Why Do We Love Money in Our Entertainment?

Published: 06/02/2019 | Last Updated: 06/04/2020

Money. It makes the world go around, it can’t buy you love, and it’s always on some people’s minds. But why are we so fascinated with money and the things that it can do. People with vast quantities of wealth attract a lot of attention and a lot of media helps to showcase these individuals on a pedestal. Mainly because a lot of stories involving money either involve no money to begin with or no money to end with. But how exactly are we so obsessed with those greenbacks that make such a clinking, clanking sound.

Table of Contents

Gaming

Gaming lays claim to money due to the gaming element being the function of some of the gameplay. Take Monopoly, for instance. The game revolves around your progression up the property ladder and collection of wealth. There are chances to win more money and setbacks that cost money. Game of Life is no different – we progress through life and our financial situation dictates a lot of what we can and can’t do. Even the classic game The Sims and its spin-offs is based on making money and progressing through various stages of life (and house) as an offshoot of the money you can make. The Betfair online slot Coin! Coin! Coin! even has its gameplay based around the idea of money. Most games use the mechanic of winning tokens or coins as a key basis of the game, so to give the entire game the theme of money, games developers are better able to find a game that will have a guaranteed audience who know how the game might work.

Entertainment

Movies and TV shows are famed for choosing topics surrounding the quest for money or the fight to hold onto money with a series of setbacks fighting against you. For example, true story The Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short are both centred around money and the markets. TV show Two Broke Girls focuses on the protagonists’ quest to earn enough money to fund a bakery, while most sitcoms have storylines that focus on having not enough money or being in with a chance of winning or earning more money e.g. the Friends episode where Phoebe, Rachel, and Joey can’t keep up with the pursuits that Monica, Chandler, and Ross do due to the gulf of funds in the friendship group. Money issues affect everyone, so to centre a TV show or film around those issues, they are more likely to resonate with those people.

Money may preoccupy a lot of our time and hold an important part of our lives, but that is just testament to how much we rely upon it. We obsess over celebrities who lead extravagant and wealthy lifestyles. Most things are done in the pursuit of money or to ensure that money isn’t removed from us. TV, movies, and gaming use this to entice us into their story worlds as they understand how important to use money is and how much we enjoy stories of greater wealth.