Personal economic lessons from the game

If experience is the best teacher, here are some personal economic experiences that you
will encounter while playing BUX.

  A Personal
Economic "Lesson"		 How the "Lesson" is
Experienced in BUX
1 You have needs. There are limits to what is available, and there are limits to what you can pay. Therefore, you must make choices. Your choices, and order of choices are very important to you. There are only 3 of each identical, double-symbol card. So players must get all three identical cards to make perfect match sets. You can spend only what you have– and no more. Choose carefully and mostly go after the cards you need.
(You must make tradeoffs between needs.)
2 You are trying alone, without help, to make your best economic choices, hopefully to be most productive. Your value depends on your choices. BUX is a game of economic decisions. Every move you make directly affects your value. You are in it alone, continuously make your best economic choices to keep your productivity up, and stay in the game.
3 If you don't play the (economic) game, you can't win the (economic) game. If you don't play BUX, you can't win at BUX. The same goes for every other game– including the real life economic game.
4 If you don't know the rules of how to play the (economic) game you can't do much. So get hip to the rules. Why struggle on not knowing the rules or the moves? If you don't know the BUX rules, you will not understand what to do or how to get chips. Once you know the rules, you will be able to get the necessary personal economic experience. With this experience, the moves can be repeated and mastered.
5 Prices change from time to time, depending on supply-demand, market conditions. Over a period of time, prices go up and down, and are never fixed forever. When up for bid, all cards are worth what players will pay for them at the time. A card may not be worth much, and suddenly, with a draw, that same card could become much more valuable. Hint: No 3-card set is worthless.
6 There is some value in most things. It depends on what you see, the connections you make and what you can imagine. Different players see different opportunities in the cards. All cards have some value at some point in the game. At the end of the game, some players see cards only for their immediate cash-in value.
7 Opportunities are all around. Some see them. Some don't. Stay alert. Get used to spotting good opportunities. Players who see most matching opportunities from the cards usually get the most chips. Players who see few matching and timing opportunities usually improve.
8 Those who act on opportunities first usually make out best in the long run. Players who are first to see matching cards, or Double-BUX, or short decks, or unprotected cards, do best.
9 Being broke doesn't have to be permanent. There are ways to get out of it. But you must stay in the game, and sometimes go backwards to go forward. It takes vision and patience. There are times in the game when you have few chips. Keep at it. Sell off cards, or trade for a valuable card, or hope to draw 3 valuable cards to get paid from others. There are ways out, but you must keep your head in the game long enough to see your way out.
10 You only get paid for sure when you sell something of value that you have made or put together. You know for sure how much you are getting paid when you sell card sets. Otherwise, you cannot bank on how much others are going to pay you for drawn cards.
11 You have to give up something to get resources to put together in order to build value. Nothing of value is free. Value has a cost. To get cards, you have to spend chips if buying, or give up a card and time, if trading. In any case, you have to give up something to get something of value. Nothing of value is totally free.
12 Your thinking must be flexible. See what the economy is doing and think quickly about what you must do– and get on it. Get going! If you have a fixed plan of how to win at BUX, you will most likely lose. You must watch the entire table, cards, and players, and react quickly to what is happening in the game at the time. Think ahead. Take risks.
13 No matter how much you have, in order to keep your value, you cannot waste time, or waste your resources on what you don't need. There are times in the game when you could have a lot of chips. To stay in the game you must still play hard. It is surprising how quickly a chip lead can vanish. Keep at it until it's over.
14 It is possible for most people in your local economy to make money, supporting each other and having a great time. But to do this, locals must sell their products to the outside world, not each other. While playing BUX, it is possible for all players in the game (which we'll call the local economy) to be earning chips and having a great time doing it. But this is only possible if players (the locals) are selling their sets to the game (thought of as the world economy). All players cannot make chips by passing them back and forth.
15 Most people have some idea of how their own personal economics works, or doesn't work. Playing BUX brings out personal economic feelings, fantasies and ideas. Players are free to experiment with their productive thoughts and actions while having fun.
16 Success and being rewarded for what you have done and put together feel great! There is no better feeling (deep inside) in the game than when you are being paid for sets you have put together and sold successfully.
17 Your time is important to you. Time is a scarce resource and has value. Use time to your advantage. When your turn comes, you must decide what to do. Many times you will want to do two or more things, but you can only do one. Your turn (time) could be your most important resource. Time controls actions.
18 If you spend your time and resources holding other players back, your own forward progress will suffer. It is harder to get ahead if you are holding others back.

You can block other players from getting matching sets by preventing them from getting the cards they need. But when you do this, you are using your time and chips to do something that is not productive for you. Overdo this and fall behind.
19 Things change. So, sometimes it is necessary to stop what you are doing and change your mind to do things another way. There are times when you have a matched pair, waiting for the third, and it never comes. At that time, you may want to switch and start looking for other cards to make other sets- and sell those two cards.
20 Putting things together takes creativity, planning, thinking, risk and action. You cannot just sit back and wait for something to happen. Get with it. Making card sets requires you to see matching opportunities, spend chips or time to get the cards, and taking risks. You cannot get chips by watching the action or wishing for luck. It takes your actions.
So, play to win.

These and other lessons are what you automatically get from playing BUX
with others. ("Automatically" means that you don't have to read, study or
memorize anything.") And these lessons, when experienced, can be put
together, leading to better economic self-understanding.

The above so-called lessons prompted the mother of a (gifted) six-year-old
to approach the inventor in a parking lot asking, "What is it about that game
that has my 6-year-old asking me financial strategy questions that I can't
answer?"

When used as a teaching tool, game understanding can be backed up
by basic economic theory referencing specific game situations. This
transparent "Observational learning" process, reinforces concepts after
they have been experienced and understood.


© 2008 Newscool™, Inc.