On a trip to London a while back I had a coffee with Matt Webb. One of the things I mentally bookmarked was a reference he made to a Nintendo game which featured paying off the mortgage. He was referring to Animal Crossing. I’ve finally had the time to do some research on this and it’s fascinating. You start the game by getting a house – and have to pay off the debt before you can move on. It’s set in a cartoon style setting and apparently is very addictive.
There’s a good overview here.
If you look around, financial education ‘games’ are appearing in some interesting places. For example, how about a game on a piggy bank to encourage saving? Look no further than Japan for this little gem :
The Jinsei Ginko is a white cube-shaped bank that accepts only Β₯500 coins. It can save up to 200 coins, or Β₯100,000 ($830 at Β₯120 to the dollar). On the front is a black-and-white LCD screen like that of a handheld game device, which depicts the life of a stick-like character.