Spent

Link to game

Spent is an edutainment game where you roleplay a single parent in poverty.  The goal is to survive on a thousand dollars for thirty days.  The game is sponsored by the Urban Ministries of Durham with the intent of promoting awareness of poverty and to get people who are not poor to support their efforts.

By how the game was constructed, I would guess that it was also developed by the Urban Ministries of Durham (UMD)... more specifically, a volunteer with a boot-legged version of Flash and zero understanding of actionscript... or pixel art for that matter.

Ok, the pixel art thing was harsh, after all games like Thousand Dollar Soul could get away with text dumps because it was that type of game.  Fine, whatever, I can dig it.

The real drop is with the execution, which gave me the following reaction: "Huh?  Ok... bout right, ok fine... oh I won... sorta" Imagine that quoted line spoken in matter-of-fact monotone and you will have the complete picture.

Considering this game was suppose to tug my heartstrings and make me give a fuck about the poor, I can say that this game failed... it failed on so many levels.

I feel the best way to demonstrate how it failed is to give a point by point on how else it could have been done that would have brought about an actual emotional impact that can't have players dismissing it as "I'm playing a moron," as jayisgames users have commented.

Scenario 1: Your job.

Find job... no fucking shit Sherlock

  Well, the game gives you three occupations to choose from at the start.

The only job on this list that bares any resemblance to how you actually get jobs in real life is the Temp, where you are given a writing test where you have to type out the Ministries' manifesto with no typos and in as little time as possible... which I failed.

So not only did this woman travel with the hottest dork in the universe, but she could type the UMD's manifesto in record time?  Shit!*

Leaving the other two jobs, where apparently you just need to show up and "bam!" you're hired!  Which is nice of them, considering most of us aren't Donna Noble.

Course, this does seem really silly, as I know for fact jobs don't work like that.  Seriously.

What I think they should do is make little dialogue tree(s) and have the player roleplay the interview(s).  Course, instead of a list of jobs to pick, have a list of location(s) to visit to get work (they can be bullshit companies that scream either restaurant, factory or office for simplistic purposes, and the interviews aren't that much different from eachother) and the player would have to go them and ask if they have openings, and take it from there.  This way, the player can know the pain of failing a job interview... and by that fail not getting money in a game where the goal is not to run out.

Course, this opens all kinds of options for the game, and therefore the UMD, to explore things like discrimination... which are out of the control of the player and the player can't blame on a stupid PC if they can't get a job for a very arbitrary reason.  It also shows that answering certain questions the wrong way will get you screwed over.

Course, going for interviews should be an ongoing thing in the game and not just something you choose at the start, as random encounters (more on them later) can get you fired or cut your pay.  So the options should be given to players to try to find a new job as opposed to sitting around and eating money for the remainder of the time (after all, if you are fired in real life, you are going to try to find work again).

Oh, and the healthcare thing... that can be roleplayed too :).

Scenario 2: Housing

 A common comment against this is "Why does the game assume that I must drive?  Is this taking into account the fact that you could walk/bike/take transit?

The answer is I think it is, hens why at the closest transport is $5 and the furthest transport is $160.  However, rent closest is $850 and rent furthest away is $600.  Course, this is an internal calculation based on this:

One of many factoids in the game... more on that later.

Course, still doesn't solve the grip of "is there transit in Durham?"  According to Google, I thought it did, but then I realized that Google thought I meant Durham, Ontario, when the UMD is in Durham, North Carolina... and after being more specific, it doesn't it seems :(.

Oh Canada... transit is in fact the norm!  Where in the USA, its a fucking crapshot! (sing it to the tune of the Canadian national anthem for effect).

Still, this slider could take into account weather or not you are driving or using transit with "no transit for you" after a certain distance (to represent the fact that you are living in a bedroom community or a suburb where transit is offy at best).  Also, have a bike option with a cut off.  Also, make the car option the most expensive one, but the most versatile (as you can drive fucking anywhere you want, but cars need gas and maintenance.)  Also, have mode of transportation a thing the player decides on a daily basis, including how they want to take their kid to school.

Course, as I found, there is no transit service in Durham NC, so the game should say so... or have North-Caroliners never heard of public transit?  If that is the case... America, you're fucked.

Scenario 3: Random Encounters

As the day ticks by, shit happens... shit that might compromise your ability to win the game.  Like your co-worker getting sick for example.

Now, this shit should be played out with more than a simple text blob and two options.  Why? This has no emotional weight, that's why.  In real life, if I was working with a bunch of people and one of them fell ill and Boss Jerk gave no sick days (is that legal?  At least in North Carolina?) I might give because I worked with that person and I might feel bad about them.  The above picture, however, is too binary, where a 'no' is a smart answer so you don't lose your money and lose the game.

Heres how to add more weight to these.  Everyday, you see your kid and send them to school, you go to work and see your co-workers and boss and go though the motions of work, you go home and see kid, you hear about kid and you contemplate workplace gossip that is generated by a random generator if it isn't important.

Roleplay it out with trees and shit.  The above have yourself working and someone approaches you, explains why the worker that is normally next to you is gone, that Boss Jerk is doing what jerks do, and that a fund-raiser is being held for said workers sake, and if you would like to donate.

There are others.  There was one where the landlord decides on a whim to jack up rent, despite the fact that its illegal and pretty well telling you that there isn't anything you can do short of moving out.  Again, play that out.  Make it so the player does feel that they can't do anything about it, even thought as the commentators have pointed out, it is against the law... on paper.  This can open the door to things like "Boss Jerk told you to perform unsafe work, and protesting will get you fired, despite the fact that its illegal to do so (in Ontario anyways, can't speak for North Carolina)" and to get the message across about the scene, the player must feel and understand that they have rights on paper but end up learning the hiccup about said rights being upheld and enforced.

