Summary
Unless a person is born into wealth, lucky, willing to make great sacrifices, or on the psychopathic side of the spectrum and able to make connections in the corporate or political world, making big money in real life isn’t easy. Thankfully, video games can allow players to live out their greatest fantasies, be that wielding great physical strength, being a part of something larger than themselves, or, crucially, living the big life with a big bank balance.
Open-world games promise an entire landscape of opportunity for players to discover on their own, from open-ended towns to 1:1 scale galaxies. These games are especially interested in seeing their players line their suit pants or space boots with tokens of exchange in excessive quantities, from galactic credits to crisp paper bills.
After accruing enough capital inX4: Foundations, it is possible to make big space bucks without ever climbing into the cockpit of a spaceship again. Players can use their wealth to purchase more hauling ships and pilots to fly them to grow their trading empire into a money-making machine or venture off toconstruct personal space stationsand factories where certain services and materials are in high demand.
Of course, freelancing is always an option, and there are plenty of treasures to find, in another ship’s cargo hold or hidden throughout explorable areas, to keep the credits flowing.X4’s entire universe is constructed on a simulated economy, meaning that the logistics gameplay is dynamically driven by supply and demand. Understanding this balance is the key to creating a successful empire, as is the ability to parse its rather dense UI, but those whofind joy in spreadsheetsand charts should have no problem with this.
InMafia 3, players step into the starchy pinstripes of Lincoln Clay, aiming to dismantle rival criminal operations and establish their own empire. By taking over rackets and assigning them to underbosses, players unlock passive income streams and upgrades, so long as they remember to collect their kickbacks.
The progression system inMafia 3is tightly linked to financial growth, emphasizing the importance of strategic expansion. There aren’t as manywhimsical distractions as other open-world gamesmight provide, asMafia 3is all business, but the focus on monetizing criminal ventures still provides a compelling gameplay loop.
The only open-worldSimsgame,The Sims 3, has an odd setting, especially from today. Its world seems to be a mashup of the 2010s (its release years) and an idyllic vision of the 1950s (America’s most economically prosperous period). Be it working from home, getting a nine-to-five, collecting space rocks, or investing in local businesses or house flipping, players primarily advance through the game by making Simoleons.
Just like in real life, Sims accrue the greatest fortune by amassing generational wealth (wealthy Sims passing their fortunes down) and by making their money work while they sleep with investments (buying real estate and collecting shares in businesses). Every Sim is given a 15,000 Simoleon welfare check with which theycan buy a house(a transaction which is, for most people in the real world today, a dream that is already well out of reach).
TheGrand Theft Autoseries has always been about amassing a fortune of ill-gotten gains like a high score, butGrand Theft Auto 4grounds that mission from the perspective of Niko Bellic, an expat with a violent past whorelapses back into a life of violenceafter realizing that America’s promise of fair compensation for hard work is nothing but a carrot on a stick.
While Niko can make fat stacks for indulging in his criminal tendencies (and, by the end, wallowing in them), he represents the working man’s criminal. Every decimal point jump in his bank account is earned not through insider trading or stock market manipulation but on the job, even if those jobs happen to be robberies, assassinations, kidnappings, or car theft.
As every other character in the series likes to opine, there is more to the Yakuza life than making money. However, making money is still the central goal inYakuza: Like A Dragon, which sees protagonist Ichiban go from rags to riches over the course of his journey. Yen doesn’t just flow from beatdowns and street fights (although that’s one way to do it).
Like a Dragonintroducesa robust business management minigamewhere players take over various businesses, beginning with Ichiban Confections. By handling smart acquisitions, savvy employee management, and level-headed shareholder meetings, players can climb the corporate ladder and make significant profits for themselves and their enterprises.
Elite Dangerous throws players into the vast, uncaring void of space where earning credits is the only preferable option to the airless vacuum of space. With a 1:1 scale recreation of the Milky Way, players have free reign to engage in mining, trading, smuggling, negotiating, bounty hunting, or piracy, if they wish. Consistent profitability hinges on finding the right ship configuration, taking advantage of market fluctuations, and long-term strategic planning.
The game’s dynamic economy reacts to player actions, making each financial decision impactful. There is a steep learning curve, and some specialist equipment (such asa spaceworthy joystick) comes highly recommended. However, those who manage to escape the newbie gravity well may someday find themselves exploring the universe in the kind of exclusive, luxury mega-ship that only today’s most megalomaniacal billionaires could dream up.
1Grand Theft Auto 5
Living The Moneymaking Dream
In many ways,Grand Theft Auto5 is the closest an open-world game has ever gotten to depicting a real-life United States of America. The game offers a sprawling, satirical version of Southern California, complete with a functioning (in the modern sense of the word) economy. It even has anin-game stock market, which the player can exploit through strategic investments and strategic assassinations.
Money is the name of the game, at least for Franklin, who yearns to grow out of small-scale crime and pull off a job that will set him up for life. Of course, nothing ever goes to plan inGTA, and Franklin soon finds himself tangled up withGTA 5’s other protagonists, Michael and Trevor, and drawn into chaos beyond his paygrade, after which making money isn’t just a life goal but a necessity for survival.
