Financial education games

Alongside games, and particularly in connection with education, one often hears of the term gamification, meaning the use of mechanisms familiar from games, such as competitions, automated feedback, levels, medals or leaderboards. These are often related to learning modules.

Oma Onni is an online learning environment that teaches young people how to manage their personal finances. The learning environment is designed for lower secondary school 9th graders. The subject areas of the learning material are working life, daily financial matters and online shopping, saving and investing, borrowing, insurance, entrepreneurship and taxation. The learning material for each subject area consists of short theory sections and a glossary plus online games and assignments. The program is developed by the students of SEDU, the Seinäjoki Joint Municipal Authority for Education. The material can be used in social studies lessons, but it is suitable for independent study online.

Financial Fitness for Life is a US website providing instructional materials for personal finance decision-making in US contexts for use with students from kindergarten to grade 12. The content of the materials includes earning income, spending, managing money, saving, investing and borrowing. Materials are available for both students and teachers. All lessons are based on real-world concepts that reinforce learning through practice.

In a role-playing game, a person assumes a role other than what they have in normal life or how they would otherwise act. Usually in role-playing games, people interact with others. Role-playing games can be a safe way to practice new situations, such as becoming acquainted with working life or making important financial decisions. Role-playing games may follow some clear script or be freer in format. Role-playing games can be digital and non-digital (analogue).

Role-playing games can be a safe way to practice new situations, such as becoming acquainted with working life or making important financial decisions.

Yrityskylä Alakoulu  (Me and My City, Primary School) is a learning concept covering society, the economy and working life. In terms of economics, it addresses basic financial concepts, circulation of money, responsible consumption and planning personal spending. The concept includes teacher training, Yrityskylä lessons and a school day in a miniature society. Yrityskylä Alakoulu operates in nine different localities. Yrityskylä is part of the Economy and Youth (TAT).

JA BizTown and JA Finance Park is a financial literacy laboratory developed by Junior Achievement in the United States. The learning environments are reality-based. JA BizTown is for students in 4th–6th grades and JA Finance Park for lower and upper secondary school students.

Business simulations are also a kind of role-playing game, but they have a very precisely defined context: achieving certain activities (such as maximising returns or a share price) in interaction with others. Business simulations are often used, for example, in university or other tertiary education. An exception to this is the lower secondary school-level Yrityskylä Yläkoulu.

In the game Yrityskylä Yläkoulu (Me and My City, Lower Secondary School), 9th-grade students compete in managing companies on the global markets. The package consists of teacher training, five Yrityskylä lessons, a game situation in a games arena and a final reflection. In economics, the game addresses the basic principles of business, companies’ activities in an international operating environment, and the importance of responsibility in business.

Investing in the stock market already in itself offers gamified elements. It combines both the investor’s own choices and a random element. It is easy to make a gamified digital version of this so that players can invest without financial risk in a virtual portfolio whose value follows the real value of the shares. Mutual competition is then possible, where a player or a team of players can compete against other players. The team with the most valuable portfolio after a certain period of time is the winner. Playing stock market games can be criticised on the grounds that it encourages risk-taking in the short term in a way that may not be optimal from the standpoint of long-term investment behaviour. Even so, such games are widely used in financial education, particularly in the United States, and they have also been found to have a positive impact on financial literacy.

Many board games can also be used in financial education. Even in simple board games, such as African Star, player can learn to count with money, for example. In more complex games, players can learn about, among other things, managing and diversifying risk. Board games are also good in that students can be assigned to design them.

In the board game Riittääkö rahat? (Is there enough money?), the aim is to understand the order of importance of everyday bills and expenses and their significance for keeping one’s personal finances in balance. The game was designed by the Guarantee Foundation (Takuusäätiö) and students of Diakonia University of Applied Sciences.

Välttämätön, tarpeellinen, turha (Essential, necessary, unnecessary), a card game published by the Martha organisation (Marttaliitto) and the Guarantee Foundation, can be used to talk about money matters with young people. The aim of the game is to stimulate ideas about what kind of things or consumer goods we consider to be most important in life and what, in turn, we could do without. The game is available in board, mobile and digital versions.

Circula is a circular economy and entrepreneurship game that familiarises the players with the circular economy through teamwork. The game provides the players with models for responsible business and a sustainable future. It teaches the players to evaluate their own and others’ strengths. The game is suitable for learners of different levels from 15-year-olds to adults. The game can be used in general or vocational education and in universities of applied sciences. The game was developed by SYKLI Environmental School of Finland, Junior Achievement Finland, Savo Consortium for Education, and Omnia, the Joint Authority of Education in the Espoo Region.

In the game Payday, the players have to try and make good purchases and sell them for a profit. The most important aspect of the game is to record expenses precisely and hold on to one’s money. The player who manages to accumulate the most money wins. The game is for ages 8 years and over.

In Monopoly, the players buy and sell real estate. The goal of the game is, through as sensible investments as possible, to drive the other players into bankruptcy.

In the game Paris Connection, players build rail networks from Paris to the rest of France. The objective of the game is to have at the end of the game the best possible rail sections of the most valuable companies.  

Escape room games are a form of adventure game in which the players (usually a group) have to discover clues, solve puzzles and accomplish tasks in order to move forward or escape the site of the game. The original escape room games were in physical spaces from which players had to escape. A simplified version of this is based on opening a lock; games like this have been used a lot in financial education. In these, by accomplishing tasks the players receive a numeric code with which they can open a lock (for example, on a briefcase). With the COVID pandemic, escape room games have moved online. Escape room games and the applications are well suited to educational use because they involve a variety of puzzles. In Finland, escape room games have been used in financial education by, among others, OP Group.

Escape room games and the applications are well suited to educational use because they involve a variety of puzzles.

Sometimes games can be used in such a way that instead of students having to learn a completely new game, they find elements in a hit game they are already familiar with and which expose them to financial concepts.

In Sim City, the players act as the mayor of the city. They are responsible for urban planning: for zoning of city districts into residential, business and industrial areas. The mayor is also responsible for building the road network and railways, selecting the locations of schools, libraries, hospitals and police stations, and managing taxes, other revenue and expenditure. The players cannot always immediately see the impact of the choices they make. The game has no specific objective, but the players can aim for the largest possible population or as much money as possible.

Minecraft, a construction and survival game, can be used in teaching economics. In the game, a three-dimensional world is built using cubes. A good example of using Minecraft in financial education is Learning Economics with Minecraft: Productive Resources.

In World of Warcraft, most of the gameplay is done by completing quests, which the players receive from the game’s non-player characters (NPCs). Completion of quests is often rewarded with money or items, for example. In addition, players are rewarded with experience points for nearly all quests. A large proportion of quests are so-called quest chains in which a new quest continues the story presented in a completed quest. Quests may include collecting various items and substances, searching for places, talking to a certain person, visiting a certain place or killing certain enemies.