Now that the two major parties have chosen their candidates both are weighing their choices for a running mate. Perhaps your work on the National budget could put you on the short list.
The recently released on-line game “Budget Hero” launched in May by American Public Media in partnership with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, may not get you spot at the cabinet table; it could give you valuable insight into the budget process.
According to Michael Skoler, executive director of the Center for Innovation in Journalism at American Public Media, “Budget Hero is a new type of journalism that gives people the big picture on the complex and fragmented federal budget process. We created this news game to help Americans feel they can understand and participate in the national debate over the election, the budget and the direction of our country.”
Skoler shared with me that the game was in the talking stages for over a year and a half. “We sometimes thought we were crazy to build something as ambitious as a game…something that was journalistically sound yet simple enough for all to understand and take part in.“ With the involvement of many firms, think tanks, the Budget Office, as well as help from game development consultant Ben Sawyer, Budget Hero soft launched in May.
“The saying ‘you can’t understand until you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes’ best describes Budget Hero,” said David Rejeski, who heads the Serious Games Initiative at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “The game empowers players to take on the role of our government officials and allows anyone to try out their solutions and ideas on how to manage the federal budget.”
So let’s play…
Both audio and graphics are very appealing, giving you the feeling you’re playing inside a “Schoolhouse Rock” cartoon. Instructions are clear and easy to understand, completely unlike the legislation process you’d really have to endure in real life. Once through the “briefing” and just a few clicks into the game you realize this is much trickier than another round of Clue or game of Life with the family. And this definitely is no Guitar Hero (Slash would be so busted.)
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View the introduction to Budget Hero
You can open up large categories of the budget and review “cards” that represent specific policy decisions. You make your policy decisions by “playing” the card or cards that align with the values you chose early in the game. So under Defense and Diplomacy, for example, you may choose to pull all troops from Iraq by 2010, withdraw troops over five years, or stay the course in Iraq and add two new Army divisions.
Your experience with the game is enhanced by working to achieve a variety of financial and policy goals. Financial goals might include balancing the federal budget by a certain year, eliminating the national debt or limiting the size of government by keeping it at a certain percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (or GDP, which measures the size of the economy). Policy goals might include providing universal health coverage, fully funding No Child Left Behind, or raising or lowering income taxes.
While it’s quite the juggling act and incredibly challenging, the real value is in the learning. I never really accomplished all that I wanted in my first session though, my fellow Americans, I’m not sure you would be that much worse off under my proposed budget…well maybe. However, I thoroughly enjoyed digging into the cards to explore the pros and cons. Even the best of intentions have their downsides. The site also allows you to learn how the choices were made for the game allowing even more insight to the process and the power of the decisions made.
And that’s the point of Budget Hero: finding out what impacts our federal budget from many sides. “Budget Hero is unique in that it provides the player with immediate feedback on how their choices affect the federal budget in terms of revenues, spending, deficit and debt, and the economic, societal and individual impact of their policy choices,” stated Skoler.
Not just a way for individuals to learn, Budget Hero also allows you to compare how your policy choices and budgets stack up to other players across a wide range of demographic groups based on gender, income, age, political loyalty or region. American Public Media is also hosting an online discussion for players of “Budget Hero” on group discussion site Gather in this area here. Skoler adds, “And the game collects the choices players make, as well as their comments, so our journalists learn how people think through the budget debate.”
Budget Hero is also available as a widget for the websites of public radio and television as well as commercial news organizations. It’s likely you’ll hear more about it between now and November. So go play the game and, if all goes well maybe we’ll see you on the ticket. Me, I think I’ll take another crack at the family budget. We have a far less complicated foreign policy.