‘Financial Football’ video game designed to teach NY students fiscal responsibility

Video game teaches NY students fiscal skills

ALBANY, N.Y. — A new video game designed to help New York students learn to manage their money tries to make the dullness of balancing a checkbook look more like the thrill of driving for a touchdown.

The game tests high school and college students’ fiscal skills in an online simulation based on the rules of the NFL. Students can score first downs, gain yardage and score points by answering questions correctly. The level of difficulty varies, with questions like what to do when you run out of checks and the limits on an IRA.

New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli is releasing the game, “Financial Football,” on Tuesday. With the economy still shaky, it’s never too early to learn how to spend and save responsibly, he said.

“‘Financial Football’ is a great way to get students interested in personal finances and give them a financial playbook they can use for the rest of their lives,” DiNapoli said in a statement.

The game is designed to be played with teams. To score points, a team needs to correctly answer a series of money-management questions. If they’re wrong, a team can lose yardage. The team with the highest point total after four quarters wins.

The game comes with two general settings — high school and college levels — and teams have options to pick tougher questions worth more yardage.

The advanced, college version comes with a time limit — 30 seconds per question for normal play and 10 seconds for a kick return.

Copies of the game will be available for every high school in the state as well as online. DiNapoli is introducing it at a Brooklyn high school Tuesday with New York Giants wide receiver Steve Smith and New York Jets wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery. Visa Inc. is paying for the initiative.

On the Net:

www.yourmoneynewyork.com/

www.newyork.financialfootball.com/games/trainingcamp/ff/