Gamification

From puzzles to team sports to video games, people like games. By applying game mechanics to traditionally mundane or stressful activities, they can be made more fun and therefore engaging. They can also lead to real world action taking and behavior change. It’s been done for fitness, with friends competing for steps on Fitbit, or walking miles with Pokémon Go. We work to apply these concepts to financial challenges.

Game elements can foster friendly competition and present the promise of rewards. They can track progress towards goals. We have applied these game mechanics to build financial capability, change savings behavior,  and build high school students’ understanding of options to finance higher education.

Financial Entertainment

Considering the popularity and impact of video games, Commonwealth envisioned the potential of games to transform financial education and build the financial capability of consumers. Commonwealth’s vision translated into the development of a suite of financial entertainment titles that improve financial knowledge, capability, and self-confidence for players. Preliminary research shows that these games can be more effective than traditional financial education methods.

Developing these games had led us to partnerships with large private employers, students, and educators to reach a large variety of end users who may benefit from these resources. Many of our games are available for free both online at financialentertainment.org and on the Google Play and Apple app stores.

Commonwealth has designed, developed, and launched six Financial Entertainment game titles, each with its own financial learning objectives: Bite Club (saving and investing for retirement); Celebrity Calamity (credit card debt, spending—mobile version available); Con ‘Em If You Can (avoiding financial fraud—mobile version available); Farm Blitz (compound interest, debt, savings—mobile version available); Groove Nation (budgeting); and Refund Rush (tax-time saving).