Scenario 4: Random Encounters that shouldn't be random encounters.

Credit card, what credit card?

 There are others like this, like a dog you thought you didn't have being sick, or some of various ones that assume you are driving a car (what is this magic called transit?).  Seriously, this is doing the Echo Bazaar thing where its making assumptions about a blank slate PC.  DON'T FUCKING DO IT!  Or at least have it established through gameplay (like having to buy/lease/rent a car, or seeing a dog running around being a dog).

The other option is to not give us a blank slate character.  Instead give us a pre-determined PC.  Make the player play the role of, say, Lady Brahman who has a ten year old son named Dave and a Corgi with a blue shitbox car** living in North Carolina that is up to her eye-balls in credit card debit as she was trying to maintain her middle-class lifestyle despite being laid off from her past job as a middle manager for the automotive sector. <gasp, run on sentence>  Was that so hard?  I pull that out of my ass just now with the asterisks explaining a very stupid joke I had in mind as I shat that out.

Scenario 5: The shopping minigame

 Let me get the obvious out of the way: how often do you go grocery shopping?  For me its about once a week.  So, why do I only see this minigame once during the game?

Now, this does get the message across that shit food is cheaper than real food, as the goal is to not run out of money for thirty 'days' so you will be loading up with hotdogs, beans, and ramen.  Now, there is a factoid that explains that it is very common to run out of food during the month and be suck with an empty fridge... problem is that the consequences of having an empty fridge are not played out... at all.  Not even a "You are going hungry" thought.

This should be a ongoing thing, like there a food meter or a hunger meter for you and your kid, and the hunger meter being zero doing nasty shit like lowering your mood or job performance (or your kids, being represented by their school grades).  This way, it followed the logic of most people: if fridge is empty I go to store... but shit I have no money :(.

Scenario 6: The kid and their grades

 This was an interesting random encounter, where if I tried to give them help I would be given a math question, which failure meant that my kid would suck.  Now, I've already noticed that some of the random encounters revolved around the kid going on school trips or being bullied for having to go on a lunch assistance program.  Now, the problem is you don't really live with the consequences of many of these choices involving your kid (ie a kid who is upset with you for ditching them for reasons of money).

Really, if these were played out (with a few of them, like the one pictured, being ongoing to make you really feel stupid if you can't help your kid) you would have enough of a bound with the kid that you would at least feel horrible if you put your munchkin instincts first and have to live through the thirty days with a kid that hates you.

That's a consequence for being broke in real life: not being able to spend on your kid the way you would like to.

Scenario 7: Last ditch stuff

Let me break it down for you.

The Xs are 'job strikes'.  Everytime you miss work you get a strike, and three of them get you fired (cus the US really love their baseball).  Ok, I'm thinking that it should be replaced with a job performance meter, where if you are performing horribly, like missing work, showing up hungry, being late, and other variables that can be taken into account, which when this meter depletes you get fired.  Keeping that meter up will really get to the player about the decisions that they make throughout the game.

Next the need cash section.  One of them is to steal your kid's allowance money (or whatever money they have scrounged).  If you have no emotional ties to the kid (and you won't in Spent) there is no guilt in stealing the kid's money.  Doing what I have said in the last section should cover this.

There is the donate blood section, which give $25 dollars.  For those that don't know, in the States, they pay you to donate blood.  Still, this is something that the player can do for however often they are allowed to by US law all while having to get themselves to the donor clinic.

Finally the payday loan, which puts you in debt.  Again, debt needs consequences, like having to deal with repo men or harassing collectors... that exists in North Carolina, right?

Scenario 10: The Factoids

 This is simple: get rid of them!

No, I'm serious.  Ever gone to see a movie that emphasized 'the point' in a way as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face?  Those are not 'fun' to watch.  While 'fun' isn't the goal here, you don't want to make the player roll their eyes and feel like their being preached to.

The game play should tell the narrative you want it to on its own, with a referencing section that can be accessed for the players that scream "but that's not possible!" for you to give the factiods there to players who want to or must read them for their own engagement.

You want the player to be engaged, right?  You want them to soak this up and understand the plight of another person, don't you?

Conclusion

The point of the game was to point out that poverty is not a life choice and that these people need help.  This is missed to the point that its preaching to the converted.  Even people who agree with this (ie me) found the game to be non-engaging and a waste of time and potential, and this is something I see edutainment games and games with a clear socio/political agenda fumble on.  In a way its no better than the pretensions art games I sometimes rip on.  In a way it might be worse, as this was intended to mean something and wasn't done by some bedroom codemonkey with something to prove.

If this is to work, it has to be able to put the player in the shoes of the character they are playing.  For the time they are playing they must feel like they are this person with a kid living in poverty for reasons they had no real control over.  If you want people to stop going on about how the poor are lazy fuckwards that made shitty choices in life and therefore are getting what they choose in life, this game has to engage, and what I was going on about for several paragraphs should accomplish that.  Even if there are poor who are there that made some bad moves, the player should at least believe that theses people deserve a second chance or that they don't deserve what they get despite their error of ways.

Urban Ministries of Durham, this is what you want, right?  So people will support your cause through donations or volunteering now that they have a better understanding of what it means to be poor.

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*You were totally expecting a Donna Noble joke at that point, and I just couldn't resist!
**The Brahmen are the 'nobility' caste of Indian culture, and Lady the title in Italian is 'Donna', so that was way I picked the name Lady Brahman.  Also explains why I picked the kids age and name that I did, as well as the breed of the dog and the colour of the car.