A game called Spent simulates what it’s like to be poor in order to build awareness and empathy. Could be a useful game for a social science course. Read a review here:
2 thoughts on “Spent–The Gamification of Poverty”
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A game called Spent simulates what it’s like to be poor in order to build awareness and empathy. Could be a useful game for a social science course. Read a review here:
Comments are closed.
Thanks for posting this link, Frank. I’ve played Spent and can totally corroborate this review — it’s surprisingly engrossing for such a short game. Actually, I’m thinking now that Spent might be an interesting game to play *with* my kid. I’ve been grappling with how best to contextualize the Occupy Wall Street protests for him and I wonder if this could help? Will report back if I do.
This does sound like a great game for a social science. Especially since the game play is short. The reviewer writes, “Spent only takes about five minutes to complete, but I dare anyone, especially anyone with a kid, to play it and not have a visceral emotional reaction to the choices it forces you to make. It’s rare that even video can have such an effect on our psyche in such a short time.”