Games emphasizing economics

[Runtheball]

Can anyone recommend any games that focus on economic management?

I've played Capitalism Plus (which was good), and am currently in Cybernations and Informatist, but I'm still hungry for more.

[Honolulu Blue]

What sort of business management are you most interested in? Stock/derivative markets? Raw materials? Manufacturing? Retailing? Trading? Vertical integration? Present times? Historical? Ahistorical?

I'll throw out a list of a few business games I found enjoyable and a few comments. I trust you can do the rest of the research:

* Capitalism II - I didn't like this game as much as Cap Plus, but it does have some differences, and maybe you'll like them.
* Imperialism II - Not strictly a business game (it's a turn-based 4x strategy game), but economics is very important, and it ranks highly on my all-time list of games.
* Colonization - Another 4x game with stronger-than-average business elements.
* Entrepreneur/The Corporate Machine - Less of a pure economic game than Capitalism, but I found it to be fun anyway.
* Gazillionaire - Simple space trading game. Buy low & sell high, with some humorous elements along the way.
* FOF/OOTP/Mogul - What, you didn't expect to see these games here? Well, FOF will teach you everything you wanted to know about the cap - and then some. OOTP & Mogul do the best they can with the screwy finances in major league baseball.

[twothree]

Can anyone recommend any games that focus on economic management?

I've played Capitalism Plus (which was good), and am currently in Cybernations and Informatist, but I'm still hungry for more.

Capitalism Plus was probably the pinacle of economic management games. I have yet to play any economic game that was better.

* Gazillionaire - Simple space trading game. Buy low & sell high, with some humorous elements along the way.

That was one of my first computer games. It was very fun until I realized that the 'random' element in the game seemed to dominate the results instead of actual strategy.

[Runtheball]

I found a good one!
www.perfectcompetition.net

Its online only, its free, nothing to download and install, and about the most detailed economic simulation I've ever seen.

Here's a tidbit from the introduction to the game:


perfectcompetition.net is a multiplayer online business game.

It is the most comprehensive, realistic and popular business simulation available.

Players can create companies, direct a company as the chairperson, run a company as the CEO, hire and fire CEOs (other players), hire and fire managers (other players), hire and fire workers (computer controlled entities), establish business units (crop farms, livestock farms, mines, logging camps, oil rigs, factories, shops), choose goods (primary, intermediate and final), choose suppliers, choose locations, set wages, set prices, set advertising budgets, buy and sell real estate, manage properties as a landlord, speculate in commodities, use the commodities exchange to hedge against supply chain risks, borrow and repay money from banks, issue and buy company bonds, raise capital by issuing new shares, speculate or invest in the sharemarket, acquire and merge companies, execute hostile takeovers, liquidate companies, establish business relationships with others, create a horizontal or vertical business conglomerate, buy market research, analyse balance sheets and profit and loss statements, analyse financial ratios, and base business decisions on the economy of the game: GDP, interest rates, inflation, unemployment, average wages, company tax, commodity supply shocks.

[twothree]

Nice find, and it's seems to have been around for over a year. It's is run by an Australian company, which also sells an Accounting system, bulletin board application, and a search engine. I guess it might be worth looking into. Though that company employee who designed the game must of had some free time on his hands. :)

Edited to add: And, I just noticed that the current game round looks about ready to end. I guess now would be a good time to sign up. The game is indeed free, but they have made it so that the premium stuff, like market analysis, and actually getting a score in the game will cost you some paypal money. Still looks like the majority of things you can do are free.

Edited to add more: It looks like after signing up, that this will be the end of the tenth game round. And each game round, by my calculations, lasts about 2 months. If you are playing for free, each game round is basically a new game with everyone starting out on equal footing. A premium account would earn points for a game round which would accumulate from round to round and allows you to be ranked in game. Also, by my calculation the current game round should be ending sometime tomorrow. I don't know if there is any down time between rounds, though.

[Honolulu Blue]

OK, so you're into online games. That's good to know.

That's not for me. Too much like work.

[KevinNU7]

www.hattrick.org

[sterlingice]

www.hattrick.org (http://www.hattrick.org)

The economic model for hattie takes a bit of getting used to these days.

SI

[Runtheball]

Here's another economic themed game that looks very promising:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/theguild2/news.html?sid=6156832&mode=previews

...and if anyone else is going to try the new cycle of PerfectCompetition (starting tonight) look my up (Runtheball) and we can form some business arrangements.