using their car as a residence.

[enlightenment]

7. I played a round.

Got through the month with a couple hundred to spare (after making absolutely soul-wrenching, gut-churning, life-shortening decisions) - and was reminded that 'tomorrow the rent is due'. My 'savings' and my assumed end of month paycheck would not have covered the rent.

You're right. It's not enough - and it is higher than the federal minimum wage.

[Missy Vixen]

6. It's a great game

I put it up on my (dearly departed) blog, and challenged the RW wackos that liked to stop by and mouth off in the comments to play the game, and let me know how they did.

I'm still waiting for a response. I have a feeling I'll be waiting for a long time.

:woohoo:

[Kat45]

9. I think this is great.

I think all the neocons and such who want to eviscerate the social safety net should be required to play this game. These people have no concept of how the non affluent, ie most people, life. Unfortunately, there's no way to require it.

[Kat45]

10. Posted this article on Facebook.

Hope my wingnut FB 'friend' checks it out.

[trackfan]

11. I made it through the month with $596

but I'm used to this; I've been on the dole for 17 months.

[krispos42]

12. Yeah, I know those feelings...

:-(

[white_wolf]

13. Damn it. I lost my job for talking the union people.

Such bullshit that this is actually happening to people.

[unblock]

14. they should have a version showing how hard it is on $400,000/year after taxes & feeding your family

if people could see for themselves how little $400,000 a year, free and clear, really is, they'd be outraged.

i'm sure a video game would help people realize that a job creator congresscritter who owns a few franchises should have a lot more left over.

have a few scenes where you increase profit by firing a few people.
replace some full-timers with benefits with part-timers without benefits in order to avoid helping others with their health and retirement expenses.
dodge the minimum wage laws and reduce the quality of service by outsourcing some work to india.
invest in a republican congresscritter. a bit of a gamble, but easily a 10000% return when that loophole becomes law!

when people see how hard you work saying "no" to socialist legislation while sitting on a few cash cows, they'll be shocked at the high cost of doing business. after paying necessary job creator expenses such as the helicopter pilot, bentley driver, personal fitness trainer, personal chef, and the sommelier, and keeping the family in the basic necessities such as gucci and caviar, they'll see that taxes are a luxury you simply can't afford.

if a video game helps this reality come alive for the people, i'm all for it.