Game Simulates Low-Wage Living: Helpful or Heinous?
SodaHead Gaming
2011/09/27 16:00:00
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62 votes
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25 votes
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LifeInc.com is reporting that a new video game from a Durham, NC advertising firm seeks to show players how the lower class live. From McKinney and Urban Ministries comes "Spent," a game that recreates what it is like to actually scuff a living on a meager eight or nine dollars an hour. Many Americans already know the facts about low–wage work, and sadly enough have had to endure this life. On the flip side, many have been lucky enough to avoid having to scrape a living this way.
The game’s first choice is simple enough: do you want to be a server, a warehouse worker, or a temp? Once you have your professions, the life decisions start to pile up. Are you going to pay for medical care for your pet or let it suffer? Does your tooth hurt? Can you afford the dentist or should you suffer and start eating only liquids and soft food? Do you let your kid and his/her friend enjoy the wonders of ice cream, or is pocketing that five bucks more important to your overall needs?
The game isn’t just an exercise in masochism, it is laden with facts about the choices people with little money make every day, and the consequences of said choices. Everyone knows they can live like a prince, but if you want to see if you can live like a pauper, play "Spent" and test your budgeting skills? So do you think a game like this can be informative? Or is it just another string in video games that offer a real-world experience as well as a distraction from the real world?
The game’s first choice is simple enough: do you want to be a server, a warehouse worker, or a temp? Once you have your professions, the life decisions start to pile up. Are you going to pay for medical care for your pet or let it suffer? Does your tooth hurt? Can you afford the dentist or should you suffer and start eating only liquids and soft food? Do you let your kid and his/her friend enjoy the wonders of ice cream, or is pocketing that five bucks more important to your overall needs?
The game isn’t just an exercise in masochism, it is laden with facts about the choices people with little money make every day, and the consequences of said choices. Everyone knows they can live like a prince, but if you want to see if you can live like a pauper, play "Spent" and test your budgeting skills? So do you think a game like this can be informative? Or is it just another string in video games that offer a real-world experience as well as a distraction from the real world?
Top Opinion
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Algor. Mortis. - ҎԊǢɬ Physi... 2011/09/27 18:37:07
when the restaurant i was working t started going down hill i started looking for better paying and stable jobs, updating my resume, and even striking up conversations with my guests if they asked what i was doing with my life, which occasionally led to them giving me their contact information to send my resume to.
No matter what your situation is when you are jobless or at a low paying job, on welfare or whatever you should try to improve your situation and not get comfortable with where you are at.
I have friends living with us, they have 2 kids. Mom is on SSD and foodstamps, they lost their home, etc etc. The dad just sits around everyday playing our video games, he hasn't bothered to look for a job. I think the mom could really work if she wanted, they blow a lot of their foodstamps on junk food and spend SSD money on beer and cigarets. They just sit around thinking the government will find them housing or keep on paying them.
Then there are people who say they are poor yet have expensive things/or they just blow it on stuff they don't need.
My husband claims he grew up poor yet he had a lot of video games growing up and almost every new system that came out when he was a kid. A lot of people i see who say they are poor have fancy electronics, fancy clothing, always going out, etc. I know people who starve themselves so they can use the money on some video game or something else they don't need. I feel like sending these people to 3rd world countries so they can see what poor really is.
Experiencing the different (and more rewarding) lifestyles which education makes possible might lead to an 'escape' they need, leading them to a path to a better life.
They do however need to be more realistic with the scenarios, they all seem like a best case scenario in a happy-go-lucky world.
I also want to note that $8 or $9 an hour is not meager, most retail establishments in manhattan pay as much. There are people out there who make far far less and would call $9 an hour a lot. The people designing this game need to get their head out of suburbs so they can see that most people who are low income families make horribly less then $9/hour, far less, yet still manage to survive.
I sometimes see little kids selling candy in the subway on my way to school, and although they aren't making a ton of money, they are avoiding alternatives like drugs and thievery. So as long as people can find a way to make money that isn't hurting anyone I am all for it.
I also wish a great deal of luck to your friend, I can't even stand being around 1 unruly kid at a time - 40 is overkill.
Everyone assumes that if minimum wage is 8.00 an hour, a person is paid 8.00 an hour. If however you are part of the tip system, you actually make about 2.12 an hour and the rest is written off as tips- this is why waiters and waitresses work so hard to get tips on tables, it's because they literally depend on the tips for their wages. When I worked in catering, I made 6.00 an hour and the other 2.00 was listed as tips.