Community Building through games
Recently came across two games be a company called Family Pastimes. One is called "Community" and the other is called "Our Town".
The description of the "Community" game is:
"A game about communal living. We try to develop a happy, complete village. There are hardships and opportunities. There are Bad Feelings to handle with Love and Forgiveness. The Meeting hall is the heart of the community."
"If we succeed in building a community, we all win together. A medium-complicated game that explores both material and spiritual values."
They describe the "Our Town" game as:
"The urban companion of Community, with higher level strategies."
"We try to develop our city's economy and avoid going bankrupt. We decide on what works best as private enterprise and/or what works best cooperatively owned and operated. Maybe credit unions, food co-ops, people parks! The Daily News and mail bring many challenges."
In Addition to those two games, the game company Family Pastimes have about 30 or more other games with a "co-operative" themes to them. They are worth taking a look at.
It might be nice if local public libraries considered including board games in their collections.
That would be an excellent use of public resources. People could go to their local library and check out a board game, like "Our Town" or "Community" like a book, CD, DVD, Magazine, play it and learn from it, then bring it back to the library, so another patron of the library could check it out too.
The libraries could also be instrumental in coordinating game play with other public library patrons by organizing or coordinating playing these games in some of their community and/or study rooms.
It would provide more opportunities for people in the community to get to know one another, in addition to developing skills, like "Our Town" and "Community" game developers strive to foster.
posted by Los Angeles Friends In Deed at 12/12/2005 04:57:00 AM
6 Comments:
Mole Man said...
"Pardon to take up the historical bubble thread instead of having an open house observation, but ..."
LA Friend In Deed said...
"... It is my hypothesis that the "great crash", followed by the "great depression, from 1929 through the 30's was actually preceeded by a "real estate" bubble crash. And that that real estate financial collapse, in part, caused the financial collapse of 1929."
dryfly said...
"Yup the Florida Land Rush of 1925... google it. Quite the story."
41cadillac said...
"The 1929 crash was of particular interest to one of my professors at the University of Utah - 1955.
I remember how his line of reasoning with his stated facts supported that real estate crash proceeded the 1929 Stock Market crash. That plus the 90% margin requirements for stock borrowing. Those were his two main points. ..."
Pardon to contradict, but this seems like bad reasoning. First, recently there was a huge stock bubble which was converted in part to an asset bubble consisting mostly of real estate bloat. This is the exact opposite of the 1920s experience of a locally large property bubble coming before a huge stock run up. Second, price to earnings ratios for real estate never got anything like those of today except in a few Florida swamp areas that were essentially destroyed by a 30' wall of water within a year. The property boom of the 1920s was much smaller, much more local, and had been squashed before the stock market exploded while completey gorging itself on borrowed money. These are both booms, but apart from credit being a core issue there is not much shared with our current mess.
Mole Man said...
"Pardon to contradict, but this seems like bad reasoning. First, recently there was a huge stock bubble which was converted in part to an asset bubble consisting mostly of real estate bloat. This is the exact opposite of the 1920s experience of a locally large property bubble coming before a huge stock run up."
I welcome contradiction. However, in this case, If you look at the real estate crash in the early 90's, you may see that there was a real estate crash before the dot com bubble pop. However, I don't think the dot com bubble was anything near the kind of financial collaps of in October 1929.
And regarding your reasoning of debunking the comparison between the real estate crash, followed by a financial system crash of the late 1920's and the one I hypothesis may follow the current real estate bubble that seems be in its decentward motion. In your argument you reason debunking the comparison because you think that the real estate crash was "regional" and mostly only effecting Florida.
Although, Florida may the most significantly reported on, It was quite significant, and by far, a more significant run up regionally, than we have seen in the last 5 years. However, there was some run up in real estate prices in other regions as well, And following the financial system collapse much of the other real estate that was run up during the roarding 20's took a major hit.
For example, of the limited reports I have found so far, I did find some stats on changes in real estate prices in one county in New Jersey, which have been posted online. In those stats they copied the classified ads of their local paper to text. When I examined real estate prices from around 1915, or so, to 1945 or so, I could see that real estate price began began their inflating during the early 1920's and they began their desent in the later 1920's. And that escalation and desent was about 400% up, to its peak from around 1920 to 1928(or 27) then it fell sharply about about 70%. These numbers are based on the asking price in the classified ads in Morris County, New Jersey
I welcome further comment.
