| Philosophy | For many Americans, obtaining high-interest loans has become a necessary evil — whether it’s for short-term survival or to pursue a small part of the American dream. And it’s a practice that puts them at the mercy of predatory lenders. Spoiler alert: predatory lenders show no mercy. Despite this dangerous landscape, young people are rarely taught about compound interest with any angle towards how it can be manipulated or deceitful. Enter Shady Sam, a free HTML5 game built for desktop and mobile web that puts students in the shoes of an 8-bit sleazy loan shark. Instead of teaching from the borrower’s side of the table, the game shows firsthand the deceptive tactics used by lenders of all kinds, and just how much money lenders make off of borrowers. Teachers and students have loved Shady Sam and the paired lesson plans. In the first five months, we’ve engaged more than 56,000 students with an 80% completion rate and over 13 minutes of average play time. Students often return multiple times to see if they can beat their previous score by choosing the most effective loans in the game. We’ve generated nearly 35 million PR impressions, all with zero paid media. |
