A review of the game “Spent”
When it comes to poverty, most of us are numb to the effects. We’ve read all the articles and mindlessly absorbed the statistics but we process it at a distance, unaware of the real difficulties.
In February 2011, the Urban Ministries of Durham in North Carolina, with the help of the ad agency McKinney, tried to change this by creating an online game, called Spent, that put the player in the shoes of someone who was poor and struggling.
Players begin with $1000 and have to manage their funds for a month. But between insurance payments, groceries, unplanned expenses, and accidents, this money dwindles fast and the jobs on offer don’t help very much. To play Spent is to realize how small, unpredictable events can completely throw your budget off course and it’s a rude awakening to the realities of being poor.
According to McKinney, by July 2014 the game had been played more than 4 million times by people from 218 countries.
Here’s what I loved: The interactive treatment given to a topic that so many of us are distantly familiar with makes it extremely engaging and relevant. The player learns so much more about the ordeal of being poor by physically making the same decisions that a person of lesser means would have to make every day. Plus, it’s very well-designed for its time, particularly with its presentation of real life situations (like a phone call from your bank, for instance) and the bank balance you see rapidly dwindling with every decision you make.
What could be improved: It’s been several years since Spent was first launched and the rapid advancement of technology means that the game could be fitted with even better visuals, as well as more realistic pictures and videos in the parts that provide information about the struggles of the poor. Also, it could be even more effective to try and include the stories of real people, to put faces to the issues, to raise awareness and make the experience even more realistic and effective.
You can try out Spent here.
