National Debt Game Takes Prize at Games for Change

A game that has players attempt to reconcile their share of the massive U.S. national debt was chosen as “Most Likely to Succeed” in a competition at last week’s seventh annual Games for Change conference.

U.O.Me (You Owe Me) is the brainchild of two “public policy experts,” Eric Heis and Nicola Moore, and allows players to “make policy decisions and personal sacrifices to pay down the debt,” which is estimated at around $201,000 per person. It’s promised that, by the time they finish the game, players will “understand what a huge challenge reducing their personal share of the national debt really is.”

Moore stated, “Our game will reach new audiences with nonpartisan policy education.” She added, “Our greatest challenge is trying to get others in our generation who stand to inherit $62 trillion of debt--to understand what that means for their future.”

Heis and Moore began their project with a grant that emerged from pitching the game at last year’s Democracy 2.0: Millennial Return on our Investment conference, but still require additional funding to finish their game.  Donations are being accepted through the KickStarter website and the pair is requesting $10,000 in total to complete the title. 25 backers have so far contributed $755.