And you may see some archives of these arguments at the Los Angeles Friends In Deed yahoogroup archives.
mai_neh said...
I'm curious about how these ARM rate resets will affect various borrowers, and the overall real estate market. I don't assume a doom-and-gloom outcome for the US economy at-large, but I do assume many of these borrowers didn't think realistically about how interest rates can sometimes go up.
And ... unfortunately for these borrowers, when interest rates go up house prices usually simultaneously stall or go down. This makes using an interest-only ARM far more risky than a 30-year amortizing fixed.
However, the typical homeowner has more than 40% of his/her home's price in equity. The typical homeowner doesn't have much to fear from a stall or fall in prices. It's only the small percentage of all homeowners who are very recent buyers who bought with zero down and used an ARM that stretches their budget who should worry.
Personally I think many commenters on this blog exaggerate the effects we'll see when the housing bubble bursts. Yes, prices are currently unsustainably high; yes, some people will default on their mortgages; but the typical homeowner doesn't have much to worry about. There have always been foolish borrowers who borrow too much and go bankrupt when their debt is due, that's a normal part of human commerce and most bankers assume that a given percentage of loans will never be repaid.
I also think many commenters on this blog take an inappropriately moralistic or hairshirt approach to economics. They dream of a return to the gold standard and fear inflation. They wish to see foolish borrowers get punished. They want people to "learn their lessons".
The gold standard was abandoned because it doesn't work, it causes horrific periodic economic panics. Central bankers tolerate mild inflation of 1-3% per year because a mild inflation is way better for the economy than deflation and depression.
Asset price bubbles are not the result of central bankers being loose with money, they are the result of human herd behaviors. Bubbles existed in human history long before central bankers abandoned gold and turned to paper money. There's nothing much that a central banker can do about these human herd behaviors except to try to protect the banking system from illiquidity after the bubble bursts.
Trying to choke a bubble with high interest rates usually hurts the overall economy more than it hurts the bubble; meanwhile the bubble roars on too long despite the higher rates. Looking at the history of real estate bubbles in the US after WW II you'll find that prior real estate bubbles occurred when interest rates were much higher than they are now. Interest rates do influence real estate prices but they neither create nor kill bubbles. Bubbles are a natural result of human herds all wanting to arrive at the same place at the same time.
The get-rich-quick crowd will always exist in a semi-free market economy, and if you jump on a bubble while it is small and jump off before it pops you can also get rich quick! It doesn't seem fair, but that's part of life, sorta like gambling at a casino. Some people will jump on a bubble late and get crushed. That also doesn't seem fair, but that's part of life also.
I don't think there's really a way to fix bubbles for good. But if you want to be a conservative investor you can learn to avoid buying during bubbles in order to maximize your value. Or if you want to be a risky investor you can learn to spot bubbles while they are young and get out before they pop in order to maximize your profits. Neither behavior makes you an angel or a devil, it's just a matter of temperament, whether you prefer risky investments or value.
GetStucco said...
cereal said...
report from the red-hot west los angeles front: nothing is moving. same old $750,000 sfr's having open house again next week.
---------------------------------------
Not to worry. Buyers will come back next year. Price appreciation will return to normalcy -- > 10% YOY gains.
YEA, SHURE!
chiphxla said...
cereal,
I live in WLA as well, and have been scouting condo's/townhouses in the area since early summer. I have noticed since Labor day that a few properties were taken off the market, put back on, then taken off again. Still, a 2 br townhouse recently went into escrow for 645k, which I thought was ridiculous for the neighborhood (south of Santa Monica Blvd, east of Barrington). I'll be interested to see your postings in the future. P.S. I am definitely not buying anytime soon - waiting for the Spring thaw.
cereal said...
report from the red-hot west los angeles front: nothing is moving. same old $750,000 sfr's having open house again next week. i personally sold 2 props in west LA this year, each taking one day to sell with multiples (don't hate me now) and places that are nicer and better values are sitting for 8, 9 12 and 15 weeks. we've run out of stupid people too.
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