Karma Tycoon feels less like nonprofit sim;

more like accounting sim

Play Karma Tycoon at www.karmatycoon.com.

Much like government agencies, there are hundreds, if not thousands of nonprofit organizations all across the US, established to help those who are unable to help themselves. Troubled youth, starving homeless, ailing seniors, depraved animals and the lack of creativity and art are just a few of the problems that plague the US. So often people rant and rave about cleaning up the globe, yet ignore the obvious problems right in front of their eyes.

Karma Tycoon brings the people helping to aid America to the center stage. The teams thorough research into each and every topic is well done and comprehensive, establishing a solid background on any one topic for newcomer and veteran alike. While it provides a great springboard to leap off of, the lack of immersive gameplay keeps the plunge limited to the shallow end of the pool.

There are 11 major US cities that you can choose to help, from San Francisco to New York. Each city is marked on the “campaign map,” a satellite view of the US. After choosing a city, you must next decide which social issue you want to solve. These range from building homeless shelters to providing facilities for your cities youth to keep them off the streets. Each topic comes with a thorough explanation of the issue at hand and how it affects the individual city.

The main screen consists of a satellite view of the city you've chosen. The dots on screen represent the people or animals you're helping.

Rather than make broad generalizations, the designers researched each respective city, finding statistics on the issues, the history of the problems, and what nonprofit organizations are doing to combat the situation. Included are links to nonprofit organizations within the city providing players with a quick and easy way to volunteer, get out there and do something.

Having just received a grant from JP Morgan Chase (the developers were actually given a grant from Chase), your goal is to build facilities around the city to help overcome various issues. Regardless of what issue you decide to tackle, gameplay remains pretty much the same. You are taken from the campaign map to a satellite view of your chosen city littered with colored dots representing people. For each colored dot your facilities help, or rather attract, you are given a little boost to your “Karma-Meter.” Once you fill the meter up, the game ends and your score is calculated. However, except for qualifying you for certain grants, your "Karma-Meter" has no other effect on gameplay. It seems to be more of a gimmick to make you feel as though you're doing empathetic work rather than an essential part of gameplay.

Each facility you construct has a number of upgrades available for you to purchase. These change with each scenario but work in exactly the same way, strengthening the overall power of your facility which help attract more and more people. It's a shame though that each individual upgrade seems to have no specific effect on the abilities of your facilities. Whether you give your people more bathrooms to use or a bigger entertainment center to vegetate in front of makes not a lick of difference; both will make your facilities magnetism stronger. It makes it easy to choose which upgrades to buy but feels unrealistic; wouldn't having more toilets or nicer and cleaner beds be more beneficial than adding a larger TV or swankier pool table? With no ideas as to how the facilities eventually help the needy out, you're left with a very obvious disconnect from the people you're trying to help.

The real bread and butter of the game is supposed to be balancing the checkbook of your organization. As a nonprofit, the only way to stay afloat is through grants, donations, loans, and your credit card. Each month, your monthly expenses are taken out of your current balance which is affected by the number of facilities you own and any loans or credit card payments you are currently chained to. Bills for your facilities include all the basics; payroll, rent, utilities, and supplies. If your current balance falls into the negatives, you are given one month to bring things back up; if you don’t, you lose the game.

Grants work as they do in the real world; “free money” to be used however you see fit. However, you must have a specific karmic rating, a certain number of facilities operating at once, and a debt rating below the grants requirements before you can even apply. To the left of the map is a list of grants from a number of different organizations. Prepare to read through this list all game; with nothing else to watch over, as all your facilities are autonomous, you end up clicking through the entire list of grants over and over again, waiting for your karma meter to build up enough so that you can apply.

Occasionally you'll be turned down for grants for no apparent reason, an attempt to show the player that just because you meet the requirements doesn't always mean you'll get the money you need. In reality, it's simply annoying, not eye opening. I already satisfied all the requirements needed; it makes no sense that I'm still getting turned down for grants. Explaining that perhaps the organizations you're applying to don't agree with your methods or want nothing to do with your cause would have made a lot more sense.

Your other two sources of income, loans and credit, have no restrictions as long as you haven't exceeded your allotted debt rating. As in the real world, once taken, you must pay the banks back with interest. Loans can be used for any task, building or upgrading facilities, while your credit card is used for upgrading your facilities only.

Though risky, the short term benefit of not losing any money from your current balance can, at least, keep you afloat for another month. Payments for loans and credit are added to your monthly expenses, so be careful; small loans may not be noticeable at first but the more you take out the more difficult it becomes to pay them back. Not only that, having high debt can make you ineligible for certain grants as well. Managing your "budget" is far too easy.

Facilities bring in monthly expenses sure but there are always plenty of grants to go around so you'll never want for anything. On top of this, you have no control over how your money is being spent. Other than using the money to build more facilities and upgrade them, you cannot make cuts to supplies or increase funding for payroll. These values are set in stone making any budgeting you have to do a matter of simply begging for grants and making sure you have more money in your account than you do monthly expenses.

Upgrading your facilities consists of sliders representing how much money you're willing to invest on specific features.

Using your credit card and taking out loans does add payments to your monthly expenses but, with so many grants, it's really unnecessary to take any out. It comes down to simple mathematics; keep more money in your bank than you'll be spending. You want positives over negatives. This may be meant for students but, we don't have to treat them like toddlers. Karma Tycoon's purpose may be to teach students about nonprofit organizations and handling a budget but without the solid descriptions given before each map, the game would lose all educational and playable value.

The only thing I got from the experience is that nonprofit organizations survive off of grants. Not once did I feel that I was actually helping people or animals; I felt no empathy for the "people dots" that came and went through my city. Rather than help people, it felt more like a fundraising tutorial.

Karma Tycoon makes it seem like an easy job to help the needy out; all you need is a lot of grant money. Once you've got it, all you have to do then is build a facility, furnish it and then let the people flock your way. No need to spread the word or hire people or do any footwork whatsoever; just build it and they will come. The process becomes extremely monotonous very quickly.

Game design isn't easy. Trying to create a piece of art with a message isn't easy either. Making a video game with a message can be downright impossible. Karma Tycoon certainly makes a valiant attempt at it but misses out on a few important features of any game, the most important being immersion.

The links and information given before each level reflect the level of research that the 9mmedia team did for the game and I give them respect for that. Unfortunately, without showing the results of the work non-profits have, the simple budgeting mechanics, and the nondescript upgrades keep you feeling distant and disconnected from the people, not closer or more empathetic.

Rather than feel like a game about building your karma or assisting people out, it becomes more of a business oriented and fundraising game. It was a good attempt but fails to break any new ground.

Review by Smith

score
out of 5