The Bail Out Game: The economy IS a system, so use it.
In The Bail Out Game, by Blue Earth Interactive, you assume the role of a driver bottomless dumptruck of money, driving down wall street handing out cash to banks, firms and anyone who will accept. At each stop in the Monopoly-inspired game board you're given the choice to "Bail Out" or "Let Them Fail". Half way through, Congress approves more bail outs and "The Recession" (an angry mob on a fire truck?) is awakened and starts chasing you down the game board. You goal is to make it to the end of the street without being hit by The Recession.
I played the first time though denying all the appeals for bail outs. I let all the banks and firms fail, and the skyscrapers were replaced by for-sale signs. I also got some ominous video clips of mushroom clouds and more angry mobs. I was thinking that since we've got to live with the bailout in the real world, at least this game space could show us what might happen if we did just let our failed institutions, well... fail. However, the game quickly revealed its bias, reminding me that "Whoops! That was a bad idea!" and that bail outs were the only way to help the economy. I had expected the system to degrade, to see the consequences of my withholding the bailout money, but the game spaces (representing banks) seemed to replenish with each collapse, so I felt no incentive to start spending. I got to the end of the game without spending a single dollar, and without getting caught by The Recession, but I was told that a death-spiral depression had hit and the earth was taken over by zombies. So I guess I lost?
The only viable choice the system gives you is to spend the bail out money. So that's what I did. I played again spending as much as I could, bailing out every bank that asked. I expected to run out of money, or to get trampled by the recession mob, but to my surprise, I made it to the end having spent only a little over half the money I had and with the Recession truck safely 5 spaces behind. So I guess I won?
I left the experience not knowing what the criteria was for my win or loss, and not really feeling like it mattered wether I bailed Wall Street out or not. This game relies heavily on video and text to communicate changes in the system to the player. This is not successful strategy because 1) the videos chosen were often vague, but 2) the system does not change as a consequence of your presence in it.
What I really love about doing games about the economy is that you're already dealing with an intricate system that has inherent mechanics and rewards. I was really disappointed to see this flimsy game system plunked on top of such a naturally dynamic (maybe too dynamic) economic system. In my own research on this subject the term "perception of a system" came up, and I think that's my motivation to try to distill this wild and unruly topic into a game, because a system can communicate information that video and text can't.
PS - This game also made me want to play Monopoly, anyone in?