Budget Battle Games

by Meagan Dorsch

According to GameSpot.com, some of the most popular video games (we looked at the Wii system) are Real Heroes:Fire fighter, Call of Duty and Madden NFL 10.

We noticed one video game that did not make the list: Budget Battle-Star Galactica. OK, that may not be the correct name, but it is one of the toughest games on the market to win right now.

Several states, or newspapers, have have a hand in creating on-line games that allow you to become a legislator and take a crack at trying to balance the state's budget. For an even bigger challenge, try to play these games in a group. Remember, the majority of you have to agree on all of the decisions made.

In Texas, the decisions you make in the game are either supported or disagreed on by your virtual constituents. California budget battle game starts you off with $24 million deficit to close…good luck. Many of these budget games will allow you to submit your solutions directly to the state for consideration. 

Are these games easy? Not at all, which may help some in the general public realize the challenges state legislators are up against.  

According to NCSL's State Budget Update, states will to deal with budget shortfalls in the coming years. We may see more of these budget games popping up in states across the country.

Here is a list of states we know have set up budget battle games (please feel free to let us know about more), thanks to Arturo in NCSL's fiscal department. So go ahead, put your good ideas to work for your state.

California
Colorado
Illinois
Kansas
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Texas
Washington

Comments

[Lurker]

Some of these are enough to scare people off of running for office.

PS. There was an earlier version of the Massachusetts one called "MassBalance", but that was for the previous Governor.

[r4 ds]

Hi all...
I am playing games on pc and i like to more about gaming...
I like this article because it's about gaming...

[Paul Evans]

this is a very informative post.. i enjoyed reading it.