The game "SPENT" sets out to build empathy for the millions of Americans with limited career options. In part it succeeds, but as a game of failure it does not, because most actions have no impact on the player's position in the game.
As the game begins, players are challenged: "Can You Make It Through The Month?" Players are told that they have lost their house and their job.
I played through the game in about three distinct ways. In the first, I played as myself. I finished with money in the bank, but not quite enough for rent. In the second, I played recklessly, trying to make the least prudent decision. I was broke in nine days. In the last, I played in "survival mode". If it wasn't going to kill me or my child, I would make the decision that allowed me to pay rent at month's end.
I faced an improbable set of circumstances for one month, including a lost job, a home foreclosure, two major medical emergencies for myself and one for my child. Still, I finished with $1164, enough to pay rent and a few other expenses before my next payday.
This shouldn't be possible. I made some terrible decisions, including purchasing no food at the grocery store and being a bad employee. My character should have been unemployed and starving, but in SPENT, most actions have no consequences. My decision to forego health coverage had no impact on the game either.
After choosing a career, players are informed that "The Affordable Care Act requires you get health insurance". In general, this is true, but there is a hardship exemption, which our player qualifies for by virtue of losing their house within the last year.
On the one hand, SPENT teaches a powerful lesson. The injustices of circumstance force people to make bad short-term decisions in order to survive. On the other hand, SPENT's message would have been all the more powerful if actions truly had more than just consequences. SPENT ignores the humanity of its characters. There is no meter for physical or psychological health or happiness, or family health. Does my child now hate me? Has my decision to send him (with the flu) to school led to a mass infection?
The consequences of short term thinking should be an important motivator to the donors that SPENT is trying to rally to action, but the game simply ignores them. SPENT needs empathy, and its focus on explaining systemic problems over sharing the human cost on the player-character detracts from the empathetic power of the game.
--- Unrelated note: Why is "car" the only transportation option a character can choose, even just a mile away from the workplace? Without the $250 car loan, $250 vehicle registration, $200 car insurance, and $20-100 in gas, the player would be in a much better financial position? We know that this fictional city has busses. Also, I abandoned my car on the side of the road after it broke down and somehow got a $250 speeding ticket the very next day?