''Bailout! The Game'' is a
board game
A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...
created in
2008
2008 was designated as:
*International Year of Languages
*International Year of Planet Earth
*International Year of the Potato
*International Year of Sanitation
The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...
by Jordy and Shari Sopourn. The Sopourns, a married couple living in
South Florida
South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...
, were trying to explain the
Troubled Asset Relief Program
The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a program of the United States government to purchase toxic assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector that was passed by Congress and signed into law by U.S. Presi ...
(TARP)—better known as the government
bailout
A bailout is the provision of financial help to a corporation or country which otherwise would be on the brink of bankruptcy. A bailout differs from the term ''bail-in'' (coined in 2010) under which the bondholders or depositors of global syst ...
—to their three
home-schooled children.
Due to the children's young age (the oldest was 10), they had trouble understanding the concept, so their parents turned it into a board game. According to Jordy, the game "took on a life of its own"
and the couple decided to
self-publish
Self-publishing is an author-driven publication of any media without the involvement of a third-party publisher. Since the advent of the internet, self-published usually depends upon digital platforms and print-on-demand technology, ranging fr ...
the game.
The tagline of the game is, "When you lose, you WIN!"
Each player chooses a bank to play (examples: "Bankruptcy O’ America", "Worth Farless"), and starts with $2.5 billion. The objective of the game is to get to the end of the money trail and build the most debt.
Each turn, players make an
investment
Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broade ...
decision which can cause their bank to gain or lose assets based on die rolls. The game winner is the bank with the largest amount of debt, who wins the bailout.
The game also includes various trivia questions. Players must identify quotes from presidents and financial institution leaders. Answering a trivia question correctly will increase the debt of bank that the player is playing for.
''Bailout!'' debuted at the Chicago Toy and Game Fair in November 2009.
The game is sold for $29.95.
Seventeen drafts of the game were created prior to the final released version.
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
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Board games introduced in 2008
Economic simulation board games
Roll-and-move board games
Self-publishing
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