We play every month here in Perth (though we tend to play 202 rather than 101, because with 101, it's actually pretty difficult to make a bad deal and go broke.) With 202, all deals CAN go sour - which keeps the game interesting.
I think that there are different aspects to the game that can help different people. For people with little financial literacy, it demonstrates in a practical way the difference between assets and liabilities and illustrates the damage that undisiplined spending and high consumer debt can be. It teaches good debt from bad debt.
For players that understand these concepts, the next challenge is keeping your numbers up to date on the game sheet. When I look at game sheets by successful people, and those that aren't so successful, the neatness and completeness of the gamesheets is quite obvious.
People not used to keeping accounts have crossed out numbers, and multiple sets of numbers all over the page, often getting confused, or they have failed to fill in a section (usually the mortgage).
For other people, playing 202 gives people a good feel for options, and illustrates that while leverage can be extremely high with shares, it is also very easy to loose your shirt by speculating (as a few people from Decembers game discovered
).
For players comfortable with all of the concepts of the games, it gives them good opportunites to try different strategies. Maybe try borrowing heavily, maybe try only doing capital gains deals, or only doing cashflow deals. Try paying debt off first, or not to worry about it.
I also find it's a good way to discover win-win deals. Often times a player turns up a deal that is too expensive for them, but they can still profit from the deal, by turning the deal over to another player.
It also instills co-operation in most players. Generally at our games people enjoy seeing people leave the rat-race regardless of everyone elses individual wealth. For me, anyone who makes it out of the rat-race wins the game.
Some people don't learn this concept, and seem to be obsessed with doing better than everyone else, or trying to stop other players from improving their own portfolio's, by either not passing on deals to others that can benefit from them, or if they are doing well, by buying all deals, just so others can't have them, regardless of the deal.
Most people however learn that having someone else do well, is not mutually exclusive to them doing well themselves.
I think there are two areas that the game could improve though. The first is getting finance. It's far too easy in the game. Advanced investors have a good understanding of their limits, but there should be borrowing limits for bank loans (linked to total net assets) for those that aren't so financially educated. In reality, banks have limits, and these should be taken into account.
The other areas is the properties. They don't really represent legislation very well. No capital gains tax is paid on sales, (and in Australia, this still needs to be paid with exchange deals.) Also the amount of tax should vary with income and investment borrowings.
Probably not something for first timers to worry about, but it certainly would be a far more educational game if these aspects were taken into account.
