How I Learned Financial Principles: What Simulation and Tycoon Video Games Can Teach You and Your Children!
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I am sure many of us can remember growing up, our mothers and fathers griping about how much we played our video games. Mine claimed that these games would “kill my brain”. I may be a little different than many in this regard. Basically, I did not like (and still don’t, with the exception of a few) the ‘traditonal’ video games that feature storylines and action sequences, etc. My games were the tycoon and business simulation games. These were the games that exercised my creative side. I am sure I was probably on the computer a bit too long working out how to connect these two pathways together just right on the budget I set for the project. But, looking back, these were also the games that gave me a head start on my own financial decisions in my life.
I used to often wonder how landscape architecture was the path that was chosen for me. I do not recall ‘choosing’ landscape architecture. In fact, it was my wife that told me to test so I could get into the program. These simulation games are the reason. Understanding spatial composition and requirements and being creative with relatively few materials was engrained into my brain long before I was aware of the complexities. Below are the games that either shaped my financial principles and/or shaped what was my college major, landscape architecture:
Roller Coaster Tycoon
The Original Tycoon is still my all-time favorite ‘game’. Countless hours would be spent developing my theme parks from scratch. The game is basically a playground in which to learn about how money works (and how bad debt is). There is a constant struggle between income and expenses that must be balanced to create a ‘thriving park’. This is the game that shaped my creative passion, also. My older brother would play this game too, and he oftentimes asked me to help him create something that he was trying to achieve.
SimCity 3000 and SimCity 4
The ultimate in balancing budgets. There is a real balance between want and need in this simulation. Rarely have I ever played this game where I have not budgeted properly for future disasters and end up severely in debt. Creative financial solutions were often the only way to make money again. If I were a father or a school teacher, I would definitely have my children playing this game to understand budgeting and money decisions! Playing these games today is even more fun because I have plenty of city-planning knowledge from my undergraduate studies. It’s pretty neat how this game can work on so many levels. For the ‘novice’ city-planner this game can be fun. For the ‘experienced’ city-planner this game can be challenging to try to meet the goals you have set forth for yourself.
Railroad Tycoon II
Money-management is key to being successful in this game. Often the scenarios require the player to make smaller, less-profittable routes to create larger, more-complex routes that really rake in the money. More money = better equipment which also equates into more opportunites for positive financial results. Although, these principles may not apply on a personal finance scale, they certainly can help in developing a budding entrepreneur! It takes money to make money. Since I am currently working as a logistics router and analyst, I can only believe it was this game (along with Locomotion
) that has allowed me to be successful in my current position.
The Sims
This game was a bit too life-like for me. The focus on the game is more about balancing time than about balancing money, and I never could quite do the first thing well in this game. Still I played it some and realized that everyday items are expensive! The problem I saw with this game, however, is that the more ’stuff’ you own, the higher your bills are. I am sure this is teaching many kids that debt is OK. I can understand buying a TV may suck more electric, but If I buy a table with cash, there should be no extra monthly bills, right?
Conclusion
If you see your children addicted to video games, try turning them onto these type games. It may shape their future in a positive way! Many of these games are quite realistic in handling money-based decisions and they may provide skills that will help them choose a career path!
Other Simulation and Tycoon Games
SimGolf
Zoo Tycoon
Capitalism
Monopoly Tycoon
Ski Resort Tycoon
Big Mutha Truckers
Many sports games that allow management of a roster
As quoted from Wikipedia’s “Business Simulation Game” Post:
Because economic simulations simulate real-world systems, they can often be used for economics education. Some benefits of simulations are that they permit students to experience and test themselves in situations before encountering them in real life, that they permit students to experiment and test hypotheses, and that subjects seem more “real” to them than when taught passively from the blackboard. They are also used extensively in the professional world to train workers in the financial industries and management, and to study economic models (an association of professionals, ABSEL, exists for the sole purpose of promoting their use), with some simulations having in excess of 10,000 variables. Economic simulations have even been used in experiments, such as those done by Donald Broadbent on learning and cognition that revealed how people often have an aptitude for mastering systems without necessarily comprehending the underlying principles. Other games are used to study the behavior of consumers.
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- Understanding the Time VALUE of Money in the Things We Purchase
- Deal or No Deal! Your Finances and Your Aspirations
- 13 Ways to Get Fired or Laid Off in a Troubled Economy
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I loved these types of games when I was a kid! Interesting perspective on how they can teach budgeting/money skills as well, I never thought of it that way. Of course the value of the lesson is largely dependent on the realism of the economic model, I can think of so many games where the economics is so skewed! I’m thinking of Fable II right now and their work multiplier.
I agree that many economic models are skewed. For instance RCT allowed the construction of roller coasters starting from $5,000. The importance of these games for me was they taught me to balance the incomes with the expenses…no matter how each were obtained. The math learned through games has been invaluable!
I always felt that The Sims (and The Sims 2) avoided the topic of debt entirely, since there isn’t a way to go into debt in the game! I can understand using the basic principle that more stuff = higher bills. A big expensive dining room table needs to be dusted more than a cheap fold-up card table, doesn’t it? The more expensive the stuff we own, the higher we pay to take care of it. Over-simplified in the game, but like most things in that game, it’s a fact of life boiled down into math and computer code!
*Stephanie is an extremely avid player of The Sims 2 and has had a post titled “Money Lessons from The Sims 2″ in draft for months now… but gets too distracted by playing the game to finish the post!
Well to me, the debt is represented in the monthly bills. when you buy that dining table, it’s kind of like you are putting a down payment on it and the increase in monthly bills is a payment for the items you have purchased. Although it does not show that you are in debt, in all actuallity you are! Freeing up additional income each month is one of the advantages of being debt-free.