The game I designed is called Gateway. The idea behind the game is very simple. One person pays to get onto the T and everyone else tries to follow. You try to see how many people you can get through to the T without paying. Technically this is illegal so you should be careful when playing, but it is most likely something that almost everyone has done. If you do get caught the odds are that no one is going to get too mad at you and will most likely just make you pay again. Interestingly enough I got this idea when I was home in New York. The New York City MTA loses hundreds of millions of dollars each year due to people hopping the turnstile. Many native New Yorkers who are younger refuse to pay most of the time that they ride the subway instead electing to jump straight over. This causes the government to raise prices on tickets and even raise taxes in order to provide the people with public transit. In the end that means that the people who do pay are paying more for the people who do not. Morally this is wrong however typically the people who would pay are going to be the ones who are more financially stable. This is why it ends up being younger people who are jumping over. In Boston you typically cannot jump over due to the design of the gates however it is easy to walk through after the person in front of you. If no one is around to get you in trouble then who cares. My game involves getting as many people through the gate as possible without getting caught before the gate closes. The record…6. I have probably done more in my time here in Boston but my friends and I rarely take the T anymore and did not feel like getting caught during play testing.
The idea is inspired by DADA. The T is more important for some people than others, for some it may be to go downtown to go on a shopping spree, but for others it could be commuting to work where you are underpaid and you have to spend hundreds of dollars each year that you cannot afford to lose. DADA often stood up against the government for various ideas they did not support, often being anti-regime. I believe this does the same thing. In some way it is meant to symbolize how there is a level of inequality in the payment of the T. Not everyone is paying what they can afford to pay yet they are paying nonetheless because they have to use it. While there is no real solution to this it does seem unfair that people pay the same amount regardless of whether or not they are able to. Transportation is a necessity and while it needs to be funded, some who need to use it cannot afford the build up that it is costing them.