Financial Crisis for Everyone

Some fellow friends of mine brought up a new iPhone App some time ago: Landlord. It is a location based Monopoly game with every Foursquare venue as a property and Foursquare users as lodgers. It’s simple, right?

The concept was not new, videos and concepts have been around for quite some time but have never been brought to live. But this little game made me think.

Greed Is Good

Landlord, even with its imaginary currency, makes you greedy. I never thought too much about money, because I never had to. But starting to play, I recognized myself paying more and more attention money and how to make it faster. Until now it is only within the game but I feel like it could easily change more than my in game behavior.

Inside Trading

Following the crisis in America and other countries, I was always disgusted by the ways and methods bankers used to increase their wealth against all odds. And I started to do the same. I was acquiring all the Christmas markets before the holiday season was in full swing. This gave me an enormous boost. And even afterwards I browsed the web for events close to me, that would give certain venues a massive uplift – like concerts and parties. I was an inside trader. And it felt awesome when a plan came together.

Borrowed Capital

The best thing about Landlord is the fact, that it is not about real money. No matter how much you lose, you can quit and leave the game behind. During the game you might shift to think that it might be real money, but even then it is not yours. It never was and never will be (although this might add a completely new layer to it). And with insuring not to waste your own money, you can take high risks. I was buying venues just for some days, sometimes just hours. And it strongly reminded me, that there must be that exact same feeling for every investment banker: take the money and try your best to double it. If it goes wrong, at least its not you, who ends up in a mess.

Money Makes Money

It is a truth that money makes money. But I never thought about it that much. But being now ranked number 1 within my friends I can say, that there is small to no risk, that somebody ever gets close to me. It is simply a question of how much you can invest.

So whenever you are reading something about the financial crisis we are in, put yourself to the test. I don’t want to defend anybody who is up there messing things up, but I say it is easy to become one of them.

One more thing:

Data Usage is superior to Data Harvesting

This last point is about the game more than its principles and implications. I stopped using Foursquare while playing the game. And people who know me understand the meaning of this confession. It turned out, that Landlord has a kind of superior status to Foursquare. While the number 1 app for checkins is the foundation to this whole game, it gets somehow exploited. I was immediately having the feeling, that Landlord was just plainly visualizing the sage of my everyday data from Foursquare. Not that I care about privacy, but I like the concept of using data that is out there more than actually being the one who provides data. Maybe it is just me, but Landlord changed the way I think about not only Foursquare but even more Facebook.