A downloadable racing game teaches us how to be financially responsible.

A downloadable racing game teaches us how to be financially responsible.

 

  A simple racing game made for smart phones and tablets, Beach Buggy Blitz, is game that has multiple objectives. Just like real life. It is a multiple choice test. The main objective in the game is to drive as long as you can, as far as you can, while collecting as much money as you can, all before you run out of time.

  The objectives and upgrades in Beach Buggy Blitz cost money. But you don’t earn money unless you play the game. You want to play the game to earn money, just so you can buy more upgrades so you can play the game longer. This game doesn’t even put you in first place, there are other racers, but they only get in the way. You have checkpoints you need to reach in order to get more game time, distance, and money.

What does this have to do with fiscally fit gamers?

   Just like in real life, it seems like we need to get as far as we can with as much money as we can. Usually just to survive in a day to day basis. We get to choose what we spend our money on. Do you buy a TV that’s a couple inches bigger? Or do you use that money for investing? Owning a company? The choice is yours. One of these choices helps us get farther and makes us more money.

   In the game I could spend money on buying a new driver, but the racers aren’t better or worse than any other. They just look different. We don’t gain anything from a new driver. There are trophies you can earn but it doesn’t give us more time or money….

 You could spend that money on buying a coin bubble upgrade so that when you run into it you can make more money. This helps you collect as much money as you can.

 Maybe you could buy a checkpoint upgrade so you don’t run out of time as fast. This helps you get as far as you can before time runs out. If you buy another check point upgrade it gives you coins for every second you have on the clock. This helps you make as much money as you can.

  You can spend money on a shield that breaks things, like palm trees, that are in your way. Without the shield you hit a tree and it slows you down forcing you to loose time. This helps you get as far as you can. If you spend money to upgrade the shield again, it gives you coins from everything you break. This helps you get as much money as you can.

 

  You can spend money upgrading your car so it goes faster and doesn’t slow down as much when you run into things. This helps you get as far as you can.

 So the real object of the game is to make money in order to buy things that make you more money.

  Is that the real object of someone who is responsible with money?  

   Let’s overthink this; if you have a job and pay to get training, or pay for school in order to become better at that job, you make more money doing that job. If you own a business, all your profit usually goes back into the business in order to make more profit. If you own a house that you rent out, you put your profit into updating and remodeling the house in order to raise the rent and therefore make more profit. If you have an investment and it makes money, that money is added to the investment in order to make more money.

  According to Beach Buggy Blitz, the object of life is to get as far as you can with as much money as you can. It doesn’t mean we have to become rich and powerful though, it is simply telling us that we are in a social system that requires us to have money in order to survive.  The game is telling us to get as far as we can, with whatever goal or objective we choose.

  So if you buy a coin bubble upgrade in the game in order to get more coins, isn’t that just a metaphor for upgrading anything in real life you can make money off of?

 

  In Beach Buggy Blitz, you need to play more and more games in order to save up money so you can buy the upgrade you want.  In real life you need to save up money to get the house you want, or get the college funding you want.

  The game doesn’t let you get a loan and go into debt, it forces you to save up every coin you have until you have enough to buy what you want. The fact that there is no debt in the game, or any video game that I can think of, tells us that debt is bad. If you have to go into debt, make sure that loan goes toward a real life upgrade that will help you save time and make more money.

   What about saving time? We have to do all this before time runs out!? Sounds like the real life system we are stuck in. We only get about 80 – 100 years, right? How do we get more time in real life?

   Stay active.

   Stay healthy.

   Don’t let your fear stop you from taking action. When fear gets in the way, and stops you from doing what you want to do, it’s just like running into a palm tree on the beach, slowing you down, wasting your time.

   What do we do with the time that we have? Besides playing video games of course, we should put that time to good use. Learn something new. Use your time to train yourself to become better at something you love to do. The better you are, the higher chance is that make money off of it. The farther you get in the game, the more coins are available to you.

 

  Real life is hard. We are in reality that forces us to work in order to survive. Since we have to work, why shouldn’t we find work that we actually want to do? (Like writing articles about playing video games…)

It’s a vicious circle we are trapped in. A circle I learned from a video game that is free to play.

  Or maybe the real goal of playing Beach Buggy Blitz, and living, is simply to get an adrenaline rush before we have to get back to work.