For this analysis I played Spent, a game created by the McKinney agency for the Urban Ministries of Durham. Spent is about the decisions that those at the poverty-line in America must make and features a key mechanic of making a choice, often with a tradeoff to be made.
In my playthrough, I observed the aesthetics of challenge, fantasy, and narrative. At the beginning of the game, you are explicitly asked to “Accept the Challenge” and “Imagine” that you are in the given scenario of a recently unemployed American. The intro screen is minimal and offers a single choice that begins the game; if accepted, the UI transforms to display more information and the player is cast into a narrative that is crafted and dictated by their actions. As a player, this immediate contrast between initial screens felt overwhelming and foreshadowed the anxiety and urgency that would build as each day passed within the game.
In applying the MDAO framework, this game likely had intended outcomes of imparting knowledge and changing the attitudes of players. To raise awareness, the game utilized the mechanic of displaying facts related to a choice. These facts included definitions, explanations, and policies that gave reality-grounded context to the decision. As a result of this mechanic, a potential dynamic that emerged for me was selecting different options as a way to learn more — or, even inadvertently learning more as I replayed the game. Additionally, the mechanic of a specific scenario every day, a cost to a decision, and the decision itself provided information about the different bills, ailments, or circumstances that someone in this situation might be faced with.
Supported by this outcome of knowledge building, attitude change was facilitated by emotional experiences for the player. One notable mechanic was being locked into a choice once selected. Paired with the fact that each option often provided little-to-no upfront information, this created a dynamic where choices were sometimes made arbitrarily or uninformed. There was a perceived pressure to make a decision as well as guilt afforded in being unable to make a rational one. Similarly, several of the choices did not have any financial trade off and instead presented a moral or physical one, creating a dynamic where the player pits financial security against intangible outcomes — only for it to inevitably result in a sacrifice of some degree. Another mechanic that stood out to me was the constant display and movement of both the calendar and bank account. The dynamic created is one where the player is constantly monitoring their statement and aiming towards staying in the positive until the next payday or first day of the month. As a result of this constant required concern and relentless nature of the day-to-day challenges, the player might have felt an emotional stress or alarm.
Collectively, these emotional experiences allowed players to empathize in a way that would not be possible with just knowledge. Players are able to feel and understand a slice of the challenges that those in similar situations face. Furthermore, they were guided to understand that for those in poverty, choices are often not optimal; rather, they are the best that one can work with. The ending of the game epitomizes these ideas as there is no way to “beat” the game — you just survive or stay afloat only to be reminded of the next bill to be paid.
