Comments on: The Bailout Game

The Bailout Game

Class Goat — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:57:31 -0800

By: DU

DU — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:12:07 -0800

Is there a bailout for Flash developers who don't know how to correctly detect if I have Flash installed?

By: I Foody

I Foody — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:20:49 -0800

What an awful game. Slowly make arbitrary choices about contentious issues in a way that has nothing but an opaque relationship to the outcome of the game.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:24:06 -0800

It's pretty boring.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:25:39 -0800

What an awful game. Slowly make arbitrary choices about contentious issues in a way that has nothing but an opaque relationship to the outcome of the game. Just like the real bailout! However, ironic statements and fun games don't always coincide.

By: uncleozzy

uncleozzy — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:28:56 -0800

I reloaded it just to hear the soft, shoom-chicka music again, and this time it played something different. They couldn't even get that right. Worst thing on the web.

By: justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow

justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:31:34 -0800

Staggeringly dull. Don't click! It's too late for me! Save yourselves!

By: grobstein

grobstein — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:44:58 -0800

The writing is pretty good, but the game itself does seem bad. The problem is that you have to make all those on-off decisions with almost no context about what they're supposed to do. (I guess players are meant to remember the timeline of bank failures in 2008 and plan their bailouts against that, but the mechanisms are still too obscure.) I've been trying to think of good, simple game concepts about financial distress (I'm taking a bankruptcy class right now), but I haven't really come up with anything yet.

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:45:44 -0800

You got your axe grinding in my little flash game.

By: yath

yath — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:56:50 -0800

Whenever I fail to prop up a failing enterprise with taxpayer money, nuclear bombs go off and everyone dies. Just like real life!

By: Gary

Gary — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:57:27 -0800

A few election cycles ago the NDP party in BC had a flash game where you played Liberal leader Gordon Campbell. You had to balance tax cuts, paying off your big business friends and still keep the government running. I'm not sure what their point was because with a little practice not only could you do it in the game, but it was remarkably easy to run a surplus. The moral of the story is: let's play a fun game where a bear floats around with an umbrella.

By: mullingitover

mullingitover — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:04:08 -0800

Oh man, it sure is fun just driving around refusing to bail anyone out. Bye bye, AIG! Sorry, auto industry! Oh, I'm sorry Goldman Sachs, but you're in the poorhouse now. Ooh neat your building blew up! The moral of the story here is that it's best to hang onto your money and only bail out the angry mob, but sadly that's not an option in this game.

By: Damn That Television

Damn That Television — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:32:48 -0800

The writing sucks. It's not funny. You can just click "Save" to every single bank and that's how you win. There's no consequence to my decisions. The graphics are not quite mediocre. It manages to be dated somehow. Not a single element is even remotely fun. HAPPY FLASH FRIDAY EVERYONE

By: epj

epj — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:35:33 -0800

Am I the only one getting motion sickness? *Must* we use Nausea-Cam?

By: Fruny

Fruny — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:41:33 -0800

Aww. Am I the only one to feel a little sad when the bear finally lands on the side of the road and has to watch the cars zoom by?

By: utsutsu

utsutsu — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:38:17 -0800

I said no to all the handouts and the game ended in a zombie plague. I think I won.

By: Deathalicious

Deathalicious — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 05:42:03 -0800

"Wells Fargo is doing just fine. Do you want to give them money?" No. And then Wells Fargo was sold.