New Game by Bookmonkey

After going through the book Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal back in April, I decided to create my own game, to help me find a fun way to deal with my unfortunate habit of overspending on work days (I work Downtown, so unchecked I can easily spend $20 or even $30 a day while at work, on lunches, coffees and snacks)

Bookmonkey's Money Saving Game

Basic Rule - Give yourself $10 each day – savings go in envelope and once they add up to a prize level, claim your prize!

Prize Level 1 – Game/Book/Movie ($15 total)

Prize Level 2 - Fancy lunch out ($25)

Prize Level 3 – Lunch out with my wife ($50)

Basically, each day I would start with $10 as a baseline, and after getting my snacks, coffee and/or lunch, I would put however much change I had into an envelope I kept in my desk.  If I didn’t spend anything, I’d put the whole $10 in the envelope and on Friday I would count up my change and put it towards one of my “prize levels.”  In this way I would both be giving myself permission to spend cash, but at the same time, I would have a clear and obvious reward for spending more wisely than I had in the past. 

As of last Friday (July 12) I’ve hit level all three levels, and am creating new ones for the summer (i.e. Movie Night with my family ($80)) which will be pretty cool, considering i feel like I’m paying for it all with change, and at the same time, I’m trying very hard each day to ensure I spend less than $10 so I have something to add to the pot.  In my own mind, for it’s target audience (me), this has been a pretty successful game and a great way I could apply the knowledge I had learned in the book to a real world situation.

Book Review: Reality is Broken

As I’ve said in the past, I’m beginning to become a bigger fan of nonfiction writing; whether history or cultural commentary, I find it an interesting addition to my monthly readings into Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction.

Case in Point: Jane McGonigal’s Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World – which was a pretty interesting examination into why more and more people are spending huge amounts of their free time fighting virtual robots, unicorns and zombies. The book examines the draw that these games have (for example, feelings of productivity, useful and clearly spelled out missions, and huge emotional benefits for success and helping with the success of others) and how these attributes can be added to our real-world experience, therefore making reality an equally fun place to play.

The book reads really well – although I don’t personally have a background in game theory, I sure didn’t feel spoken down to, and I wasn’t lost in any of the author’s concepts either.  The arguments were pretty straight forward, and even though there are a few real world problems that game design might not be able to help directly, the vast number of things game design can help is pretty impressive.

I’d recommend the book for anyone who either considers gaming a waste of time, or has been told gaming is a waste of time.  The book got me pretty excited about the things in my own life I can try to modify with game design and has given me both the confidence and the interest in trying it out.